# Élévation · Elevation

Les Fleurs du mal · Charles Baudelaire · Spleen and Ideal

Source: https://1732studios.com/books/baudelaire/elevation. Data: https://1732studios.com/books/baudelaire/elevation.json.

**1** Au-dessus des étangs, au-dessus des vallées,  
Above the ponds, above the valleys,

**2** Des montagnes, des bois, des nuages, des mers,  
the mountains, the woods, the clouds, the seas,

**3** Par delà le soleil, par delà les éthers,  
beyond the sun, beyond the ethers,
> «par delà»: «par delà» (also spelled «par-delà») means 'beyond, past, on the far side of'. It is more elevated and more spatial than the plain «au-delà de». Baudelaire repeats it to push the flight ever higher — «par delà le soleil, par delà les éthers», beyond even the upper air.

**4** Par delà les confins des sphères étoilées,  
beyond the confines of the starry spheres,


**5** Mon esprit, tu te meus avec agilité,  
My spirit, you move with agility,
> «se mouvoir» (to move): «te meus» is the present tense of the pronominal verb «se mouvoir», 'to move (oneself)'. «mouvoir» is irregular: the «ou» of the stem becomes «eu» in the stressed forms, giving «je me meus, tu te meus». The poet addresses his own «esprit» as «tu», telling it how freely it moves.

**6** Et, comme un bon nageur qui se pâme dans l'onde,  
and, like a good swimmer who swoons in the wave,
> «se pâmer»: «se pâmer» is the pronominal verb 'to swoon, to faint with pleasure'. «qui se pâme dans l'onde» — 'who swoons in the wave' — gives the swimmer a voluptuous surrender to the water. The circumflex marks a lost «s» (old «se pasmer»); «l'onde» is a poetic word for the wave or water.

**7** Tu sillonnes gaiement l'immensité profonde  
you furrow gaily through the deep immensity

**8** Avec une indicible et mâle volupté.  
with an unspeakable and virile delight.
> «indicible»: «indicible» = 'unspeakable, ineffable' — that which cannot be put into words. Paired with «mâle» ('virile, manly') and «volupté» ('sensual pleasure, delight'), it casts the spirit's flight as a rapture too intense for language, a keynote of the «Idéal» the section reaches toward.


**9** Envole-toi bien loin de ces miasmes morbides;  
Fly far away from these morbid miasmas;
> Reflexive imperative «envole-toi»: «Envole-toi» is the imperative of the pronominal verb «s'envoler», 'to fly off, take wing'. In a positive command the reflexive pronoun follows the verb with a hyphen and «te» becomes the stressed «toi»: «envole-toi» = 'fly away!'. The poet commands his own spirit to take flight, as he does again with «Va te purifier» in the next line.
> «le miasme»: «miasme» (m.) is a noxious vapor once thought to rise from rot and stagnant water and to carry disease. «ces miasmes morbides» — 'these morbid miasmas' — stands for the foul, sickly air of the lower material world the spirit is told to leave behind.

**10** Va te purifier dans l'air supérieur,  
go purify yourself in the upper air,

**11** Et bois, comme une pure et divine liqueur,  
and drink, like a pure and divine liquor,

**12** Le feu clair qui remplit les espaces limpides.  
the clear fire that fills the limpid spaces.


**13** Derrière les ennuis et les vastes chagrins  
Behind the boredoms and the vast sorrows

**14** Qui chargent de leur poids l'existence brumeuse,  
that weigh down this misty existence with their burden,

**15** Heureux celui qui peut d'une aile vigoureuse  
happy is the one who can, on a vigorous wing,
> «Heureux celui qui…» (fronted adjective): «Heureux celui qui peut…» = 'Happy is the one who can…'. The adjective «heureux» is fronted for emphasis, with the verb «est» understood: literally '(Is) happy he who…'. «celui qui» is the demonstrative 'the one who / he who'; it is picked up and continued by «Celui dont…» that opens the final stanza.

**16** S'élancer vers les champs lumineux et sereins;  
spring up toward the luminous and serene fields;


**17** Celui dont les pensers, comme des alouettes,  
the one whose thoughts, like skylarks,
> «le penser» (archaic): «le penser» is an old poetic noun for 'thought', a variant of «la pensée». By Baudelaire's day it was already archaic and literary; choosing «les pensers» over «les pensées» lends the line an elevated, timeless tone fitting the upward soaring of the spirit.

**18** Vers les cieux le matin prennent un libre essor,  
take free flight toward the heavens in the morning,

**19** — Qui plane sur la vie, et comprend sans effort  
— who hovers over life, and understands without effort
> The em-dash continuation: The dash does not begin a new sentence; it relaunches the relative clause opened by «Celui dont…» two lines above. «Qui» still refers back to «Celui» — 'the one who hovers over life'. Read the final stanza as a single sweeping sentence the dash carries onward to its triumphant close.

**20** Le langage des fleurs et des choses muettes!  
the language of flowers and of silent things!

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Source text: public domain (Charles Baudelaire, d. 1867). English translation: © 2026 1732 Studios, LLC — original draft, pending editorial review.