French · Spleen and Ideal

Horreur sympathique

Kindred Horror

14 lines · 10 notes

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1
From this strange and livid sky,
Defromde · prepositionpreposition marking ciel
cethisce · determiner, masculine, singulardeterminer of ciel
cielskyciel · noun, masculine, singularhead of the phrase
bizarrestrangebizarre · adjective, masculine, singularmodifies ciel
etandet · conjunctionlinks the coordination
lividelividlivide · adjective, singularcoordinated with ciel
Word«livide» — leaden, ashen «livide» does not mean 'vivid'; it is the bluish-grey pallor of a corpse or a bruise — 'leaden, ashen, deathly pale'. Paired with «bizarre» ('strange, uncanny'), it tints the whole sky with the colour of death, the mood the sonnet will read back into the poet's own soul.
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tormented like your own fate,
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what thoughts into your empty soul
Word«un penser» — an archaic 'thought' «un penser» is an old, poetic noun for 'a thought' (the everyday word is «une pensée»). Baudelaire revives the archaism for its solemn ring. The question «Quels pensers… descendent?» ('What thoughts come down?') runs across this line and the next — an enjambment that leaves the soul «vide» ('empty') hanging at the line's end before the verb arrives.
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descend? answer me, libertine.
Word«libertin» — freethinker, not merely a rake «libertin» carries its older, stronger sense here: a 'libertine' is not only a sensualist but a freethinker who has cast off religious and moral constraint. The poet addresses himself with «réponds» ('answer'), the familiar imperative of «répondre» — the whole sonnet is an interrogation he puts to his own godless mind.
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— Insatiably greedy
GrammarThe «—» marks the reply The em-dash opening this stanza signals a change of speaker: the «libertin» now answers the question put to him in the first quatrain. «avide» means 'greedy, craving', and «insatiablement» ('insatiably') is the adverb that cannot be satisfied — the appetite the reply will define as a hunger «de l'obscur et de l'incertain» ('for the dark and the uncertain').
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for the dark and the uncertain,
GrammarAdjectives turned into nouns with «l'» «obscur» ('dark, obscure') and «incertain» ('uncertain') are adjectives nominalized by «l'»: 'the dark', 'the uncertain' — the qualities themselves treated as things to crave. French abstracts adjectives this way far more freely than English. The «De» reaches back to «avide de» ('greedy for'): «avide de l'obscur» = 'greedy for the dark'.
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I will not whine as Ovid did
Word«geindre» — to whine, to moan «geindre» is 'to whine, to groan, to moan feebly' — a complaining, self-pitying sound. «geindrai» is its future tense: 'I will not whine'. The poet refuses Ovid's lament: where the exiled Roman wept for a lost paradise, this libertine embraces his fallen, darkened sky.
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driven out of the Latin paradise.
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Skies torn like shorelines,
Word«une grève» — a strand of sand and shingle «une grève» here is a 'strand, shore, shingle beach' (the same word that, by a separate history, also means a labour 'strike'). The ragged clouds are likened to a torn coastline — «déchirés» is 'torn, ripped'. The sky becomes a desolate seascape into which the poet's pride will look at itself in the next line.
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in you my pride beholds itself;
GrammarPronominal «se mirer» + inversion «se mirer» is the pronominal verb 'to gaze at oneself, to be reflected' (from «un miroir», a mirror). The order inverts: «se mire» comes before its subject «mon orgueil» ('my pride') — literally 'in you reflects itself my pride'. The torn sky is a mirror, and what the poet sees in its ruin is his own pride — the «sympathie» of the title, a horror that answers his inner state.
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your vast clouds in mourning
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are the hearses of my dreams,
Word«un corbillard» — a hearse «un corbillard» is the black funeral carriage that carries the coffin — a 'hearse'. The mourning clouds («nuages en deuil») of the line above become the hearses bearing the poet's dead dreams across the sky, completing the funeral image the «livide» sky began.
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and your gleams are the reflection
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of the Hell in which my heart delights.
GrammarPronominal «se plaire» — to take pleasure «se plaire» is the pronominal verb 'to take pleasure, to delight, to be happy (in a place)'; «mon coeur se plaît» = 'my heart delights, is at home'. The relative «où» ('where, in which') makes Hell the place the heart willingly dwells. The sonnet closes on its perverse turn: the hellish glow in the sky is welcome — the horror outside answers, and pleases, the horror within.

The particulars

The text: Les Fleurs du mal, Charles Baudelaire. Spleen and Ideal.
Words: Every word of the text, by letter.
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