French · Spleen and Ideal

Je t'adore à l'égal de la voûte nocturne

I adore you as I do the vault of night

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1
I adore you as I do the vault of night,
JeIje · pronoun, singularsubject of adore
t'youte · pronoun, singulardirect object of adore
adoreadoreadorer · verb, present, indicative, first-person, singularmain verb of the sentence
àasà · prepositionpreposition marking égal
l'thele · determiner, masculine, singulardeterminer of égal
égalequalégal · noun, masculine, singularoblique argument of adore
deofde · prepositionpreposition marking voûte
lathele · determiner, feminine, singulardeterminer of voûte
voûtevaultvoûte · noun, feminine, singularmodifies égal
nocturneof nightnocturne · adjective, feminine, singularmodifies voûte
Grammarà l'égal de «à l'égal de» is a set phrase meaning 'as much as / equally with / on a par with'. «Je t'adore à l'égal de la voûte nocturne» = 'I adore you as much as I do the night sky'.
2
O vessel of sorrow, O great silent one,
Wordtaciturne (adj.) «taciturne» = silent, reserved, given to long silences. Here it is used as a noun with «grande» — «ô grande taciturne» — addressing the woman directly: 'O great silent one'.
3
And love you all the more, my fair one, the more you flee from me,
Grammard'autant plus … que «d'autant plus … que» means 'all the more … in that / because'. «Je t'aime d'autant plus que tu me fuis» = 'I love you all the more because you flee from me'. The verb «fuir» here is 'to flee, to run from'.
4
And the more you seem to me, ornament of my nights,
5
More mockingly to pile up the leagues
Wordlieue (f.) «lieue» = a league, the old unit of distance (roughly four kilometres). «accumuler les lieues» — 'to pile up the leagues' — means heaping up vast distance between the lovers.
6
That part my arms from the blue immensities.
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I press to the attack, and I climb to the assault,
Grammars'avancer «s'avancer» is the pronominal form of «avancer»: 'to move forward, to advance'. The reflexive «me» makes the motion the speaker's own — 'I press / I move forward'. The military vocabulary («à l'attaque», «aux assauts») casts love as a siege.
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Like a choir of little worms after a corpse,
Wordvermisseau (m.) «vermisseau» is the diminutive of «ver» (worm) — a small worm or maggot. «un choeur de vermisseaux» = 'a choir / swarm of little worms', the corruption that crawls toward a corpse.
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And I cherish, O implacable and cruel beast!
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Even that coldness by which you are more beautiful to me!
Grammarpar où «par où» = 'by which / through which / by way of which'. «cette froideur par où tu m'es plus belle» = 'that coldness by which you are the more beautiful to me'. Note «tu m'es» — «être» with the indirect pronoun «me»: 'you are, to me'.

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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