# Je t'adore à l'égal de la voûte nocturne · I adore you as I do the vault of night

Les Fleurs du mal · Charles Baudelaire · Spleen and Ideal

Source: https://1732studios.com/books/baudelaire/je-t-adore-a-l-egal-de-la-voute-nocturne. Data: https://1732studios.com/books/baudelaire/je-t-adore-a-l-egal-de-la-voute-nocturne.json.

**1** Je t'adore à l'égal de la voûte nocturne,  
I adore you as I do the vault of night,
> à 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** Ô vase de tristesse, ô grande taciturne,  
O vessel of sorrow, O great silent one,
> taciturne (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** Et t'aime d'autant plus, belle, que tu me fuis,  
And love you all the more, my fair one, the more you flee from me,
> d'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** Et que tu me parais, ornement de mes nuits,  
And the more you seem to me, ornament of my nights,

**5** Plus ironiquement accumuler les lieues  
More mockingly to pile up the leagues
> lieue (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** Qui séparent mes bras des immensités bleues.  
That part my arms from the blue immensities.


**7** Je m'avance à l'attaque, et je grimpe aux assauts,  
I press to the attack, and I climb to the assault,
> s'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.

**8** Comme après un cadavre un choeur de vermisseaux,  
Like a choir of little worms after a corpse,
> vermisseau (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.

**9** Et je chéris, ô bête implacable et cruelle!  
And I cherish, O implacable and cruel beast!

**10** Jusqu'à cette froideur par où tu m'es plus belle!  
Even that coldness by which you are more beautiful to me!
> par 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'.

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