# Je te donne ces vers afin que si mon nom · I give you these verses so that if my name

Les Fleurs du mal · Charles Baudelaire · Spleen and Ideal

Source: https://1732studios.com/books/baudelaire/je-te-donne-ces-vers-afin-que-si-mon-nom. Data: https://1732studios.com/books/baudelaire/je-te-donne-ces-vers-afin-que-si-mon-nom.json.

**1** Je te donne ces vers afin que si mon nom  
I give you these verses so that if my name
> «afin que» + subjunctive of purpose: «afin que» ('so that, in order that') introduces a purpose clause and takes the subjunctive. «Aborde» (line 2), though, belongs to the nested «si» ('if') clause — and «si» takes the indicative, so «Aborde» is the present indicative of «aborder». The verbs «afin que» actually governs, in the subjunctive, are «Fatigue» and «Reste» in the second quatrain. The whole poem is one suspended sentence: 'I give you these verses so that, if my name reaches distant ages …, your memory should hang from my proud rhymes.' The «si» ('if') condition nests inside the «afin que» purpose.

**2** Aborde heureusement aux époques lointaines,  
should happily reach the far-off ages,
> «aborder» — to land, to come to shore: «aborder» literally means 'to come alongside, to land (a ship)'. Set against «Vaisseau» (vessel) two lines down, it makes the poet's name a ship making landfall «aux époques lointaines» — putting in at distant ages as at a far coast. «heureusement» here keeps its older force, 'with good fortune', not merely 'luckily'.

**3** Et fait rêver un soir les cervelles humaines,  
and one evening sets human minds to dreaming,
> «faire» + infinitive (causative): «faire rêver quelqu'un» = 'to make someone dream, to set someone dreaming'. «faire» + infinitive is the causative construction: the subject (my name) causes others (the «cervelles humaines», 'human brains') to perform the action of «rêver». Still governed by the «si» of line 1: 'if my name … and sets human minds to dreaming'.

**4** Vaisseau favorisé par un grand aquilon,  
a vessel favored by a great north wind,
> «l'aquilon» — the north wind: «l'aquilon» is the elevated, poetic name for the cold north wind (from Latin «aquilo»). The line is in apposition to «mon nom»: the name is a «Vaisseau favorisé», a ship driven onward — here, unusually, the harsh north wind is a help, the gust that carries the poet's fame «aux époques lointaines».


**5** Ta mémoire, pareille aux fables incertaines,  
your memory, like the uncertain fables,

**6** Fatigue le lecteur ainsi qu'un tympanon,  
wearies the reader as a dulcimer does,
> «le tympanon» — the hammered dulcimer: «ainsi que» = 'just as, like'. «le tympanon» is the hammered dulcimer, a stringed instrument struck with little mallets — its insistent, monotonous ringing is what tires «le lecteur». «Fatigue» is the present subjunctive of «fatiguer» (spelled identically to the indicative for 3rd-person singular -er verbs, but subjunctive in mood, governed by «afin que»). The poem's main clause remains «Je te donne ces vers»; «Ta mémoire … Fatigue» belongs to the purpose clause. Your memory wearies the reader like that droning music, yet clings on, in the next lines, to the poet's rhymes.

**7** Et par un fraternel et mystique chaînon  
and by a fraternal and mystic link

**8** Reste comme pendue à mes rimes hautaines;  
stays as if hung upon my haughty rhymes;
> «pendue» — past participle agreeing with «Ta mémoire»: «pendue» is the past participle of «pendre» ('to hang'), feminine singular to agree with the subject «Ta mémoire» ('your memory'). «Reste comme pendue à …» = 'stays as if hung upon …'. The chain image of the line before («chaînon», a link of a chain) becomes literal: her memory hangs, suspended, from the poet's «rimes hautaines» — surviving only because it is fastened to his verse.


**9** Être maudit à qui, de l'abîme profond  
Accursed being, to whom, from the deep abyss
> «Être maudit» — accursed being: Here «Être» is the noun 'a being' (capitalized, in apposition to «toi»), and «maudit» is 'cursed, accursed' (past participle of «maudire»). «à qui … rien … ne répond» = 'to whom nothing answers': the beloved is a doomed being whom nothing in all creation, from abyss to sky, will answer — nothing «hors moi», except the poet himself.

**10** Jusqu'au plus haut du ciel, rien, hors moi, ne répond!  
to the highest heaven, nothing but me replies!
> «hors» — except, apart from: «hors» here means 'except, apart from' (the sense of «hormis», «excepté»). «rien … hors moi … ne répond» = 'nothing answers except me'. The «ne … rien» negation frames the whole span from «l'abîme profond» to «le plus haut du ciel» — the entire vertical of creation — leaving the poet as the sole voice that responds to this accursed being.

**11** — Ô toi qui, comme une ombre à la trace éphémère,  
— O you who, like a shadow of fleeting trace,


**12** Foules d'un pied léger et d'un regard serein  
trample with a light foot and a serene gaze
> «fouler» — to tread, to trample: «fouler» = 'to tread, to trample underfoot'. «Foules» is the present indicative, 'you trample', continuing the «Ô toi qui …» address across the tercet; its object «Les stupides mortels» arrives only in the next line. She walks over the dull mortals «d'un pied léger» (with a light foot) and «d'un regard serein» (with a serene gaze) — untouched by the scorn they aimed at her.

**13** Les stupides mortels qui t'ont jugée amère,  
the stupid mortals who judged you bitter,
> Past-participle agreement with the preceding object: «jugée» agrees in gender and number with the direct object «t'» (= «te», you, feminine) that precedes the verb «ont jugé» — hence the extra «-e». «qui t'ont jugée amère» = 'who judged you bitter'. «amère» ('bitter') likewise is feminine to match «toi». The mortals misjudged her as bitter; she now treads over them, serene.

**14** Statue aux yeux de jais, grand ange au front d'airain!  
statue with eyes of jet, great angel with a brow of bronze!
> «jais» (jet) and «airain» (bronze): «le jais» is jet, the deep-black stone used for mourning jewelry — «yeux de jais», black-glittering eyes. «l'airain» is bronze (poetic for «le bronze»), so «front d'airain» is a brow of bronze: hard, unyielding, impassive. The two metals close the sonnet by making the beloved a monument — «Statue … grand ange» — cold, immortal, and lifted above the mortals at her feet.

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