French · Wine

L'Âme du vin

The Soul of Wine

24 lines · 12 notes

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1
One evening the soul of the wine sang in the bottles:
Unoneun · determiner, masculine, singulardeterminer of soir
soireveningsoir · noun, masculine, singularadverbial, time of chantait
l'thele · determiner, singulardeterminer of âme
âmesoulâme · noun, feminine, singularsubject of chantait
duof thede · prepositionpreposition marking vin
vinwinevin · noun, masculine, singularmodifies âme
chantaitsangchanter · verb, imperfect, indicative, third-person, singularmain verb of the sentence
dansindans · prepositionpreposition marking bouteilles
lesthele · determiner, pluraldeterminer of bouteilles
bouteillesbottlesbouteille · noun, feminine, pluraloblique argument of chantait
Wordâme (f.) «une âme» = 'a soul'. The title names the speaker: the whole poem after the colon is sung by «l'âme du vin» itself. «chantait» is the imperfect of «chanter» ('to sing'), setting an ongoing scene — one evening the wine was singing — before the long speech in «guillemets» begins.
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"Man, toward you I send forth, O dear disinherited one,
Worddéshérité «déshérité» = 'disinherited, dispossessed' — literally cut off from an inheritance, by extension the poor and downtrodden. The wine addresses the laboring man as «cher déshérité», the one whom the world has left with nothing, and offers itself as his consolation.
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Beneath my prison of glass and my crimson waxes,
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A song full of light and of brotherhood!
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I know how much it takes, on the flaming hillside,
Grammar«il faut» (impersonal) «il faut» = 'it is necessary / one needs', the impersonal verb «falloir» that exists only in the third person «il». «combien il faut… de peine, de sueur» = 'how much toil, sweat… it takes'; the things needed follow with «de» across the next two lines.
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Of toil, of sweat, and of scorching sun
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To engender my life and to give me a soul;
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But I will be neither ungrateful nor malevolent,
Grammar«ne… point» (emphatic negation) «ne… point» is a literary, emphatic 'not at all' — stronger than plain «ne… pas». «ni… ni» then chains the negatives: «ingrat ni malfaisant» = 'neither ungrateful nor harmful'. The wine swears it will not repay the laborer's sweat with cruelty.
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For I feel an immense joy when I fall
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Into the gullet of a man worn out by his labors,
Wordgosier (m.) «le gosier» = 'the throat, the gullet' — the everyday, slightly coarse word for the passage drink goes down. «usé par ses travaux» = 'worn out by his labors'; the wine rejoices to pour into the very throat of the exhausted worker it means to revive.
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And his warm breast is a sweet tomb
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Where I please myself far better than in my cold cellars.
GrammarReflexive «se plaire» «se plaire» = 'to take pleasure, to be happy (somewhere)'. The reflexive «me» makes the wine the one delighting: «je me plais bien mieux» = 'I am far happier'. It would rather lodge in the man's warm chest — «une douce tombe» — than in its «froids caveaux», its cold cellars.
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Do you hear ringing out the refrains of Sundays
GrammarInversion in questions «Entends-tu… ?» = 'Do you hear… ?'. French forms a question by inverting verb and subject pronoun, joined by a hyphen: «tu entends» becomes «entends-tu». «retentir» = 'to ring out, to resound'; the wine asks the man to hear the Sunday refrains echoing in it.
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And the hope that warbles in my throbbing breast?
Wordgazouiller «gazouiller» = 'to warble, to chirp, to babble' — the sound of birdsong or a stream. Applied to «l'espoir» ('hope'), it lets hope twitter like a bird «en mon sein palpitant», in the wine's throbbing breast, as if the bottle itself were alive.
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Your elbows on the table and rolling up your sleeves,
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You will glorify me and you will be content;
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I will light up the eyes of your delighted wife;
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To your son I will give back his strength and his color
Grammar«rendre» (to give back) «rendre» = 'to give back, to restore'; «je rendrai» is its future. Distinct from «donner» ('to give'), it means returning what was lost. The wine promises to restore the pale, frail son's «force» and «couleurs» — his strength and his healthy color.
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And will be for this frail athlete of life
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The oil that firms the muscles of wrestlers.
Wordlutteur / raffermir «un lutteur» = 'a wrestler, a fighter'; «raffermir» = 'to make firm again, to strengthen'. The image is antique: athletes oiled their bodies before a bout, so the wine becomes «l'huile», the very oil that hardens the wrestler's muscles for the contest of life.
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Into you I will fall, vegetal ambrosia,
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Precious grain cast by the eternal Sower,
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So that from our love poetry may be born
Grammar«pour que» + subjunctive «pour que» ('so that, in order that') always takes the subjunctive. «naisse» is the present subjunctive of «naître» ('to be born'). «Pour que… naisse la poésie» = 'so that poetry may be born' — the wine's whole purpose, framed as a wish whose fulfillment is not yet certain.
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That will spring up toward God like a rare flower!"
Wordjaillir «jaillir» = 'to gush, to spurt, to spring up' — sudden upward motion, of water or flame. The future «jaillira» sends the new-born poetry leaping «vers Dieu», toward God, «comme une rare fleur» — closing the poem on the «fleur» that gives the whole book its title.

The particulars

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