# L'Âme du vin · The Soul of Wine

Les Fleurs du mal · Charles Baudelaire · Wine

Source: https://1732studios.com/books/baudelaire/l-ame-du-vin. Data: https://1732studios.com/books/baudelaire/l-ame-du-vin.json.

**1** Un soir, l'âme du vin chantait dans les bouteilles:  
One evening the soul of the wine sang in the bottles:
> âme (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.

**2** «Homme, vers toi je pousse, ô cher déshérité,  
"Man, toward you I send forth, O dear disinherited one,
> déshérité: «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.

**3** Sous ma prison de verre et mes cires vermeilles,  
Beneath my prison of glass and my crimson waxes,

**4** Un chant plein de lumière et de fraternité!  
A song full of light and of brotherhood!


**5** Je sais combien il faut, sur la colline en flamme,  
I know how much it takes, on the flaming hillside,
> «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.

**6** De peine, de sueur et de soleil cuisant  
Of toil, of sweat, and of scorching sun

**7** Pour engendrer ma vie et pour me donner l'âme;  
To engender my life and to give me a soul;

**8** Mais je ne serai point ingrat ni malfaisant,  
But I will be neither ungrateful nor malevolent,
> «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.


**9** Car j'éprouve une joie immense quand je tombe  
For I feel an immense joy when I fall

**10** Dans le gosier d'un homme usé par ses travaux,  
Into the gullet of a man worn out by his labors,
> gosier (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.

**11** Et sa chaude poitrine est une douce tombe  
And his warm breast is a sweet tomb

**12** Où je me plais bien mieux que dans mes froids caveaux.  
Where I please myself far better than in my cold cellars.
> Reflexive «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.


**13** Entends-tu retentir les refrains des dimanches  
Do you hear ringing out the refrains of Sundays
> Inversion 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.

**14** Et l'espoir qui gazouille en mon sein palpitant?  
And the hope that warbles in my throbbing breast?
> gazouiller: «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.

**15** Les coudes sur la table et retroussant tes manches,  
Your elbows on the table and rolling up your sleeves,

**16** Tu me glorifieras et tu seras content;  
You will glorify me and you will be content;


**17** J'allumerai les yeux de ta femme ravie;  
I will light up the eyes of your delighted wife;

**18** À ton fils je rendrai sa force et ses couleurs  
To your son I will give back his strength and his color
> «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.

**19** Et serai pour ce frêle athlète de la vie  
And will be for this frail athlete of life

**20** L'huile qui raffermit les muscles des lutteurs.  
The oil that firms the muscles of wrestlers.
> lutteur / 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.


**21** En toi je tomberai, végétale ambroisie,  
Into you I will fall, vegetal ambrosia,

**22** Grain précieux jeté par l'éternel Semeur,  
Precious grain cast by the eternal Sower,

**23** Pour que de notre amour naisse la poésie  
So that from our love poetry may be born
> «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.

**24** Qui jaillira vers Dieu comme une rare fleur!»  
That will spring up toward God like a rare flower!"
> jaillir: «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.

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