French · Spleen and Ideal

L'Héautontimorouménos

The Self-Tormentor

29 lines · 15 notes

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To J.G.F.
Àtoà · prepositionpreposition marking J.G.F.
J.G.F.J.G.F.J.G.F. · proper nounhead of the phrase
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I will strike you without anger
GrammarFuture tense + object pronoun «te» «frapperai» is the simple future of «frapper» ('to strike'): 'I will strike'. The object pronoun «te» ('you') sits before the verb, as French requires: «je te frapperai» = 'I will strike you'. The cold future tense turns the blow into a calm, premeditated promise.
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and without hatred, like a butcher,
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as Moses struck the rock!
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And from your eyelid I will make,
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to water my Sahara,
Wordabreuver / Saharah «abreuver» = 'to water, to give drink to' (used of livestock at a trough). «Saharah» is Baudelaire's spelling of the Sahara, here a metaphor for the poet's parched, desolate heart. The sentence runs across the stanza break: 'from your eyelid I will make spring forth… the waters of suffering' to water that desert.
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spring forth the waters of suffering.
Grammar«faire» + infinitive (causative) «faire» + infinitive is the causative: the subject makes something happen. Spanning lines 4–6, «je ferai … jaillir les eaux» = 'I will make the waters spring forth'. «jaillir» ('to gush, to spurt') is the action the poet causes by striking the eyelid.
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My desire, swollen with hope,
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will swim upon your salt tears
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like a vessel putting out to sea,
Wordprendre le large «prendre le large» is a nautical idiom: 'to put out to sea, to head for open water' (literally 'to take the offing'). The poet's desire, buoyed by the beloved's tears, sails off like a ship leaving harbor.
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and in my heart, which they will intoxicate,
GrammarRelative «que» as object + «soûler» «que» is the object relative ('which'), pointing back to «mon coeur» (my heart); the subject «ils» ('they') is the «sanglots» (sobs) of the next line. «soûler» = 'to make drunk, to intoxicate'. So: 'my heart, which they [the sobs] will make drunk' — the inverted order holds the verb back until the sobs arrive.
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your dear sobs will resound
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like a drum beating the charge!
Wordbattre la charge «battre la charge» = 'to beat the charge' — the military drumbeat that signals troops to attack. The beloved's sobs, far from softening the poet, drum him onward into the assault.
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Am I not a false chord
GrammarInverted negative question «Ne suis-je pas…?» is the inverted form of «est-ce que je ne suis pas» — 'Am I not…?'. The verb «suis» and subject «je» swap places (with the «ne» kept, «pas» following) to form a rhetorical question that expects 'yes'. The poet asks us to confirm he is the discord in the music.
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in the divine symphony,
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thanks to voracious Irony
WordIrony personified «vorace» = 'voracious, ravenous'. Capitalized and personified, «Ironie» becomes a devouring power that «secoue» (shakes) and «mord» (bites) the poet. This self-corroding irony — the mind turned against itself — is the engine of the whole poem.
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that shakes me and that bites me?
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She is in my voice, the shrieking thing!
Wordcriard(e) (right-dislocation) «criard(e)» = 'shrill, screeching, garish'. The trailing «, la criarde!» is a right-dislocation: a noun set off at the end that re-names the earlier «Elle» (Irony) for emphasis — 'she is in my voice, the shrieker!'. The feminine «-arde» ending makes it a contemptuous epithet.
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This black poison is all my blood!
Grammar«c'est» with a dislocated subject Read it as «ce poison noir, c'est tout mon sang» — 'this black poison, it is all my blood'. The subject «ce poison noir» is pushed to the end and resumed by «c'est», a common French emphasis pattern. The poison of Irony is not in him; it is his very blood.
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I am the sinister mirror
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where the shrew looks at herself.
GrammarReflexive «se regarder» «se regarder» = 'to look at oneself'; the reflexive «se» turns the gaze back on the subject. «la mégère» ('the shrew, the harridan' — Irony again) sees herself in the poet, who has become the mirror she stares into. He is both viewer and surface.
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I am the wound and the knife!
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I am the slap and the cheek!
Wordsoufflet (m.) «soufflet» here means 'a slap, a smack in the face' (not the unrelated 'bellows'). Paired with «la joue» ('the cheek'), it makes the poet both the hand that strikes and the face that is struck.
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I am the limbs and the wheel,
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and the victim and the executioner!
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I am the vampire of my own heart,
GrammarFronted «de» complement Normal prose order would be «le vampire de mon coeur» ('the vampire of my heart'). Baudelaire fronts the complement «de mon coeur» for meter and emphasis: 'of my heart I am the vampire'. The poet feeds on himself — the self-tormentor's final image.
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— one of those great forsaken ones
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condemned to eternal laughter
Grammarcondamner à + noun «condamner à» = 'to condemn to'. The past participle «condamnés» agrees with «abandonnés» (masculine plural). Word order is poetic — prose would run «condamnés au rire éternel» = 'condemned to eternal laughter'. These outcasts can laugh forever but can no longer smile.
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and who can no longer smile!
Grammar«ne … plus» (no longer) «ne … plus» = 'no longer, not anymore'. «ils ne peuvent plus sourire» = 'they can no longer smile'. The bleak close distinguishes the damned laugh (eternal, mechanical) from the human smile, which the forsaken have lost forever.

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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