# L'Héautontimorouménos · The Self-Tormentor

Les Fleurs du mal · Charles Baudelaire · Spleen and Ideal

Source: https://1732studios.com/books/baudelaire/l-heautontimoroumenos. Data: https://1732studios.com/books/baudelaire/l-heautontimoroumenos.json.

**1** À J.G.F.  
To J.G.F.


**2** Je te frapperai sans colère  
I will strike you without anger
> Future 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.

**3** Et sans haine, comme un boucher,  
and without hatred, like a butcher,

**4** Comme Moïse le rocher!  
as Moses struck the rock!

**5** Et je ferai de ta paupière,  
And from your eyelid I will make,


**6** Pour abreuver mon Saharah,  
to water my Sahara,
> abreuver / 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.

**7** Jaillir les eaux de la souffrance.  
spring forth the waters of suffering.
> «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.

**8** Mon désir gonflé d'espérance  
My desire, swollen with hope,

**9** Sur tes pleurs salés nagera  
will swim upon your salt tears


**10** Comme un vaisseau qui prend le large,  
like a vessel putting out to sea,
> prendre 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.

**11** Et dans mon coeur qu'ils soûleront  
and in my heart, which they will intoxicate,
> Relative «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.

**12** Tes chers sanglots retentiront  
your dear sobs will resound

**13** Comme un tambour qui bat la charge!  
like a drum beating the charge!
> battre 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.


**14** Ne suis-je pas un faux accord  
Am I not a false chord
> Inverted 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.

**15** Dans la divine symphonie,  
in the divine symphony,

**16** Grâce à la vorace Ironie  
thanks to voracious Irony
> Irony 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.

**17** Qui me secoue et qui me mord?  
that shakes me and that bites me?


**18** Elle est dans ma voix, la criarde!  
She is in my voice, the shrieking thing!
> criard(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.

**19** C'est tout mon sang ce poison noir!  
This black poison is all my blood!
> «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.

**20** Je suis le sinistre miroir  
I am the sinister mirror

**21** Où la mégère se regarde.  
where the shrew looks at herself.
> Reflexive «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.


**22** Je suis la plaie et le couteau!  
I am the wound and the knife!

**23** Je suis le soufflet et la joue!  
I am the slap and the cheek!
> soufflet (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.

**24** Je suis les membres et la roue,  
I am the limbs and the wheel,

**25** Et la victime et le bourreau!  
and the victim and the executioner!


**26** Je suis de mon coeur le vampire,  
I am the vampire of my own heart,
> Fronted «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.

**27** — Un de ces grands abandonnés  
— one of those great forsaken ones

**28** Au rire éternel condamnés  
condemned to eternal laughter
> condamner 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.

**29** Et qui ne peuvent plus sourire!  
and who can no longer smile!
> «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.

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