French · Spleen and Ideal

L'Homme et la mer

Man and the Sea

16 lines · 10 notes

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1
Free man, you will forever cherish the sea!
Hommemanhomme · noun, masculine, singularvocative address
librefreelibre · adjective, singularmodifies Homme
toujoursforevertoujours · adverbmodifies chériras
tuyoutu · pronoun, second-person, singularsubject of chériras
chériraswill cherishchérir · verb, future, indicative, second-person, singularmain verb of the sentence
lathele · determiner, feminine, singulardeterminer of mer
merseamer · noun, feminine, singulardirect object of chériras
GrammarThe simple future «chérir» «chériras» is the future tense of «chérir» ('to cherish, to hold dear'), built on the «-ir» stem plus the ending «-as»: 'you will cherish'. The poem opens not with a command but a prophecy — the free man is fated to love the sea forever, before we are told why.
2
The sea is your mirror; you contemplate your soul
3
In the infinite unrolling of its blade,
Word«la lame» — blade and wave «la lame» means 'blade' (of a knife) but at sea it is the standard word for a long swell or breaking wave. Baudelaire keeps both senses alive: the «déroulement infini» ('infinite unrolling') is the endless roll of the surf, and the glint of cold steel hints at the cruelty the last stanza will name.
4
And your spirit is no less bitter an abyss.
Word«amer» / «la mer» — a buried pun «amer» means 'bitter', and «un gouffre moins amer» = 'a no less bitter abyss'. It is also a near-homophone of «la mer» ('the sea') and «amour» lurks behind it — Baudelaire's favorite play, binding sea, bitterness, and love in a single sound.
5
You delight to plunge into the heart of your image;
GrammarPronominal «se plaire à» + infinitive «se plaire à faire qch» = 'to take pleasure in doing something'. The reflexive «te» has no object force here; the construction simply means 'you delight in plunging'. «au sein de» literally 'in the bosom of', i.e. 'into the very midst of' — the man dives into his own reflected image.
6
You embrace it with eyes and arms, and your heart
7
Distracts itself at times from its own murmur
Grammar«se distraire de» — to turn away from «se distraire de qch» is the pronominal 'to take one's mind off / be diverted from something'. The heart turns away «de sa propre rumeur» ('from its own murmur, its own noise') — the inner clamor — by listening instead to the sea's wild lament in the next line.
8
At the sound of this untameable and savage lament.
9
You are both of you shadowy and secretive:
GrammarThe shift to «vous» — the two as one address After two stanzas addressing the man as «tu», the poem now says «vous» — not the polite singular but a plural 'you two', naming man and sea together: «vous êtes tous les deux» = 'you are both / the two of you are'. From here they are spoken to as a matched pair.
10
Man, no one has sounded the depth of your abysses;
Word«sonder» — to take soundings «sonder» is the sailor's verb for measuring depth by dropping a weighted line, then by extension 'to probe, to fathom'. «nul n'a sondé le fond de tes abîmes» = 'no one has plumbed the bottom of your abysses'. The nautical image makes the human soul as unmeasured as the open sea.
11
O sea, no one knows your innermost riches,
12
So jealously do you both guard your secrets!
Grammar«tant» of degree, fronted (no inversion) «tant» means 'so much, to such a degree'; placed first for emphasis, but the subject «vous» still precedes «êtes» — there is no subject-verb inversion here. «jaloux de garder» = 'jealous to keep / so jealous of keeping' — the clause explains the secrecy of the lines above: it is because they so guard their secrets that no one can fathom them.
13
And yet for countless centuries now
14
You have fought each other without pity or remorse,
Grammar«voilà ... que» of elapsed time + reciprocal «se combattre» «voilà des siècles que...» = 'it has been centuries that... / for centuries now...', a frame for duration. «vous vous combattez» is the reciprocal pronominal of «combattre»: 'you fight one another'. Together: 'for countless centuries you have been battling each other'.
15
So greatly do you love carnage and death,
16
O eternal wrestlers, O implacable brothers!
Word«le lutteur» and «implacable» «un lutteur» is a wrestler or fighter (from «lutter», 'to struggle'); «implacable» = 'implacable, that cannot be appeased'. The poem ends by naming man and sea «frères» ('brothers') even as they are «lutteurs éternels» — locked forever in a kinship that is also a fight to the death.

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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