French · Spleen and Ideal

L'Idéal

The Ideal

14 lines · 12 notes

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1
It will never be these pretty-picture beauties,
Ceitce · pronoun, singularsubject of seront
ne[negation]ne · adverb, negationnegates seront (with jamais)
serontwill beêtre · verb, future, indicative, third-person, pluralcopula linking Ce to beautés
jamaisneverjamais · adverbnegates seront (with ne)
cesthesece · determiner, feminine, pluraldeterminer of beautés
beautésbeautiesbeauté · noun, feminine, pluralpredicate complement of seront
deofde · prepositionpreposition marking vignettes
vignettespretty picturesvignette · noun, feminine, pluralmodifies beautés
"beautés de vignettes" = picture-book/chocolate-box prettiness.
Word«une vignette» — a fashion-plate «une vignette» is a small printed illustration — here the dainty figures of fashion magazines and keepsake albums. «ces beautés de vignettes» are 'these vignette beauties', the prettified, mass-produced charms the poet rejects in favour of his «rouge idéal». The plural «ce ne seront jamais» throws the whole stanza forward to its true subject in line 4: the women who will never satisfy a heart like his.
2
Spoiled goods, born of a worthless age,
Word«avarié» — spoiled, gone off «avarié» is said of food or cargo that has rotted or spoiled in transit. Calling these fashionable beauties «produits avariés» — 'damaged goods' — treats them as merchandise that has gone bad, the cheap output («produits») of «un siècle vaurien», a good-for-nothing century.
3
These feet in laced boots, these fingers at castanets,
4
That could ever satisfy a heart like mine.
Grammar«savoir» + infinitive — to be able to «savoir» before an infinitive means 'to know how to', and so 'to be able to, to manage to'. The future «qui sauront satisfaire» — 'who will know how to satisfy' — completes the long negation begun in line 1: «ce ne seront jamais ces beautés… qui sauront satisfaire un coeur comme le mien», 'it will never be these beauties who could satisfy a heart like mine.'
5
I leave to Gavarni, the poet of the green-sicknesses,
WordGavarni and «la chlorose» Gavarni was a popular nineteenth-century illustrator famous for his graceful, fashionable women. «la chlorose» (chlorosis, the 'green sickness') was the pale, anaemic languor then thought becoming in young women. Calling him «poète des chloroses» mocks the cult of the delicate, sickly beauty — the very type the poet hands back to him in this stanza.
6
His twittering flock of sickbed beauties,
Word«gazouiller» — to twitter, to warble «gazouiller» is the chirping of birds or the babble of small children. «son troupeau gazouillant» — 'his twittering flock' — reduces Gavarni's fashionable women to a herd («un troupeau») of prattling songbirds, and «beautés d'hôpital», 'hospital beauties', makes their pallor a symptom rather than a charm.
7
For I cannot find among these pale roses
Grammar«je ne puis» — literary 'I cannot' «je puis» is an older, elevated first-person form of «pouvoir», interchangeable with «je peux» but more formal and poetic. «je ne puis trouver» = 'I cannot find'. The raised register suits the poet's disdain as he searches «ces pâles roses» — these pale roses — for the one flower that could match his ideal.
8
A flower that resembles my red ideal.
Word«rouge» against «pâle» «rouge» (red) is set point-blank against the «pâles roses» of the line before: the poet wants no anaemic, washed-out beauty but a 'red ideal' — full-blooded, vivid, alive. The colour anticipates the violent, powerful figures of the tercets, Lady Macbeth «au crime» and Michelangelo's brooding Night.
9
What this heart, deep as an abyss, requires,
Grammar«il faut à quelqu'un» — what someone needs «il faut» is impersonal ('it is necessary'); with an indirect object it means 'X needs / must have'. «ce qu'il faut à ce coeur» = 'what this heart needs'. Fronted at the head of the tercet, the clause hangs open until line 2 delivers the answer: «c'est vous, Lady Macbeth».
10
Is you, Lady Macbeth, soul mighty in crime,
Word«puissant à» — powerful at, equal to «puissant à» followed by a noun means 'powerful at, strong for, capable of'. «âme puissante au crime» — 'a soul mighty in crime' — names what the poet's abyssal heart demands: not a pretty face but a will great enough for evil. Lady Macbeth is the answer to «ce qu'il faut» two lines above.
11
Dream of Aeschylus hatched in the climate of the south winds;
Grammar«éclore» — to hatch, to bloom «éclos» is the past participle of «éclore», used of an egg hatching or a flower opening. «rêve d'Eschyle éclos au climat des autans» — 'a dream of Aeschylus, hatched in the climate of the storm-winds' — sets this tragic vision against the «pâles roses» earlier: not a hothouse bloom but a thing born of «les autans», the violent south winds.
12
Or else you, great Night, daughter of Michelangelo,
13
Who calmly twist, in a strange pose,
Grammar«tordre» — to twist «tu tors» is the second-person present of «tordre», 'to twist, to wring'. Addressed to «grande Nuit», «qui tors… tes appas» means 'you who twist your charms'. The verb keeps the statue's body in motion even at rest, «paisiblement» — calmly — within its «pose étrange», its strange contorted attitude.
14
Your charms shaped to the mouths of Titans!
Word«les appas» — bodily charms «les appas» (always plural) are physical allurements, the charms of a woman's body. «tes appas façonnés aux bouches des Titans» — 'your charms shaped for the mouths of Titans' — closes the sonnet on a note of colossal, almost monstrous scale: this ideal beauty is fashioned («façonnés») not for ordinary lovers but for giants.

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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