French · Spleen and Ideal

L'Irrémédiable

The Irremediable

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I
III · numeral (Roman)section heading
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An Idea, a Form, a Being
WordCapitalized abstractions Baudelaire capitalizes «Idée», «Forme» and «Etre» to lift them into Platonic absolutes — the pure Idea, Form and Being that then fall from heaven. Note «Etre» is printed without its usual accent («Être»); copy it as it stands in the source.
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Set out from the azure and fallen
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Into a Styx, miry and leaden,
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Where no eye of Heaven can pierce;
Grammar«nul» as negative subject «nul» here is a negative determiner, 'no / not one'. It pairs with «ne» on the verb: «nul oeil … ne pénètre» = 'no eye … penetrates'. «oeil» is printed without the «œ» ligature, as in the source.
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An Angel, an imprudent traveler
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whom the love of the misshapen has tempted,
GrammarObject relative with inverted subject «Qu'» is the object relative «que» ('whom'), referring back to «un Ange». The subject «l'amour du difforme» is inverted after the verb «a tenté»: literally 'whom has tempted the love of the misshapen' = 'whom the love of the misshapen has tempted'. The inversion lets the long subject land at line's end.
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At the bottom of an enormous nightmare
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Struggling like a swimmer,
Grammarse débattre (reflexive) «se débattre» is a pronominal verb, 'to struggle, to thrash about'. The present participle «se débattant» keeps the reflexive «se» — 'struggling (himself) like a swimmer'. This stanza and the next are one long sentence of participles describing the Angel.
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And fighting on — funereal anguish! —
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Against a gigantic eddy
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That goes on singing like madmen
Grammar«aller» + present participle «aller» + a present participle («va chantant», «va pirouettant») is a literary idiom expressing continuous, ongoing action — 'goes on singing', 'keeps whirling'. It is more vivid than the plain present and stresses the relentless motion of the «remous» (eddy).
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And whirling about in the darkness;
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A wretch under a spell
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In his futile gropings
Wordtâtonnement (m.) «tâtonnement» comes from «tâter», 'to feel, to grope'; it is the blind groping of someone feeling their way in the dark. «futiles» (vain, useless) seals the hopelessness — the search for «la lumière et la clé» (light and key) will lead nowhere.
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To flee from a place full of reptiles,
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Seeking the light and the key;
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A damned soul descending without a lamp
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At the edge of an abyss whose smell
Grammar«dont» = whose / of which «dont» is a relative pronoun standing for «de + noun»; here it expresses possession, 'whose' — «un gouffre dont l'odeur» = 'an abyss whose smell'. «gouffre» is a chasm or abyss; its damp reek betrays «D'éternels escaliers sans rampe» (eternal stairs without a railing).
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Betrays the dank depth
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Of eternal staircases without a railing,
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Where viscous monsters keep watch,
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Whose wide eyes of phosphorus
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Make the night blacker still
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And make nothing visible but themselves;
Grammar«ne … que» = only «ne … que» is the restrictive 'only': «ne rendent visibles qu'eux» = 'make visible only themselves'. The stressed pronoun «eux» ('them, themselves') is the lone thing their phosphorescent eyes light up — the dark is total except for the monsters.
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A ship caught fast at the pole
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As in a trap of crystal,
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Searching by what fatal strait
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It fell into this jail;
Wordgeôle (f.) «geôle» is an old, literary word for a jail or dungeon (related to English 'jail/gaol'). The ice-bound ship becomes a prisoner asking, too late, through which «détroit fatal» (fatal strait) it sailed into its frozen cell — the last of the poem's images of beings trapped past rescue.
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— Clear emblems, a perfect picture
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Of an irremediable fate
Wordirrémédiable / fortune «irrémédiable» = 'beyond remedy, past cure' — the title-word. «fortune» here means 'fate, lot, destiny', not riches. The dash signals a turn: the seven preceding images are now named as «emblèmes» (emblems) and a «tableau» (tableau, set scene) of a condition nothing can mend.
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That gives one to think the Devil
Grammar«donner à + infinitive» «donner à penser» = 'to give (cause) to think, to make one ponder'. The construction «donner à + infinitive» means 'to give something to be done'. The emblems 'make one think' that «le Diable / Fait toujours bien tout ce qu'il fait» — the Devil always does well everything he does.
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Always does well all that he does!
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II
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A dark and limpid tête-à-tête
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Is a heart become its own mirror!
Wordthe heart as its own mirror The exclamatory «Qu'…!» here means 'what a …!' — 'what a dark, clear tête-à-tête is a heart that has become its own mirror'. The self facing the self: a «tête-à-tête» (a private face-to-face) in which the heart both looks and is looked at. «coeur» is printed without the «œ» ligature, as in the source.
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A well of Truth, clear and black,
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Where a livid star trembles,
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An ironic, infernal beacon,
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Torch of the satanic graces,
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Sole solace and sole glory —
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— Consciousness within Evil!
Wordconscience (f.) French «conscience» carries both English senses at once: 'consciousness' (awareness) and 'conscience' (moral sense). The closing line means both 'to be aware while doing evil' and 'to have a conscience in the midst of Evil' — the one bleak comfort the damned soul is left: lucid self-knowledge of its own damnation.

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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