French · Spleen and Ideal

La Beauté

Beauty

14 lines · 9 notes

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1
I am beautiful, O mortals! like a dream of stone,
JeIje · pronoun, singularsubject of belle
suisamêtre · auxiliary verb, present, indicative, first-person, singularcopula linking to belle
bellebeautifulbeau · adjective, feminine, singularpredicate adjective of Je
ôOô · interjectionvocative particle introducing mortels
mortelsmortalsmortel · noun, masculine, pluralvocative, addressed directly
commelikecomme · prepositionpreposition marking rêve
unaun · determiner, masculine, singulardeterminer of rêve
rêvedreamrêve · noun, masculine, singularobject of the preposition comme
deofde · prepositionpreposition marking pierre
pierrestonepierre · noun, feminine, singularmodifies rêve
Word«un rêve de pierre» Literally 'a dream of stone'. Beauty herself is the speaker, and she likens herself to a sculpted ideal — a vision (a «rêve») that is nonetheless cold, hard, and motionless («de pierre»). The phrase fuses the dreamlike and the statuesque, setting the whole poem's image of an unmoving marble goddess.
2
And my breast, on which each in turn has bruised himself,
GrammarReflexive «se meurtrir» in the passé composé «se meurtrir» is the pronominal verb 'to bruise / hurt oneself'. In the passé composé its pronominal form takes «être»: «chacun s'est meurtri» = 'each one bruised himself'. The lovers wound themselves against Beauty's marble breast — she does not strike them; they break upon her.
3
Is made to inspire in the poet a love
4
Eternal and mute as matter itself.
Grammar«ainsi que» — 'just as / like' «ainsi que» introduces a comparison, 'just as, in the same way as, like'. Here «éternel et muet ainsi que la matière» = 'eternal and mute, like matter'. The love Beauty inspires shares the qualities of inert matter — deathless and wordless, never answering back.
5
I sit enthroned in the azure like a sphinx misunderstood;
Word«trôner» — to sit enthroned «trôner» is the verb formed from «le trône» (the throne): 'to sit enthroned, to reign, to lord it over'. «Je trône dans l'azur» — 'I am enthroned in the blue' — gives Beauty the bearing of an idol or a queen, remote and elevated above the mortals who suffer below.
6
I wed a heart of snow to the whiteness of swans;
7
I hate the movement that displaces the lines,
Grammar«haïr» — to hate «je hais» is the first-person present of «haïr», 'to hate'. The singular forms drop the diaeresis and are pronounced as one syllable («je hais» = 'I hate'). Beauty's hatred of «le mouvement qui déplace les lignes» — movement, which disturbs pure outline — is her creed: she prizes the fixed and the sculptural over anything that stirs.
8
And never do I weep and never do I laugh.
9
The poets, before my grand attitudes,
Word«une attitude» — a pose «une attitude» here keeps its older, physical sense: the pose or bearing of a body, as in sculpture or dance. «mes grandes attitudes» are Beauty's grand, statuesque poses — the next line says she seems to borrow them «aux plus fiers monuments», from the proudest monuments.
10
Which I seem to borrow from the proudest monuments,
Grammar«avoir l'air de» + infinitive «avoir l'air de faire qch» = 'to seem / appear to do something'. «que j'ai l'air d'emprunter» = 'which I seem to borrow'. The construction lets Beauty hold the pose modestly — she does not claim the grandeur of monuments, she merely 'seems' to take it from them.
11
Will consume their days in austere studies;
12
For I have, to bewitch these docile lovers,
Word«fasciner» — to spellbind «fasciner» is stronger than English 'fascinate': it means to bewitch, to hold spellbound, even to paralyze with a gaze (as a serpent is said to do). «pour fasciner ces dociles amants» — 'to spellbind these submissive lovers' — names the power Beauty's eyes hold over the poets who serve her.
13
Pure mirrors that make all things more beautiful:
14
My eyes, my wide eyes of eternal brightness!
Word«la clarté» — light, brightness «la clarté» means brightness, radiance, clear light. «aux clartés éternelles» — 'of eternal brightnesses' — describes Beauty's eyes: the «purs miroirs» of the line above. The sonnet's last word, «éternelles», closes the poem on the same note as «Eternel et muet» in the first stanza — Beauty's promise and her trap are both endless.

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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