# La Beauté · Beauty

Les Fleurs du mal · Charles Baudelaire · Spleen and Ideal

Source: https://1732studios.com/books/baudelaire/la-beaute. Data: https://1732studios.com/books/baudelaire/la-beaute.json.

**1** Je suis belle, ô mortels! comme un rêve de pierre,  
I am beautiful, O mortals! like a dream of stone,
> «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** Et mon sein, où chacun s'est meurtri tour à tour,  
And my breast, on which each in turn has bruised himself,
> Reflexive «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** Est fait pour inspirer au poète un amour  
Is made to inspire in the poet a love

**4** Eternel et muet ainsi que la matière.  
Eternal and mute as matter itself.
> «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** Je trône dans l'azur comme un sphinx incompris;  
I sit enthroned in the azure like a sphinx misunderstood;
> «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** J'unis un coeur de neige à la blancheur des cygnes;  
I wed a heart of snow to the whiteness of swans;

**7** Je hais le mouvement qui déplace les lignes,  
I hate the movement that displaces the lines,
> «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** Et jamais je ne pleure et jamais je ne ris.  
And never do I weep and never do I laugh.


**9** Les poètes, devant mes grandes attitudes,  
The poets, before my grand attitudes,
> «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** Que j'ai l'air d'emprunter aux plus fiers monuments,  
Which I seem to borrow from the proudest monuments,
> «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** Consumeront leurs jours en d'austères études;  
Will consume their days in austere studies;


**12** Car j'ai, pour fasciner ces dociles amants,  
For I have, to bewitch these docile lovers,
> «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** De purs miroirs qui font toutes choses plus belles:  
Pure mirrors that make all things more beautiful:

**14** Mes yeux, mes larges yeux aux clartés éternelles!  
My eyes, my wide eyes of eternal brightness!
> «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.

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