French · Spleen and Ideal

La Chevelure

The Head of Hair

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1
O fleece, foaming down even onto the neck!
ÔOô · interjectionvocative particle addressing toison
toisonfleecetoison · noun, feminine, singularvocative address (object of Ô)
moutonnantfoamingmoutonner · verb, present, participlemodifies toison
jusqueevenjusque · adverbmodifies sur (jusque sur = 'right onto')
surontosur · prepositionpreposition marking encolure
l'thele · determiner, singulardeterminer of encolure
encolureneckencolure · noun, feminine, singularobject of sur, depends on moutonnant
2
O curls! O perfume laden with languor!
Word«nonchaloir» — archaic indolence «nonchaloir» is an old, literary noun for listless ease, the source of modern «nonchalant». «chargé de nonchaloir» = 'laden with languor': the perfume itself is heavy with idleness, and Baudelaire reaches for the archaism to give the scent a drowsy, antique weight.
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Ecstasy! To people the dark alcove this evening
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With the memories sleeping in this hair,
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I want to shake it in the air like a handkerchief!
GrammarObject pronoun raised before «vouloir» Modern French would say «je veux l'agiter», placing «la» on the infinitive. The older, literary order «je la veux agiter» raises the object pronoun «la» (= la chevelure) ahead of «veux». Same meaning — 'I want to shake it' — but the inversion is a poetic register that keeps the alexandrine smooth.
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Languorous Asia and burning Africa,
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A whole world far-off, absent, almost defunct,
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Lives in your depths, aromatic forest!
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As other spirits sail upon music,
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Mine, O my love! swims upon your perfume.
Grammar«le mien» — the possessive pronoun «le mien» = 'mine', the possessive pronoun standing in for «mon esprit» ('my spirit') from the comparison just made. The masculine «le» agrees with «esprit». Where other men's spirits «voguent sur la musique» (sail on music), the poet's «nage sur ton parfum» (swims on your perfume) — scent becomes his sea.
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I will go down there where tree and man, full of sap,
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Swoon at length beneath the ardor of the climes;
GrammarPronominal «se pâmer» — to swoon «se pâmer» is the pronominal verb 'to swoon, to faint with pleasure'. Both subjects — «l'arbre et l'homme» (tree and man) — «se pâment longuement» ('swoon at length') under the tropical heat, the same languor that ran through Asia and Africa above. Nature and humanity faint together in the warmth.
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Strong tresses, be the swell that carries me away!
Grammar«soyez» — imperative of «être» «soyez» is the imperative of «être» ('be!'), addressed to the «fortes tresses» (strong braids). The poet commands the hair to become «la houle» — the rolling swell of the open sea — that will lift and bear him off («qui m'enlève»). The metaphor turns the head of hair into an ocean.
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You hold, sea of ebony, a dazzling dream
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Of sails, of rowers, of flames and of masts:
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A resounding harbor where my soul can drink
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In great draughts the perfume, the sound and the color
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Where the vessels, gliding in the gold and the watered silk
Word«la moire» — watered silk «la moire» is moiré, watered silk, the fabric whose rippling sheen mimics the surface of water. «glissant dans l'or et dans la moire» = 'gliding in the gold and the watered silk': the harbor's water shimmers like patterned cloth, gilded by the sun the poem reaches in the next line.
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Open their vast arms to embrace the glory
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Of a pure sky where the eternal heat quivers.
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I will plunge my head, in love with drunkenness,
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Into this black ocean where the other lies enclosed;
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And my subtle spirit, which the rolling caresses,
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Will know how to find you again, O fertile idleness,
Grammar«savoir» + infinitive — will manage to «saura» is the future of «savoir»; with an infinitive, «savoir faire qch» means 'to know how to / to manage to do something'. «Saura vous retrouver» = 'will know how to find you again'. The subject is «mon esprit subtil» two lines up; rocked by the swell, the spirit will be able to recover that «féconde paresse» — fertile idleness.
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Endless rockings of the perfumed leisure!
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Blue hair, pavilion of stretched darkness
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You give me back the azure of the sky, immense and round;
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On the downy edges of your twisted locks
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I grow drunk, ardently, on the mingled scents
GrammarPronominal «s'enivrer de» — to get drunk on «s'enivrer de qch» is the pronominal verb 'to get drunk / intoxicate oneself on something'. «Je m'enivre ardemment des senteurs confondues» = 'I get drunk, ardently, on the mingled scents'. The «des» is «de» + «les» governed by the verb. Intoxication is now self-induced — the poet does the drinking himself.
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Of coconut oil, of musk and of tar.
Word«le goudron» — tar «le goudron» is tar, the black pitch that caulks and waterproofs ships' hulls and rigging. Set beside «l'huile de coco» (coconut oil) and «musc» (musk), it drags the perfume back to the docks: the scent of the head of hair is also the smell of a working harbor, sweetness braided with pitch.
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Long! forever! my hand in your heavy mane
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Will sow the ruby, the pearl and the sapphire,
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So that you may never be deaf to my desire!
Grammar«afin que» + subjunctive of purpose «afin que» ('so that, in order that') always takes the subjunctive, here «tu ne sois» (from «être»). It states the purpose of sowing the jewels: «afin qu'à mon désir tu ne sois jamais sourde» = 'so that you may never be deaf to my desire'. «sourd à qch» is 'deaf / unresponsive to something'.
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Are you not the oasis where I dream, and the gourd
Grammar«ne ... pas» inverted — a rhetorical question «N'es-tu pas...?» inverts subject and verb to ask 'Are you not...?'. The negative-question form expects the answer 'yes': the head of hair is the oasis and the gourd. The poem closes not on a command but on this rhetorical question, turning the whole voyage into a single tender appeal.
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Where in long draughts I drink in the wine of memory?
Word«humer» — to breathe in / sip «humer» is to draw in deeply through the mouth or nose — to inhale, to sip, to savor. «à longs traits» means 'in long draughts'. «je hume à longs traits le vin du souvenir» = 'in long draughts I drink in the wine of memory': the poem ends where it began, in scent and memory, now distilled to a wine drunk from the gourd of the hair.

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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