# La Cloche fêlée · The Cracked Bell

Les Fleurs du mal · Charles Baudelaire · Spleen and Ideal

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

**1** Il est amer et doux, pendant les nuits d'hiver,  
It is bitter and sweet, during the winter nights,
> amer / doux: «amer» = 'bitter', «doux» = 'sweet, soft, gentle'. The paired opposites announce the poem's whole mood: remembering by the fire is at once painful and tender. The impersonal «il est» here is the literary equivalent of «c'est» — 'it is'.

**2** D'écouter, près du feu qui palpite et qui fume,  
to listen, beside the fire that flickers and smokes,

**3** Les souvenirs lointains lentement s'élever  
to far-off memories slowly rising
> Pronominal «s'élever»: «s'élever» is the pronominal verb 'to rise, to climb'. The reflexive «se» makes the rising self-caused: the «souvenirs lointains» (distant memories) lift of their own accord. The infinitive depends on «écouter» in the line above — we listen to them rise, like the bells of the next line.

**4** Au bruit des carillons qui chantent dans la brume.  
to the sound of the chimes that sing in the mist.


**5** Bienheureuse la cloche au gosier vigoureux  
Blessed is the bell with the vigorous throat
> bienheureux / bienheureuse: «bienheureux» means 'blissful, blessed' and is also the church term for the 'Blessed' (the beatified). Placed first, with no verb, it works as an exclamation: 'Blessed [is] the bell…'. The religious tint prepares «son cri religieux» two lines down.

**6** Qui, malgré sa vieillesse, alerte et bien portante,  
which, despite its old age, alert and hale,

**7** Jette fidèlement son cri religieux,  
faithfully casts out its religious cry,

**8** Ainsi qu'un vieux soldat qui veille sous la tente!  
just like an old soldier keeping watch beneath the tent!
> «ainsi que» = 'just as': «ainsi que» is the literary comparison 'just as, like'. It opens the simile that closes the octave: the faithful bell is likened to «un vieux soldat qui veille» — an old soldier on watch — setting up the wounded soldier the cracked soul will become in the final tercet.


**9** Moi, mon âme est fêlée, et lorsqu'en ses ennuis  
I — my soul is cracked, and when, in its weariness,
> fêlé(e): «fêler» = 'to crack' (a bell, a glass, a voice) — a flaw that leaves the object whole but dulls its ring. The title's «cloche fêlée» turns inward here: «mon âme est fêlée» — the poet's own soul is the cracked bell, no longer able to sound clear.

**10** Elle veut de ses chants peupler l'air froid des nuits,  
it tries to people the cold night air with its songs,

**11** Il arrive souvent que sa voix affaiblie  
it often happens that its weakened voice
> Impersonal «il arrive que»: «il arrive que» is the impersonal construction 'it happens that'. The «il» is a dummy subject (no real 'it'); the true clause follows — «que sa voix affaiblie semble…». «il arrive que» normally governs the subjunctive; with «sembler» the 3sg subjunctive and indicative are identical («semble»), so the form here is ambiguous.


**12** Semble le râle épais d'un blessé qu'on oublie  
seems the thick death-rattle of a wounded man left forgotten
> le râle: «le râle» is the rattling, labored breath of the dying — the 'death-rattle'. «épais» ('thick') clogs the sound further. Against the bell's clear «cri religieux», the cracked soul can manage only this choked rasp.

**13** Au bord d'un lac de sang, sous un grand tas de morts  
at the edge of a lake of blood, under a great heap of the dead,

**14** Et qui meurt, sans bouger, dans d'immenses efforts.  
and who dies, without moving, in immense struggles.
> «de» before a fronted adjective: Before a plural noun led by an adjective, «des» reduces to «de»: «d'immenses efforts», not «des immenses efforts». The final paradox lands hard — the man «meurt, sans bouger» (dies without moving) yet «dans d'immenses efforts» (amid immense efforts): motionless, and straining with all his strength.

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