# La Destruction · Destruction

Les Fleurs du mal · Charles Baudelaire · Flowers of Evil

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

**1** Sans cesse à mes côtés s'agite le Démon;  
Without cease, at my side, the Demon stirs;
> Pronominal «s'agiter»: «s'agiter» is the pronominal verb 'to fidget, stir, thrash about'. The reflexive «se» keeps the motion self-driven — the «Démon» writhes of his own accord. Note the inversion: the verb «s'agite» comes before its subject «le Démon», a common verse order that lets the restless action land before we learn what is restless. The opening «sans cesse» ('ceaselessly') fixes the poem's tempo — the Demon is never absent, never still.

**2** Il nage autour de moi comme un air impalpable;  
He swims around me like an impalpable air;

**3** Je l'avale et le sens qui brûle mon poumon  
I swallow him and feel him burning my lung
> «le sens qui…» — the object made vivid: «je le sens qui brûle» — 'I feel him burning'. French sets a perception verb plus a pronoun plus «qui» and a finite verb where English prefers a participle: «sentir quelqu'un qui fait» = 'to feel someone doing'. The «le» is the Demon, now swallowed; «sens» is the verb «sentir» ('to feel, sense'), not the noun.

**4** Et l'emplit d'un désir éternel et coupable.  
And fills it with a desire eternal and guilty.
> emplir: «emplir» = 'to fill (up)', a more literary, fuller-bodied cousin of «remplir». The «l'» is the lung («poumon») of the line before: the burning Demon does not just scorch it but brims it with «un désir éternel et coupable» — a desire at once unending and sinful.


**5** Parfois il prend, sachant mon grand amour de l'Art,  
Sometimes he takes on, knowing my great love of Art,
> Present participle «sachant»: «sachant» is the present participle of «savoir» ('to know') — 'knowing'. It opens a parenthetical clause, «sachant mon grand amour de l'Art», that explains the Demon's tactic: because he knows the poet's love of Art, he disguises himself as beautiful. The participle is irregular (not «savant», which would mean 'learned').

**6** La forme de la plus séduisante des femmes,  
The shape of the most seductive of women,

**7** Et, sous de spécieux prétextes de cafard,  
And, under specious pretexts of low spirits,
> le cafard: «le cafard» literally is 'cockroach', but figuratively means 'the blues, gloom, low spirits' — the very mood the «Spleen» poems live in. The phrase «prétextes de cafard» casts melancholy itself as the Demon's excuse: he pretends sad weariness to lower the poet's guard. «spécieux» = 'specious, plausible but false'.

**8** Accoutume ma lèvre à des philtres infâmes.  
He accustoms my lip to vile love-potions.
> un philtre: «un philtre» is a magic 'love-potion' or charmed draught (not «un filtre», a 'filter', though they sound alike). «accoutumer X à Y» = 'to accustom X to Y'. The Demon trains the poet's lip to «des philtres infâmes» — vile, dishonorable potions — making vice habitual.


**9** Il me conduit ainsi, loin du regard de Dieu,  
He leads me thus, far from the gaze of God,

**10** Haletant et brisé de fatigue, au milieu  
Panting and broken with fatigue, into the midst
> Participles describing «me»: «Haletant» (present participle of «haleter», 'to pant') and «brisé» (past participle of «briser», 'to break') both modify the «me» of the line above — it is the poet, not the Demon, who is left gasping and «brisé de fatigue» ('broken with fatigue'). The pairing of an active participle (panting) with a passive one (broken) catches both the effort and the wreck of it.

**11** Des plaines de l'Ennui, profondes et désertes,  
Of the plains of Ennui, deep and deserted,
> l'Ennui: «l'Ennui», capitalized, is far heavier than English 'boredom': it is the suffocating spiritual weariness — the void, the spleen — that Baudelaire names the worst of all monsters in the opening «Au lecteur». Here its «plaines… profondes et désertes» (deep, deserted plains) are the wasteland the Demon drags the poet across.


**12** Et jette dans mes yeux pleins de confusion  
And throws into my eyes full of confusion

**13** Des vêtements souillés, des blessures ouvertes,  
Soiled garments, open wounds,

**14** Et l'appareil sanglant de la Destruction!  
And the bloody apparatus of Destruction!
> l'appareil: «l'appareil» here keeps its older, grand sense of 'apparatus, array, pomp, paraphernalia' — the whole bloody apparatus of «la Destruction», not a modern 'device'. Capitalized and held to the very last word, «la Destruction» becomes the title-figure the poem has been building toward: the final, gory tableau the Demon casts before the poet's confused eyes.

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