French · Flowers of Evil

La Fontaine du sang

The Fountain of Blood

14 lines · 10 notes

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1
It seems to me at times that my blood flows in streams,
Ilitil · pronoun, impersonal, third-person, singularimpersonal subject of semble
meto meme · pronoun, singularindirect object of semble
sembleseemssembler · verb, present, indicative, third-person, singularmain verb of the sentence
parfoisat timesparfois · adverbmodifies semble
quethatque · subordinating conjunctionintroduces the clause of coule
monmymon · determiner, singulardeterminer of sang
sangbloodsang · noun, masculine, singularsubject of coule
couleflowscouler · verb, present, indicative, third-person, singularmain verb of the subordinate clause (complement of semble)
àinà · prepositionpreposition marking flots
flotsstreamsflot · noun, masculine, pluraloblique argument of coule
2
Just like a fountain with its rhythmic sobs.
Grammar«ainsi que» = 'just as' «ainsi que» is the literary comparison 'just as, like'. It opens the governing simile of the whole poem — the blood likened to «une fontaine aux rythmiques sanglots», a fountain whose pulsing is heard as «sanglots» ('sobs'). «aux» (= «à les») here means 'with, having': a fountain marked by rhythmic sobs.
3
I hear it clearly, flowing with a long murmur,
Grammar«entendre… qui…» — the heard thing made vivid «je l'entends qui coule» = 'I hear it flowing'. French sets a perception verb plus a pronoun plus «qui» and a finite verb where English prefers a participle: «entendre quelque chose qui fait» = 'to hear something doing'. The «l'» is the blood («mon sang»); «bien» here is not 'well' but 'clearly, distinctly'.
4
But I feel myself in vain to find the wound.
GrammarReflexive «se tâter» «tâter» = 'to feel, finger, palpate'; with the reflexive «me» it is 'to feel myself, to feel over my own body'. The poet pats himself down «en vain» ('in vain') «pour trouver la blessure» — to find the wound — and finds none: the bleeding has no source, which is the horror of the image.
5
Across the city, as in an enclosed field,
Wordle champ clos «un champ clos» is literally an 'enclosed field', but the set phrase names the fenced lists where medieval knights fought a judicial duel to the death. Set against «la cité» (the city), it casts the streets as a sealed arena of combat — fitting ground for blood to run across.
6
It goes off, turning the cobblestones into islets,
GrammarPronominal «s'en aller» «s'en aller» is the pronominal verb 'to go off, go away, leave' — more vivid than plain «aller». The fixed «en» rides along with no separate meaning. The blood does not merely flow but takes its leave, «transformant les pavés en îlots» — present participle of «transformer», turning the cobblestones into little islands in the red flood.
7
Slaking the thirst of every creature,
8
And everywhere coloring nature red.
9
I have often asked of treacherous wines
Wordcaptieux «captieux» = 'specious, beguiling, captious' — fair-seeming but designed to deceive (from Latin «captiosus», 'ensnaring'). The wines promise relief but cheat; «demander à quelqu'un de faire» = 'to ask someone to do', so «j'ai demandé à des vins… d'endormir» is 'I asked the wines to lull (the terror) to sleep'.
10
To lull for a day the terror that wears me down;
Wordminer «miner» = 'to undermine, sap, wear away' — as a mine is dug under a wall, or as illness eats at a body. «la terreur qui me mine» is the dread that hollows the poet out from within; the wine is begged «d'endormir» (to put to sleep) this terror, if only «pour un jour» — for a single day.
11
Wine makes the eye clearer and the ear keener!
Grammar«rendre» + adjective = 'to make' «rendre» plus an adjective means 'to make (something) become' — «rendre l'oeil plus clair» = 'to make the eye clearer'. The bitter joke: instead of dulling the terror, wine only sharpens the senses («plus clair… plus fine»), so the poet sees and hears his own bleeding all the more. The «oe» of «l'oeil» is the older typesetting of the ligature «œ».
12
I have sought in love a forgetful sleep;
13
But love, for me, is only a mattress of needles
Grammar«ne… que» = 'only' «ne… que» is the restrictive 'only, nothing but' — «l'amour n'est qu'un matelas d'aiguilles» = 'love is nothing but a mattress of needles'. It is not a true negation (love is not absent) but a narrowing: all love amounts to is this bed of pain. «un matelas d'aiguilles» — a mattress of needles — denies the very rest the poet sought.
14
Made to give drink to those cruel girls!
Worddonner à boire «donner à boire à quelqu'un» = 'to give someone (something) to drink'. The needle-bed is «fait pour» — 'made to' — slake «ces cruelles filles» with the poet's blood. The closing image makes the women vampiric: love drinks him dry, looping back to the «soif» the fountain of blood was slaking in the second quatrain.

The particulars

The text: Les Fleurs du mal, Charles Baudelaire. Flowers of Evil.
Words: Every word of the text, by letter.
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