French · Death

La Mort des amants

The Death of Lovers

14 lines · 6 notes

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1
We shall have beds full of light fragrances,
Nouswenous · pronoun, pluralsubject of aurons
auronsshall haveavoir · verb, future, indicative, first-person, pluralmain verb of the sentence
dessomeun · determiner, pluraldeterminer of lits
litsbedslit · noun, masculine, pluraldirect object of aurons
pleinsfullplein · adjective, masculine, pluralmodifies lits
d'ofde · prepositionpreposition marking odeurs
odeursfragrancesodeur · noun, feminine, pluralmodifies lits
légèreslightléger · adjective, feminine, pluralmodifies odeurs
GrammarFuture tense «aurons» «aurons» is the future of «avoir» — 'we shall have'. The poem opens in the future and stays there («seront», «échangerons», «viendra»): the lovers' death is not mourned but promised, a serene event still to come. The whole sonnet is one unbroken vision of that future.
2
deep divans like tombs,
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and strange flowers upon shelves,
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opened for us beneath fairer skies.
Wordéclore / éclos(e) «éclore» = 'to bloom, to hatch, to open out' (of a flower or an egg). «Ecloses» is its feminine plural past participle, agreeing with «fleurs»: the strange flowers have 'come into bloom' for the lovers. The verb keeps a faint sense of birth — blossoming set against the «tombeaux» two lines above.
5
Spending vying with each other their last warmths,
Wordà l'envi «à l'envi» is a fixed literary phrase meaning 'in emulation, each trying to outdo the other'. Note it is not «à l'envie» ('out of desire'): the two hearts burn their last heat as if in rivalry, each vying to give more. «Usant» ('using up, spending') marks that the warmth is being exhausted.
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our two hearts shall be two vast torches,
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which shall reflect their double lights
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within our two minds, those twin mirrors.
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One evening made of rose and mystic blue,
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we shall exchange a single flash,
11
like a long sob, all laden with farewells;
Wordchargé de / adieux «chargé de» = 'loaded with, laden with'; «adieux» is the plural of «adieu» ('farewell'). The single «éclair» (flash, lightning-flash) of the lovers' parting glance is heavy with farewells — «tout» here is adverbial, 'wholly, entirely laden'. The flash is also their last shared light, echoing the «flambeaux» of the octave.
12
And later an Angel, half-opening the doors,
Grammarentr'ouvrir + present participle «entr'ouvrir» = 'to half-open, to set ajar' (the prefix «entre-» 'between' softens «ouvrir', 'to open'). «entr'ouvrant» is its present participle — 'half-opening' — describing the Angel as it acts. The gerund-like participle suspends the Angel mid-gesture, the doors only ajar between this world and the next.
13
shall come, faithful and joyous, to revive
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the tarnished mirrors and the dead flames.
Wordranimer «ranimer» = 'to revive, to rekindle, to bring back to life' (the prefix «r-» 'again' on «animer», 'to give life to'). The Angel re-lights what death had quenched: «les miroirs ternis» ('the tarnished mirrors' — the twin minds of stanza 2) and «les flammes mortes» ('the dead flames' — the torch-hearts). Death here is a doorway to renewal, not an end.

The particulars

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