# La Mort des amants · The Death of Lovers

Les Fleurs du mal · Charles Baudelaire · Death

Source: https://1732studios.com/books/baudelaire/la-mort-des-amants. Data: https://1732studios.com/books/baudelaire/la-mort-des-amants.json.

**1** Nous aurons des lits pleins d'odeurs légères,  
We shall have beds full of light fragrances,
> Future 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** Des divans profonds comme des tombeaux,  
deep divans like tombs,

**3** Et d'étranges fleurs sur des étagères,  
and strange flowers upon shelves,

**4** Ecloses pour nous sous des cieux plus beaux.  
opened for us beneath fairer skies.
> éclore / 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** Usant à l'envi leurs chaleurs dernières,  
Spending vying with each other their last warmths,
> à 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.

**6** Nos deux coeurs seront deux vastes flambeaux,  
our two hearts shall be two vast torches,

**7** Qui réfléchiront leurs doubles lumières  
which shall reflect their double lights

**8** Dans nos deux esprits, ces miroirs jumeaux.  
within our two minds, those twin mirrors.


**9** Un soir fait de rose et de bleu mystique,  
One evening made of rose and mystic blue,

**10** Nous échangerons un éclair unique,  
we shall exchange a single flash,

**11** Comme un long sanglot, tout chargé d'adieux;  
like a long sob, all laden with farewells;
> chargé 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** Et plus tard un Ange, entr'ouvrant les portes,  
And later an Angel, half-opening the doors,
> entr'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** Viendra ranimer, fidèle et joyeux,  
shall come, faithful and joyous, to revive

**14** Les miroirs ternis et les flammes mortes.  
the tarnished mirrors and the dead flames.
> ranimer: «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.

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