French · Death

La Mort des artistes

The Death of Artists

14 lines · 12 notes

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1
How many times must I shake my jester's bells
Combienhow manycombien · adverbmodifies faut
fautmustfalloir · verb, present, indicative, third-person, singularmain verb of the sentence
-ilitil · pronoun, masculine, singularimpersonal subject of faut
deofde · prepositionlinks Combien to fois
foistimesfois · noun, feminine, pluraldepends on secouer
secouershakesecouer · verb, infinitivecomplement of faut
mesmymon · determiner, pluraldeterminer of grelots
grelotsbellsgrelot · noun, masculine, pluraldirect object of secouer
GrammarImpersonal «falloir» + inversion «faut-il» is the impersonal verb «falloir» ('to be necessary') inverted for a question — literally 'how much is it necessary'. The whole quatrain hangs on this one «Combien… faut-il» ('how many times must I…'): the artist counts out the wasted effort. The infinitives «secouer» and «baiser» that follow are what is 'necessary', so it reads 'how many times must one shake… and kiss'.
Wordgrelots «un grelot» is a small round jingle-bell — the kind sewn to a jester's or fool's costume. «secouer mes grelots» ('to shake my bells') casts the artist as a hired buffoon, forced to perform for an unworthy idol. It sets the poem's bitter self-portrait: the maker reduced to a clown shaking bells at his own art.
2
and kiss your low brow, you dreary caricature?
3
to strike the target, the target of mystic nature,
Wordpiquer dans le but «piquer» here is 'to prick, to hit, to strike (a mark)' and «le but» is 'the goal, the target'. The image is an archer's: «piquer dans le but» = 'to hit dead-centre'. It looks ahead to «carquois» ('quiver') and «javelots» ('javelins') in the next line — the artist as a bowman who keeps missing the «mystique» mark, the unreachable ideal.
4
how many javelins, O my quiver, must I waste?
Wordcarquois, javelots «un carquois» is a 'quiver' and «un javelot» a 'javelin' or 'dart'. The apostrophe «ô mon carquois» addresses the quiver directly: each spent «javelot» is an attempt at the ideal that fell short. «perdre de javelots» — 'to lose / waste javelins' — completes the «Combien» of line 1: the artist is tallying his exhausted ammunition.
5
We shall wear out our soul in subtle plots,
GrammarFuture of «user» «userons» is the future of «user» ('to wear out, to use up'), 'we shall wear out'. The poem shifts from the «je» of the quatrain to a collective «Nous» — all artists — and into the future: «userons», «démolirons». It is a grim prophecy of labour: the whole second quatrain forecasts the cost of the pursuit before the ideal is ever reached.
6
and we shall tear down many a heavy framework,
Grammar«maint(e)» + singular noun «maint(e)» means 'many a' and, unlike «beaucoup de», takes a singular noun: «mainte lourde armature» = 'many a heavy framework'. It is a literary, slightly archaic word that suits the sonnet's elevated tone. «une armature» is a 'framework' or armature — here the sculptor's wire skeleton that must be smashed and rebuilt before the true form emerges.
7
before we may behold the great Creature
8
whose hellish longing fills us with sobs!
GrammarRelative pronoun «dont» «dont» = 'whose / of which / of whom', replacing a phrase with «de». Here it links back to «la grande Créature»: 'the great Creature whose («dont») infernal desire fills us with sobs'. «dont» neatly folds «le désir de la Créature» into one word — the longing for that ideal Creature is what wracks the artists, the goal and the torment being one and the same.
9
There are some who have never known their Idol,
Grammar«Il en est qui» — impersonal partitive «Il en est qui» is a literary turn for «il y en a qui» ('there are some who'). The impersonal «il» plus the pronoun «en» ('of them') singles out a class of artists — those who die without ever meeting their «Idole», the ideal they served. It opens the sonnet's sestet, where the diagnosis hardens into a verdict on the doomed sculptors.
10
and these damned sculptors, marked by an affront,
11
who go beating their chest and brow,
Grammar«aller» + reflexive present participle «marteler» = 'to hammer, to pound'; «se martelant» is its reflexive present participle ('hammering at themselves'). The construction «aller + participle» («vont se martelant») expresses a continuous, ongoing action — 'they keep pounding their own chest and brow'. The reflexive «se» turns the sculptor's hammer inward: damned artists who batter themselves as if they were the stone.
12
have but one hope, a strange and somber Capitol!
GrammarRestrictive «ne… que» «ne… que» means 'only / nothing but', not a true negative: «N'ont qu'un espoir» = 'have only one hope'. The verb «N'ont» reaches back across the line break to its subject «ces sculpteurs» in the tercet above. That single hope is named in apposition — «étrange et sombre Capitole» — Death itself, cast as the artists' grim place of triumph.
13
It is that Death, hovering like a new sun,
GrammarPresentative «C'est que» «C'est que…» introduces an explanation — 'the thing is that…', 'it is that…'. It unveils the single hope of the line before: that Death, «planant» ('hovering, soaring' — present participle of «planer»), will rise «comme un soleil nouveau» ('like a new sun'). The participle holds Death poised overhead like a bird of prey turned daybreak — the poem's final, paradoxical image of release.
14
will make the flowers of their brain bloom open!
GrammarCausative «faire» + reflexive infinitive «Fera» is the future of «faire»; «faire + infinitive» is the causative — 'to make / cause (something) to happen'. «s'épanouir» = 'to bloom, to open out, to blossom' (reflexive). So «Fera s'épanouir les fleurs» = 'will make the flowers bloom'. Only in death does the artist's unrealized work — «les fleurs de leur cerveau», the flowers of the brain — finally come into flower.

The particulars

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