# La Mort des artistes · The Death of Artists

Les Fleurs du mal · Charles Baudelaire · Death

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

**1** Combien faut-il de fois secouer mes grelots  
How many times must I shake my jester's bells
> Impersonal «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'.
> grelots: «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** Et baiser ton front bas, morne caricature?  
and kiss your low brow, you dreary caricature?

**3** Pour piquer dans le but, de mystique nature,  
to strike the target, the target of mystic nature,
> piquer 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** Combien, ô mon carquois, perdre de javelots?  
how many javelins, O my quiver, must I waste?
> carquois, 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** Nous userons notre âme en de subtils complots,  
We shall wear out our soul in subtle plots,
> Future 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** Et nous démolirons mainte lourde armature,  
and we shall tear down many a heavy framework,
> «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** Avant de contempler la grande Créature  
before we may behold the great Creature

**8** Dont l'infernal désir nous remplit de sanglots!  
whose hellish longing fills us with sobs!
> Relative 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** Il en est qui jamais n'ont connu leur Idole,  
There are some who have never known their Idol,
> «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** Et ces sculpteurs damnés et marqués d'un affront,  
and these damned sculptors, marked by an affront,

**11** Qui vont se martelant la poitrine et le front,  
who go beating their chest and brow,
> «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** N'ont qu'un espoir, étrange et sombre Capitole!  
have but one hope, a strange and somber Capitol!
> Restrictive «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** C'est que la Mort, planant comme un soleil nouveau,  
It is that Death, hovering like a new sun,
> Presentative «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** Fera s'épanouir les fleurs de leur cerveau!  
will make the flowers of their brain bloom open!
> Causative «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.

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