# La Muse malade · The Sick Muse

Les Fleurs du mal · Charles Baudelaire · Spleen and Ideal

Source: https://1732studios.com/books/baudelaire/la-muse-malade. Data: https://1732studios.com/books/baudelaire/la-muse-malade.json.

**1** Ma pauvre muse, hélas! qu'as-tu donc ce matin?  
My poor muse, alas! what is the matter with you this morning?
> Inversion in «qu'as-tu»: «qu'as-tu?» is the inverted, literary form of «qu'est-ce que tu as?» — 'what's wrong with you?'. The verb «as» (from «avoir», to have) is placed before the subject pronoun «tu», a hallmark of elevated register. «donc» here is not 'therefore' but an emphatic particle, roughly 'then / on earth': 'what on earth is wrong with you?'

**2** Tes yeux creux sont peuplés de visions nocturnes,  
Your hollow eyes are peopled with nocturnal visions,

**3** Et je vois tour à tour réfléchis sur ton teint  
And I see, by turns, reflected on your face
> «tour à tour» — one after another: «tour à tour» is a fixed adverbial phrase meaning 'in turn, one after the other, alternately'. It governs the pair named in the next line — madness and horror crossing the muse's face by turns. «le teint» is the complexion or hue of the skin; «sur ton teint» = 'on your face / in your colour'.

**4** La folie et l'horreur, froides et taciturnes.  
Madness and horror, cold and taciturn.


**5** Le succube verdâtre et le rose lutin  
Has the greenish succubus and the rosy imp
> «le succube» and «le lutin»: A «succube» is a succubus — a female demon believed to lie with sleepers; «verdâtre» (greenish) gives it a sickly, corpse-like cast. A «lutin» is a goblin or mischievous sprite, here «rose» (pink, rosy) and seductive. The two — one ghastly, one charming — are the night-spirits Baudelaire suspects of having poisoned the muse.

**6** T'ont-ils versé la peur et l'amour de leurs urnes?  
Poured fear and love over you from their urns?

**7** Le cauchemar, d'un poing despotique et mutin  
Has the nightmare, with a despotic and rebellious fist,
> «mutin»: «mutin» is a literary adjective meaning unruly, rebellious, mutinous — and sometimes teasingly impish. Paired with «despotique» (despotic), it gives the nightmare's «poing» (fist) a wilful, insubordinate violence: a tyrant's hand that also delights in its own mischief.

**8** T'a-t-il noyée au fond d'un fabuleux Minturnes?  
Drowned you in the depths of a fabulous Minturnae?
> Past-participle agreement with the fronted object: In «t'a-t-il noyée», the participle «noyé» (from «noyer», to drown) takes a feminine «-e» — «noyée» — because its direct object «t'» (the feminine muse) precedes the verb. With «avoir», the past participle agrees only when the direct object comes first, as it does in this inverted question. The «-t-» in «a-t-il» is a euphonic insert that keeps the inversion pronounceable.


**9** Je voudrais qu'exhalant l'odeur de la santé  
I would wish that, breathing out the scent of health,
> «vouloir que» + subjunctive: «vouloir que» ('to wish that') forces the subjunctive in the clause it governs — the mood completed three lines down in «fût» (line s3-l2) and «coulât» (line s3-l3). «je voudrais» is itself the conditional of «vouloir», softening the wish to 'I would like / I wish'. «qu'exhalant» opens the clause with the present participle «exhalant» (from «exhaler», to breathe out / exhale).

**10** Ton sein de pensers forts fût toujours fréquenté,  
Your breast were always frequented by strong thoughts,
> «les pensers» — an archaic noun: «pensers» is an old, poetic masculine noun meaning 'thoughts' (modern French would use «pensées»). «fût» is the imperfect subjunctive of «être», required by «je voudrais que» — 'that your breast were always frequented by strong thoughts'. The wish is for a healthy, vigorous imagination to inhabit the muse in place of the demons.

**11** Et que ton sang chrétien coulât à flots rythmiques,  
And that your Christian blood flowed in rhythmic waves,
> Imperfect subjunctive «coulât»: «coulât» is the imperfect subjunctive of «couler» (to flow), again triggered by «je voudrais que». «à flots» is an idiom — 'in floods, in streams, abundantly' — sharpened here by «rythmiques» (rhythmic). The blood is to flow not just freely but in measure, which the next stanza will reveal to mean the measure of ancient verse.


**12** Comme les sons nombreux des syllabes antiques,  
Like the manifold sounds of antique syllables,
> «nombreux» in its metrical sense: Beyond the everyday 'numerous', «nombreux» carries here its old prosodic sense — 'well-cadenced, harmoniously measured', from Latin «numerosus». «les syllabes antiques» are the syllables of classical (Greek and Latin) verse, whose long-and-short quantities gave it its rhythm, the simile completing the wish for blood that flows «à flots rythmiques».

**13** Où règnent tour à tour le père des chansons,  
Over which reign, by turns, the father of songs,

**14** Phoebus, et le grand Pan, le seigneur des moissons.  
Phoebus, and great Pan, the lord of the harvests.

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