French · Spleen and Ideal

La Muse vénale

The Venal Muse

14 lines · 12 notes

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1
O muse of my heart, lover of palaces,
ÔOô · interjectionvocative particle before muse
musemusemuse · noun, feminine, singularvocative, head of the sentence
deofde · prepositionpreposition marking coeur
monmymon · determiner, singulardeterminer of coeur
coeurheartcoeur · noun, masculine, singularmodifies muse
amanteloveramante · noun, feminine, singularin apposition to muse
desof thede le · preposition + determiner, contracted pluralpreposition marking palais
palaispalacespalais · noun, masculine, pluraloblique argument of amante
Word«amante des palais» «amante» (f.) is a (female) lover or mistress, the feminine of «amant»; «des palais» = 'of palaces'. The muse is addressed as one who craves luxury — the first hint of the «vénale» (venal, for-sale) theme of the title. Note «coeur» is the period spelling of «cœur» (heart), printed without the ligature.
2
Will you have, when January looses its north winds,
Word«les Borées» «Borée» is Boreas, the Greek god of the north wind; the capitalized plural «Borées» stands by metonymy for the icy winter gusts themselves. «lâchera» is the future of «lâcher» (to let loose, release), so «quand Janvier lâchera ses Borées» = 'when January unleashes its north winds'.
3
Through the black tedium of the snowy evenings,
4
A firebrand to warm your two purpled feet?
Word«un tison» «un tison» is a glowing ember or firebrand — a single burning log-end, not a whole fire. The meagre word measures the muse's poverty: not warmth in plenty, just one coal. «violets» here is 'purple, livid' — feet gone violet with cold.
5
Will you then bring back to life your marbled shoulders
Word«ranimer» «ranimer» means to revive, to bring back to life or warmth (literally 're-soul', from «âme»); «Ranimeras-tu?» is its future + inversion, 'will you revive?'. «marbrées» = 'marbled, mottled' — the skin blotched by cold like veined marble, beautiful and corpse-like at once.
6
In the nocturnal beams that pierce the shutters?
7
Feeling your purse as dry as your palate,
Word«palais»: palace or palate «palais» is a deliberate double word. In line 1 it meant 'palace'; here, paired with «bourse à sec» (empty purse) and «à sec» (dried up), it means 'palate' — the roof of the mouth, hence hunger and thirst. «autant que» = 'as much as'. The pun ties the muse's empty purse to her empty belly.
8
Will you harvest the gold of the azure vaults?
Word«les voûtes azurées» «voûte» (f.) is a vault or arch; «azuré» = 'azure, sky-blue'. «les voûtes azurées» is the vault of the blue sky. «récolter» means to harvest or reap — the ironic question is whether a starving poet can gather real gold («l'or») from mere blue heaven, i.e. live on inspiration alone.
9
You must, to earn your bread of every evening,
Grammar«il faut» + dative pronoun «il faut» is the impersonal 'it is necessary / one must'; adding the pronoun «te» makes it personal — 'you must, it is needful for you'. «Il te faut ... jouer» = 'you must play'. The construction governs the infinitives that follow («jouer», «chanter», «étaler») across the two tercets.
10
Like a choirboy, to swing the censer,
Grammar«jouer de» + instrument «jouer de» + a noun means 'to play / to work (an instrument)' — «jouer du piano», 'to play the piano'. Applied to «l'encensoir» (the censer, the swinging incense-holder), «jouer de l'encensoir» wittily casts the thurible as an instrument: the muse must 'play' it like an «enfant de choeur» (choirboy) for pay.
11
To sing Te Deums in which you scarcely believe,
Grammar«ne ... guère» and «croire à» «ne ... guère» is the negation 'hardly, scarcely, barely'. «croire à qqch.» = 'to believe in something', so «auxquels tu ne crois guère» = 'in which you scarcely believe'. «auxquels» is «à» + «lesquels» (to which). A «Te Deum» is a Latin hymn of thanksgiving — sung here without faith, purely for hire.
12
Or, a fasting mountebank, to display your charms
Word«saltimbanque» and «à jeun» «un saltimbanque» is a street acrobat or mountebank, the fairground performer who tumbles for coins. «à jeun» means 'on an empty stomach, fasting'. «étaler tes appas» = 'to spread out / show off your charms' («les appas», m. pl., the physical allurements). The muse is reduced to a hungry busker selling her looks.
13
And your laughter steeped in tears no one can see,
Word«trempé de pleurs» «tremper» is to soak, drench, or dip; «trempé de pleurs» = 'soaked in tears'. «les pleurs» (m. pl.) is a literary word for tears/weeping. «qu'on ne voit pas» = 'that one does not see' — the hidden grief behind the performer's forced laugh, the heart of the poem's pathos.
14
To make the rabble's spleen blossom into mirth.
Word«épanouir la rate» «épanouir» is to make bloom, open out, brighten; «la rate» is literally the spleen (the organ). The idiom «s'épanouir la rate», or «se dilater la rate», means 'to split one's sides laughing'. «le vulgaire» (noun) is 'the common crowd, the rabble'. So the line means 'to set the mob roaring with laughter' — a bitter close, given that in Baudelaire spleen is also melancholy.

The particulars

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