# La servante au grand coeur dont vous étiez jalouse · The Servant with the Great Heart of Whom You Were Jealous

Les Fleurs du mal · Charles Baudelaire · Parisian Scenes

Source: https://1732studios.com/books/baudelaire/la-servante-au-grand-coeur-dont-vous-etiez-jalou. Data: https://1732studios.com/books/baudelaire/la-servante-au-grand-coeur-dont-vous-etiez-jalou.json.

**1** La servante au grand coeur dont vous étiez jalouse,  
The servant with the great heart of whom you were jealous,
> Relative «dont» with «jaloux de»: «dont» is the relative pronoun that stands in for «de + noun». Because one is jealous «de» someone — «être jaloux de quelqu'un» — the link is made with «dont»: «la servante dont vous étiez jalouse» = 'the servant of whom you were jealous'.

**2** Et qui dort son sommeil sous une humble pelouse,  
And who sleeps her sleep beneath a humble plot of grass,
> Cognate (figura etymologica) object: «dormir» is normally intransitive, but here it takes its own noun as object: «dort son sommeil» = 'sleeps her sleep'. This doubling of verb and kindred noun is an old, solemn turn that weights the line — the sleep here is death.

**3** Nous devrions pourtant lui porter quelques fleurs.  
We ought nevertheless to bring her a few flowers.
> Conditional of «devoir»: ought / should: «devrions» is the present conditional of «devoir». Used this way it expresses moral obligation softened by regret — 'we ought to, we should'. «pourtant» ('nevertheless, and yet') marks the reproach: we owe her this, and yet we forget.

**4** Les morts, les pauvres morts, ont de grandes douleurs,  
The dead, the poor dead, have great sorrows,

**5** Et quand Octobre souffle, émondeur des vieux arbres,  
And when October blows, that pruner of the old trees,
> émondeur (m.): An «émondeur» is one who prunes or strips trees of their dead wood — from «émonder», 'to prune'. October is cast «en apposition» as the «émondeur des vieux arbres», the wind that strips the old trees bare, a figure of cold dispossession.

**6** Son vent mélancolique à l'entour de leurs marbres,  
Its melancholy wind around about their marble stones,
> à l'entour de = around: «à l'entour de» is an older, literary equivalent of «autour de», 'around, round about'. «leurs marbres» — 'their marble stones' — means the headstones of the dead; the wind circles their graves.

**7** Certe, ils doivent trouver les vivants bien ingrats,  
Surely they must find the living quite ungrateful,
> Certe (poetic for «certes»): «Certe» is a poetic, apocopated form of «certes», 'surely, indeed' — the final 's' dropped to fit the metre. «trouver X + adjective» here means 'to find X (to be) so-and-so': 'they must find the living quite ungrateful'.

**8** À dormir, comme ils font, chaudement dans leurs draps,  
Sleeping, as they do, warmly in their sheets,

**9** Tandis que, dévorés de noires songeries,  
While they, devoured by black broodings,
> songerie (f.): A «songerie» is a reverie, a long brooding daydream — from «songer», 'to muse, to dream'. «noires songeries» = 'black reveries', the dark, sleepless musings of the dead, set against the warm, easy sleep of the living above.

**10** Sans compagnon de lit, sans bonnes causeries,  
Without a bedfellow, without warm conversations,
> causerie (f.): A «causerie» is an informal chat or friendly talk — from «causer», 'to chat'. «bonnes causeries» are the good, companionable conversations the dead are deprived of; the line lists, by their absence, the small comforts of being alive.

**11** Vieux squelettes gelés travaillés par le ver,  
Old frozen skeletons worked away at by the worm,
> Past participle as passive: «travaillé par»: The past participle «travaillés» agrees with «squelettes» (masc. pl.) and works as a passive with «par»: 'worked on / wrought by the worm'. «travailler» here keeps its concrete sense of laboring at, gnawing, eating into the bone.

**12** Ils sentent s'égoutter les neiges de l'hiver  
They feel the winter's snows trickling down drop by drop
> Perception verb + reflexive infinitive: After a verb of perception like «sentir», French uses a bare infinitive whose subject follows it: «ils sentent s'égoutter les neiges» = 'they feel the snows drip'. «s'égoutter» is pronominal — 'to drip, to drain off drop by drop', from «goutte», a drop.

**13** Et le siècle couler, sans qu'amis ni famille  
And the century flowing by, without friends or family
> «sans que» + subjunctive: The conjunction «sans que» ('without ... -ing') always takes the subjunctive: «sans qu'amis ni famille Remplacent...» = 'without friends or family replacing...'. The verb «Remplacent» on the next line is that subjunctive. Note «ni ... ni» for 'neither ... nor'.

**14** Remplacent les lambeaux qui pendent à leur grille.  
To replace the tatters that hang upon their railing.
> lambeau (m.) / grille (f.): «lambeaux» are shreds, rags, tatters; a «grille» is the iron railing or gate enclosing a grave plot. The image is of withered funeral wreaths left to rot on the graveside railing, with no one to renew them.

**15** Lorsque la bûche siffle et chante, si le soir  
When the log hisses and sings, if of an evening

**16** Calme, dans le fauteuil je la voyais s'asseoir,  
Calm, in the armchair I were to see her sit down,
> Imperfect for a hypothesis; «s'asseoir»: Within this «si» clause the imperfect «voyais» sets up a tentative supposition — 'if I were to see her'. «s'asseoir» is the pronominal verb 'to sit (oneself) down'; its reflexive «s'» refers back to «la», the servant who would seat herself by the fire.

**17** Si, par une nuit bleue et froide de décembre,  
If, on some blue and cold December night,

**18** Je la trouvais tapie en un coin de ma chambre,  
I were to find her crouched in a corner of my room,
> tapi (adj., from «se tapir»): «tapie» (fem.) is the past participle of «se tapir», 'to crouch, to huddle, to nestle low' — used as an adjective: 'crouched, hidden away'. It gives the returning servant the still, shrinking posture of a ghost waiting in the corner.

**19** Grave, et venant du fond de son lit éternel  
Grave, and coming from the depth of her eternal bed

**20** Couver l'enfant grandi de son oeil maternel,  
To brood over the grown child with her motherly eye,
> couver = to brood over: «couver» is literally to sit on eggs, to hatch; figuratively to watch over tenderly, to cherish with one's gaze — «couver des yeux». «Couver l'enfant grandi de son oeil maternel» = 'to brood over the grown child with her motherly eye', the hen-like care of the dead servant for the now-grown boy.

**21** Que pourrais-je répondre à cette âme pieuse,  
What could I answer to that pious soul,
> Conditional with inversion in a question: «pourrais-je» is the conditional of «pouvoir» with subject-verb inversion to form the question: 'what could I answer?'. The conditional carries the whole hypothesis of the preceding «si» clauses to its helpless close.

**22** Voyant tomber des pleurs de sa paupière creuse?  
Seeing tears fall from her hollow eyelid?
> Present participle + perception; «pleurs»: «Voyant» is the present participle of «voir», 'seeing', taking a bare infinitive «tomber» whose subject follows: 'seeing tears fall'. «pleurs» (always plural, masc.) is a poetic word for tears; «paupière creuse» — 'hollow eyelid' — gives the weeping a fleshless, skull-like cast.

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