French · Spleen and Ideal

Le Beau navire

The Fine Ship

40 lines · 18 notes

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1
I want to recount to you, O soft enchantress!
JeIje · pronoun, singularsubject of veux
veuxwantvouloir · verb, present, indicative, first-person, singularmain verb of the sentence
teto youte · pronoun, singularindirect object of raconter
raconterto recountraconter · verb, infinitivecomplement of veux
ôohô · interjectionvocative marker introducing enchanteresse
mollesoftmou · adjective, feminine, singularmodifies enchanteresse
enchanteresseenchantressenchanteresse · noun, feminine, singularvocative, addressed by ô, refers to te
Word«mou / molle» — soft, languid «mou» (feminine «molle») = 'soft, slack, languid'. Applied to a person it suggests yielding indolence rather than weakness — «molle enchanteresse» = 'soft / languorous enchantress'. The same heavy softness («mollesse») runs through the whole poem, in the swaying walk and the rolling ship.
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The various beauties that adorn your youth;
Word«parer» — to adorn «parer» = 'to adorn, deck, embellish' (related to English 'apparel'). «les diverses beautés qui parent ta jeunesse» = 'the various beauties that adorn your youth'. Note it is not reflexive here: the beauties adorn her, rather than she adorning herself.
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I want to paint for you your beauty,
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Where childhood weds itself to maturity.
GrammarPronominal «s'allier à» — to ally / wed itself to «s'allier (à)» is the pronominal 'to ally oneself with, to combine with, to be wedded to'. «où l'enfance s'allie à la maturité» = 'where childhood weds itself to maturity'. The reflexive «se» makes the joining mutual and self-arising — the two ages fuse on their own in her, the keynote of the beauty he means to paint.
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When you go sweeping the air with your wide skirt,
Grammar«aller» + present participle — ongoing motion «aller» + a present participle («vas balayant») is a literary turn for an action that unfolds and continues — 'you go (along) sweeping', stronger and more pictorial than the plain «tu balaies». «balayer» = 'to sweep'. The wide skirt sweeps the air the way a hull sweeps the sea, setting up the ship simile in the next line.
6
You give the impression of a fine ship putting out to sea,
Word«prendre le large» — to put out to sea «prendre le large» is the nautical idiom 'to stand out to sea, to head for open water' (and, figuratively, 'to make off'). «un beau vaisseau qui prend le large» = 'a fine ship standing out to sea'. The phrase echoes «ta jupe large» of the line before — the wide skirt and the open water rhyme on «large».
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Laden with canvas, and goes rolling on
Word«la toile» — sail-canvas «la toile» is 'cloth, canvas', and at sea 'sail(s)' — a ship «chargée de toile» carries a full press of sail. The word keeps the double image alive: the cloth is both the spread sails of the vessel and the spread fabric of her skirt. «va roulant» again uses «aller» + participle for continuous motion — 'goes rolling along'.
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Following a rhythm soft, and lazy, and slow.
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On your neck wide and round, on your plump shoulders,
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Your head struts with strange graces;
GrammarPronominal «se pavaner» — to strut «se pavaner» is the pronominal 'to strut, to parade, to show oneself off' — from «paon», the peacock. «ta tête se pavane avec d'étranges grâces» = 'your head struts / parades with strange graces'. The reflexive makes the display self-pleased and deliberate, the head carried like a proud bird's.
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With an air placid and triumphant
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You go your way, majestic child.
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I want to recount to you, O soft enchantress!
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The various beauties that adorn your youth;
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I want to paint for you your beauty,
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Where childhood weds itself to maturity.
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Your bosom that thrusts forward and pushes the watered silk,
Word«la moire» — moiré silk «la moire» is 'moiré', a silk pressed to give a rippling, watered sheen. «ta gorge qui s'avance et qui pousse la moire» = 'your bosom that juts forward and pushes out the watered silk'. «s'avancer» is the pronominal 'to come / push forward'; the breast strains the shimmering fabric, which catches light like the «éclairs» (flashes) named two lines on.
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Your triumphant bosom is a fine cabinet
Word«l'armoire» — wardrobe, cabinet «l'armoire» (f.) is a tall cupboard or wardrobe, often with two paneled doors. The metaphor turns the breast into a fine cabinet whose «panneaux bombés» (curved panels) are its swelling doors — and which, three lines down, proves to be «pleine de bonnes choses», stocked with wines and perfumes like a treasure-press.
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Whose panels, bulging and bright,
Grammar«dont» — of which / whose «dont» is the relative 'of which, whose, from which', standing in for «de» + a noun. «une belle armoire / Dont les panneaux … accrochent des éclairs» = 'a fine cabinet whose panels catch flashes of light'. Here «dont» links back to «armoire»: the panels belong to the cabinet, i.e. the bright curves of the breast.
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Like shields, catch flashes of light;
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Provoking shields, armed with rosy points!
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Cabinet of sweet secrets, full of good things,
Grammar«à» marking purpose or contents «à» linking two nouns names what something holds or is for: «armoire à doux secrets» = 'cabinet for / of sweet secrets', like «boîte à bijoux» (jewelry box). It tells what the cabinet contains — its drawers are stocked with secrets, and the next line spells them out as wines, perfumes, and liqueurs.
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Of wines, of perfumes, of liqueurs
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That would set brains and hearts raving!
Grammar«faire» + infinitive (causative) in the conditional «faire délirer» is the causative 'to make (someone) rave, to drive delirious'. In the conditional, «qui feraient délirer les cerveaux et les coeurs» = 'that would set brains and hearts raving'. The conditional «feraient» keeps it hypothetical — these stored wines and perfumes would intoxicate anyone who reached them.
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When you go sweeping the air with your wide skirt
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You give the impression of a fine ship putting out to sea,
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Laden with canvas, and goes rolling on
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Following a rhythm soft, and lazy, and slow.
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Your noble legs, beneath the flounces they drive,
Word«le volant» — flounce; «chasser» — to drive «le volant» is a 'flounce, frill' of a skirt (the same word means a steering wheel or a badminton shuttlecock). «chasser» = 'to drive, chase, push'. «les volants qu'elles chassent» = 'the flounces they drive (before them)': the legs swing the ruffled hem forward with each step, like a hull pushing a wave.
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Torment dark desires and tease them,
Word«agacer» — to tease, set on edge «agacer» = 'to irritate, tease, set on edge, provoke'. «tourmentent les désirs obscurs et les agacent» = 'torment dark desires and tease them'. The two verbs intensify each other: the swaying legs both torment and provoke the hidden longings, stirring them as the witches in the next lines stir their dark philtre.
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Like two witches who set
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A black philtre turning in a deep vessel.
Word«le philtre» — magic potion «le philtre» is a 'magic potion, love-charm, brew' (Greek 'philtron'). «deux sorcières qui font / Tourner un philtre noir dans un vase profond» = 'two witches who set a black philtre turning in a deep vessel'. «faire tourner» is the causative 'to make turn, to set turning' — the legs work the desires the way witches swirl a charmed brew.
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Your arms, which could make light of precocious Herculeses,
GrammarPronominal «se jouer de» — to make light of «se jouer de» is the pronominal idiom 'to make light of, to get the better of, to toy with'. In the conditional, «tes bras, qui se joueraient des précoces hercules» = 'your arms, which could toy with / overpower precocious Herculeses'. «précoce» = 'precocious, early-developed'; a lowercase «hercules» means simply 'strongmen'. Her arms could best even young strongmen.
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Are the sturdy rivals of glistening boas,
Word«l'émule» — rival, match «l'émule» is one who emulates or vies with another — a 'rival, match, equal'. The word order is inverted: «sont des boas luisants les solides émules» = 'are the sturdy rivals of glistening boas (= boa constrictors)'. Her arms match the snakes in coiling strength, made, the next line says, to clasp her lover tight.
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Made to clasp stubbornly,
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As if to press him into your heart, your lover.
Grammar«pour» + infinitive with object pronoun «l'» «pour» + infinitive expresses purpose, 'in order to': «comme pour l'imprimer» = 'as if to press / imprint him'. The object pronoun «l'» (him) attaches to the infinitive and points ahead to «ton amant» (your lover), held back to the very end of the line. «imprimer» here is 'to press in, stamp, imprint' — to clasp the lover so hard as to print him on the heart.
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On your neck wide and round, on your plump shoulders,
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Your head struts with strange graces;
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With an air placid and triumphant
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You go your way, majestic child.

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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