# Le Chat · The Cat

Les Fleurs du mal · Charles Baudelaire · Spleen and Ideal

Source: https://1732studios.com/books/baudelaire/le-chat-2. Data: https://1732studios.com/books/baudelaire/le-chat-2.json.

**1** I  
I


**2** Dans ma cervelle se promène,  
Through my brain there strolls about,
> «se promener» — to stroll, to wander: «se promener» is a pronominal verb — the reflexive «se» turns 'to walk' into 'to take a stroll, to wander about'. Here the subject «Un beau chat» is held back two lines, so the line opens on the action and place — «Dans ma cervelle se promène» = 'in my brain wanders' — and only later names what wanders. The cat is imagined pacing the poet's mind as though it were a room, an image the next line makes explicit.

**3** Ainsi qu'en son appartement,  
As if it were in its own apartment,
> «ainsi que» — just as, in the same way as: «ainsi que» means 'just as, in the same manner as', introducing a comparison: the cat moves through the poet's mind «ainsi qu'en son appartement» = 'just as it would in its own lodgings'. «qu'en» is «que» + «en» elided before a vowel. The likeness makes the brain the cat's home territory, the inner room it owns.

**4** Un beau chat, fort, doux et charmant.  
A fine cat, strong, gentle and charming.

**5** Quand il miaule, on l'entend à peine,  
When it mews, one barely hears it,
> «à peine» — barely, hardly: «à peine» is an adverbial idiom meaning 'barely, hardly, scarcely'. «on l'entend à peine» = 'one can hardly hear it'. The impersonal «on» ('one, people') keeps the observation general, and «l'» is the object pronoun «le» (it) elided before the vowel of «entend». The faintness sets up the next stanza's praise of how tender and discreet the cat's voice is.


**6** Tant son timbre est tendre et discret;  
So tender and discreet is its tone;
> «tant» — so much, to such a degree: «tant» means 'so, so much, to such a degree', here explaining the «à peine» of the line before: one barely hears the cat «Tant son timbre est tendre» = 'so tender is its tone'. The cause runs across the stanza break, a single thought split over two stanzas. «le timbre» is the particular colour or quality of a voice.

**7** Mais que sa voix s'apaise ou gronde,  
But whether its voice grows calm or growls,
> «que … ou …» + subjunctive — whether … or …: «que sa voix s'apaise ou gronde» uses «que» with the subjunctive to mean 'whether its voice quiets or growls' — a concessive 'whatever it does'. «s'apaise» is the pronominal «s'apaiser» (to grow calm, to subside); «gronde» is «gronder» (to rumble, growl, scold). Both verbs are subjunctive, though here they look identical to the indicative; the construction concedes either case before insisting the voice is always rich.

**8** Elle est toujours riche et profonde.  
It is always rich and deep.

**9** C'est là son charme et son secret.  
That is its charm and its secret.


**10** Cette voix, qui perle et qui filtre  
This voice, which beads and filters
> «perler» — to form in droplets, to bead: «perler» (from «la perle», pearl) means 'to form in beads or droplets, to bead up' — sweat or dew that gathers into glistening pearls. Paired with «filtre» ('seeps, trickles through'), it makes the cat's voice a liquid that pearls and percolates «Dans mon fonds le plus ténébreux» = 'into my darkest depths'. The relative «qui» ('which') repeats to chain the two verbs to «Cette voix».

**11** Dans mon fonds le plus ténébreux,  
Into my most shadowy depths,

**12** Me remplit comme un vers nombreux  
Fills me like a sonorous verse
> «nombreux» — rhythmical, well-cadenced (of verse): «nombreux» usually means 'numerous', but applied to «un vers» (a line of poetry) it carries its older Latin sense (from «numerus», measure, rhythm): a line that is 'full, sonorous, rhythmically rich'. «un vers nombreux» = 'a flowing, well-cadenced line of verse'. Baudelaire likens the cat's voice to good poetry filling him — a quiet boast about his own art.

**13** Et me réjouit comme un philtre.  
And gladdens me like a love-potion.
> «un philtre» — a magic potion, a love-philtre: «un philtre» is a magic draught, especially a love-potion brewed to enchant — not «un filtre» (a filter), despite the rhyme with «filtre» two lines up. «me réjouit comme un philtre» = 'delights me like a love-potion'. The voice that filters into him now intoxicates him, carrying the cat's spell from sound into the realm of magic and desire.


**14** Elle endort les plus cruels maux  
It lulls to sleep the cruelest pains
> «endormir» — to lull to sleep, to soothe away: «endormir» is 'to put to sleep, to lull'; figuratively 'to soothe, to deaden'. «Elle endort les plus cruels maux» = 'it lulls the cruelest pains to sleep'. «les maux» is the irregular plural of «le mal» (evil, ill, pain). The cat's voice works like an anaesthetic, an opiate set against the «extases» it also contains in the next line.

**15** Et contient toutes les extases;  
And holds within it every ecstasy;

**16** Pour dire les plus longues phrases,  
To speak the longest sentences,

**17** Elle n'a pas besoin de mots.  
It has no need of words.
> «avoir besoin de» — to need: «avoir besoin de» is the fixed way to say 'to need (something)': literally 'to have need of'. Negated, «n'a pas besoin de» = 'has no need of'. After a negative, the partitive collapses to bare «de», so it is «besoin de mots» ('need of words'), not «de des mots». The wordless voice 'says' the longest sentences — the cat communes beyond language.


**18** Non, il n'est pas d'archet qui morde  
No, there is no bow that bites
> «il n'est pas de» + subjunctive «qui morde»: «il n'est pas de» is a literary equivalent of «il n'y a pas de» ('there is no…'): «il n'est pas d'archet» = 'there is no bow'. The following relative takes the subjunctive — «qui morde» (from «mordre», to bite) rather than indicative «mord» — because it describes something asserted not to exist. «un archet» is the bow of a stringed instrument, setting up the poet's heart as that instrument in the next line.

**19** Sur mon coeur, parfait instrument,  
Upon my heart, that perfect instrument,

**20** Et fasse plus royalement  
And makes more royally
> «fasse» — subjunctive of «faire»: «fasse» is the present subjunctive of «faire» (to make, to do), the second verb of the relative «qui morde … et fasse», kept subjunctive for the same reason as «morde». «faire chanter» here is 'to make sing': no bow makes the heart's «plus vibrante corde» ('most vibrant string') 'sing more royally' than the cat's voice will, in the line that completes the comparison.

**21** Chanter sa plus vibrante corde,  
Its most resonant string sing,


**22** Que ta voix, chat mystérieux,  
Than your voice, mysterious cat,
> «Que» — the second term of a comparison: This «Que» is 'than', closing the comparison opened by «plus» three lines back: no bow makes the heart sing more royally «Que ta voix» = 'than your voice'. The poem also pivots here from «il» (the cat as 'it') to «ta voix» ('your voice'), turning to address the cat directly — «chat mystérieux» — for its rapturous final apostrophe.

**23** Chat séraphique, chat étrange,  
Seraphic cat, strange cat,

**24** En qui tout est, comme en un ange,  
In whom all is, as in an angel,

**25** Aussi subtil qu'harmonieux!  
As subtle as it is harmonious!
> «aussi … que …» — as … as …: «aussi … que …» expresses equal degree, 'as … as …': «Aussi subtil qu'harmonieux» = 'as subtle as (it is) harmonious'. «que» elides to «qu'» before the vowel of «harmonieux» (the «h» is mute). The line caps Part I's angelic praise — in the cat, as in an angel, everything is balanced perfectly between the subtle and the harmonious.


**26** II  
II


**27** De sa fourrure blonde et brune  
From its fur, fair and brown,
> «la fourrure» — fur, coat; «blonde» of an animal: «la fourrure» is the animal's fur or pelt. «blonde et brune» describes its colour, 'fair and brown' — «blond» is not only human hair-colour but any pale gold tint. The line begins on «De» ('from'), and the verb «Sort» ('rises, comes forth') opens the next line, so the perfume is named before we learn it issues from the coat the poet has stroked.

**28** Sort un parfum si doux, qu'un soir  
Rises a scent so sweet that, one evening,
> «si … que …» — so … that …: «si … que …» is the consequence construction 'so … that …': «un parfum si doux, qu'… J'en fus embaumé» = 'a scent so sweet that I was perfumed by it'. «Sort» (from «sortir», to come out, issue) is inverted before its subject «un parfum». «qu'un soir» = «que» + «un soir» ('that one evening'), launching the result that spills across the rest of the stanza.

**29** J'en fus embaumé, pour l'avoir  
I was perfumed by it, for having
> «en» + «fus» (past historic) — perfumed by it: «en» is the pronoun 'by it / with it', standing in for «de ce parfum»: «J'en fus embaumé» = 'I was perfumed by it'. «fus» is the «passé simple» (literary past) of «être», so «fus embaumé» = 'was embalmed/perfumed', a passive in the storytelling past tense. «embaumer» means both 'to perfume, to fill with fragrance' and 'to embalm' — a faint funereal undertone beneath the sweetness.

**30** Caressée une fois, rien qu'une.  
Stroked it once, just once.
> «pour avoir» + past participle — for having done: «pour avoir caressée» is the perfect infinitive 'for having stroked', giving the cause: he was perfumed for the single caress. The participle «caressée» takes a feminine «-e» because its object «l'» (= «la fourrure», feminine) comes before the verb — the rule of agreement with a preceding direct object. «rien qu'une» = 'only once, just the one time', underlining how little contact left so lasting a scent.


**31** C'est l'esprit familier du lieu;  
It is the familiar spirit of the place;

**32** Il juge, il préside, il inspire  
It judges, it presides, it inspires
> Anaphora — the drumbeat of «il»: The line stacks three present-tense verbs each behind a repeated subject «il» ('it'): «Il juge, il préside, il inspire» — 'it judges, it presides, it inspires'. This repetition (anaphora) gives the cat the ritual cadence of a litany, listing its powers like those of a presiding god before the stanza asks outright whether it is «fée» or «dieu».

**33** Toutes choses dans son empire;  
All things within its empire;

**34** Peut-être est-il fée, est-il dieu?  
Perhaps it is a fairy, is it a god?
> «peut-être» triggers inversion: When «peut-être» ('perhaps') opens a clause, the subject and verb usually invert: «Peut-être est-il» = 'perhaps is it', not «peut-être il est». «est-il fée, est-il dieu?» = 'is it a fairy, is it a god?'. «une fée» is a fairy or fey spirit; pairing it with «dieu» leaves the cat's nature deliberately undecided, half-magical, half-divine.


**35** Quand mes yeux, vers ce chat que j'aime  
When my eyes, toward this cat I love,

**36** Tirés comme par un aimant,  
Drawn as if by a magnet,
> «tirés» — past participle modifying «mes yeux»: «Tirés» is the past participle of «tirer» (to pull, draw), agreeing with the plural «mes yeux»: 'my eyes, drawn'. It heads a participial phrase set between the subject and its verb «Se retournent» — French verse often suspends the sentence this way. «comme par un aimant» = 'as if by a magnet' («un aimant», a lodestone), the pull that turns the gaze inward in the lines that follow.

**37** Se retournent docilement  
Turn back obediently
> «se retourner» — to turn back / turn round: «se retourner» is a pronominal verb, 'to turn round, to turn back': «mes yeux … Se retournent» = 'my eyes turn back'. The reflexive «se» shows the eyes turning of their own accord, willingly — reinforced by «docilement» ('obediently, meekly'). Drawn to the cat, the gaze then bends inward, so that looking at the animal becomes looking «en moi-même» ('into myself').

**38** Et que je regarde en moi-même,  
And when I look within myself,
> «Et que» — resuming «Quand» without repeating it: «Et que» picks up the «Quand» ('when') that opened the stanza, so the second clause need not repeat «quand»: 'When my eyes turn back … and when I look within myself'. This «que»-for-«quand» is the normal way French chains a second time-clause. The long 'when' built across the whole stanza waits for its main verb «Je vois» ('I see') in the final stanza.


**39** Je vois avec étonnement  
I see with astonishment

**40** Le feu de ses prunelles pâles,  
The fire of its pale pupils,
> «la prunelle» — the pupil of the eye: «la prunelle» is the pupil of the eye (from «la prune», plum — for its dark round shape), often standing poetically for the whole eye or its glance. «ses prunelles pâles» = 'its pale pupils'. The cat's eyes burn with a cold light, and the metaphors crowd in over the next two lines — beacons, then living opals — turning the gaze into something at once luminous and stony.

**41** Clairs fanaux, vivantes opales  
Bright beacons, living opals
> «un fanal» — a beacon-lamp: «un fanal» is a large lamp or signal-light — a ship's lantern, a lighthouse beacon — and its plural is the irregular «fanaux». «Clairs fanaux» = 'bright beacons'. Set beside «vivantes opales» ('living opals'), the two appositions, with no verb between them, pile image on image: the cat's eyes are at once guiding lights and breathing gemstones that watch the poet «fixement» ('fixedly').

**42** Qui me contemplent fixement.  
Which contemplate me fixedly.

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