# Le Crépuscule du matin · Morning Twilight

Les Fleurs du mal · Charles Baudelaire · Parisian Scenes

Source: https://1732studios.com/books/baudelaire/le-crepuscule-du-matin. Data: https://1732studios.com/books/baudelaire/le-crepuscule-du-matin.json.

**1** La diane chantait dans les cours des casernes,  
The reveille was singing in the barracks yards,
> la diane (f.): «La diane» is the reveille — the morning bugle or drum call that wakes soldiers at dawn. «La diane chantait dans les cours des casernes» = 'The reveille was singing in the barracks yards': the poem opens on the very first sound of the city's morning, the army being roused before anyone else.

**2** Et le vent du matin soufflait sur les lanternes.  
And the morning wind was blowing on the lanterns.


**3** C'était l'heure où l'essaim des rêves malfaisants  
It was the hour when the swarm of evil dreams
> un essaim (m.): «un essaim» is a swarm — properly a swarm of bees, then any seething mass. «l'essaim des rêves malfaisants» = 'the swarm of evil dreams'; «malfaisant» (from «mal» + «faisant», 'doing harm') marks the dreams as actively wicked, a hive of them descending at the worst hour of the night.

**4** Tord sur leurs oreillers les bruns adolescents;  
Twists the brown-haired youths upon their pillows;
> Delayed subject across the line: The verb «tord» (from «tordre», 'to twist, wring') belongs to the subject «l'essaim» in the line before: 'the swarm... twists the youths'. French verse readily strings the subject, verb, and object across line breaks like this — read «l'essaim... Tord... les bruns adolescents» as one clause, the dreams wringing the sleepers like wet cloth.

**5** Où, comme un oeil sanglant qui palpite et qui bouge,  
When, like a bloodshot eye that throbs and stirs,

**6** La lampe sur le jour fait une tache rouge;  
The lamp makes a red stain upon the daylight;

**7** Où l'âme, sous le poids du corps revêche et lourd,  
When the soul, under the weight of the body, sullen and heavy,
> revêche (adj.): «revêche» means harsh, surly, recalcitrant — originally said of rough, unworkable wool or cloth, then of an intractable temper. Here «le corps revêche et lourd» = 'the body, sullen and heavy', a stubborn dead weight the waking soul has to fight against.

**8** Imite les combats de la lampe et du jour.  
Mimics the struggle of the lamp and the daylight.

**9** Comme un visage en pleurs que les brises essuient,  
Like a tear-streaked face that the breezes wipe dry,
> Word order in the «que» relative: In «un visage... que les brises essuient», the order is: «que» (object) + «les brises» (subject) + «essuient» (verb) — standard subject-before-verb word order for a «que» relative clause. The subject «les brises» precedes the verb «essuient», not vice versa; there is no inversion here. Untangled: 'a face that the breezes wipe'.

**10** L'air est plein du frisson des choses qui s'enfuient,  
The air is full of the shudder of things that flee away,
> Pronominal «s'enfuir»: «s'enfuir» is the pronominal verb 'to flee, run away', stronger than plain «fuir»: the «s'» makes the flight the thing's own headlong escape. «les choses qui s'enfuient» = 'the things that flee away' — the night and its dreams slipping off as dawn comes on.

**11** Et l'homme est las d'écrire et la femme d'aimer.  
And man is weary of writing and woman of loving.
> être las de + infinitive: «être las de» means 'to be weary / tired of'; before an infinitive the «de» elides to «d'». The second clause drops the repeated adjective: «la femme [est lasse] d'aimer» = 'woman [is weary] of loving'. Two exhaustions balanced across the line — the writer at his desk, the lover in her bed.


**12** Les maisons çà et là commençaient à fumer.  
Here and there the houses were beginning to smoke.
> çà et là (idiom): «çà et là» means 'here and there, in scattered spots'. The «çà» (grave accent) is an old adverb of place, not the «ça» that means 'that'. «Les maisons çà et là commençaient à fumer» = 'Here and there the houses were beginning to smoke' — chimneys lighting one by one as the city stirs.

**13** Les femmes de plaisir, la paupière livide,  
The women of pleasure, their eyelids livid,

**14** Bouche ouverte, dormaient de leur sommeil stupide;  
Mouths open, slept their stupefied sleep;
> Cognate-object construction: French can pair a verb with a noun built from the same idea, introduced by «de»: «dormir de son sommeil» = 'to sleep one's sleep'. «dormaient de leur sommeil stupide» = 'slept their stupefied sleep' — the adjective «stupide» (here 'numb, stupefied') doing the real work the bare verb cannot.

**15** Les pauvresses, traînant leurs seins maigres et froids,  
The poor women, dragging their thin cold breasts,
> une pauvresse (f.): «une pauvresse» is a destitute woman, a beggar-woman — the feminine of «un pauvre» pushed to its bleakest. The plural «Les pauvresses» opens Baudelaire's tally of the dawn's wretched: not the night's revellers now but the cold and the labouring poor.

**16** Soufflaient sur leurs tisons et soufflaient sur leurs doigts.  
Blew on their embers and blew on their fingers.

**17** C'était l'heure où parmi le froid et la lésine  
It was the hour when, amid the cold and the stinting want,
> la lésine (f.): «la lésine» is sordid stinginess — penny-pinching so extreme it becomes a kind of squalor. Paired with «le froid», «parmi le froid et la lésine» = 'amid the cold and the stinting want': the grinding meanness of poverty that makes the next line's labour pains worse.

**18** S'aggravent les douleurs des femmes en gésine;  
The pains of women in labour grow worse;
> en gésine (archaic): «en gésine» is an old phrase meaning 'in childbirth, in labour' (from the same root as «gésir», 'to lie'). «les douleurs des femmes en gésine» = 'the pains of women in labour'. The pronominal «s'aggraver» ('to grow worse') is set before its subject — 'grow worse, the pains...' — in a poetic inversion.

**19** Comme un sanglot coupé par un sang écumeux  
Like a sob cut short by a froth of blood

**20** Le chant du coq au loin déchirait l'air brumeux;  
The cock's crow in the distance tore the misty air;

**21** Une mer de brouillards baignait les édifices,  
A sea of fogs was bathing the buildings,

**22** Et les agonisants dans le fond des hospices  
And the dying, deep in the poorhouses,
> agonisant / un hospice: «agoniser» means to be in one's death-throes (a faux ami — not English 'agonize'), so «les agonisants» are 'the dying'. «un hospice» is a charitable refuge for the old and destitute. «dans le fond des hospices» = 'deep in the poorhouses' — the city's poor expiring out of sight.

**23** Poussaient leur dernier râle en hoquets inégaux.  
Were heaving their last death-rattle in uneven gasps.

**24** Les débauchés rentraient, brisés par leurs travaux.  
The debauchees came home, broken by their labours.
> Passive past participle + «par»: «brisés» is the past participle of «briser» ('to break, shatter'), agreeing in the plural with «les débauchés», and the agent comes in with «par»: 'broken by their labours'. Baudelaire calls a night of vice «travaux», 'works/toil' — the rakes go home wrecked as if from a day's hard labour.


**25** L'aurore grelottante en robe rose et verte  
Dawn, shivering in her gown of pink and green,
> grelotter / l'aurore personified: «grelotter» is to shiver and shake with cold. «L'aurore grelottante» = 'shivering Dawn', the daybreak personified as a cold, frail woman in «robe rose et verte» — the chilly pink-and-green light of a winter morning over Paris.

**26** S'avançait lentement sur la Seine déserte,  
Was advancing slowly over the deserted Seine,
> Pronominal «s'avancer»: «s'avancer» is the pronominal verb 'to move forward, come on', the «s'» making the advance the subject's own motion. «[L'aurore] s'avançait lentement sur la Seine déserte» = 'Dawn was advancing slowly over the deserted Seine' — the new day creeping in over an empty river.

**27** Et le sombre Paris, en se frottant les yeux  
And gloomy Paris, rubbing its eyes,
> Gerund of a pronominal verb: «en se frottant les yeux» is the gérondif of «se frotter» ('to rub oneself / one's own'), marking simultaneous action: 'while rubbing its eyes'. With body parts French uses the reflexive and the definite article «les yeux» rather than a possessive — 'rubbing its (own) eyes'. Paris wakes like a labourer at the very end.

**28** Empoignait ses outils, vieillard laborieux.  
Was grasping its tools, a toiling old man.

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