# Le Flacon · The Flask

Les Fleurs du mal · Charles Baudelaire · Spleen and Ideal

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

**1** Il est de forts parfums pour qui toute matière  
There are strong scents for which all matter
> «il est» = il y a (literary): «il est de forts parfums» is the elevated, literary form of «il y a de forts parfums» — 'there are strong scents'. The partitive «de» before a plural noun preceded by an adjective («forts parfums») replaces «des». The whole poem opens on this existential register, presenting the perfumes as a class of thing.

**2** Est poreuse. On dirait qu'ils pénètrent le verre.  
is porous. One would say they pass through glass.
> «on dirait que» (conditional): «on dirait» is the conditional of «dire» used idiomatically: 'one would say / it seems / you'd think'. It softens an assertion into an impression — the scents only seem to penetrate the glass. The relative «pour qui» in line 1 («for which / for whom») finds its verb here in «Est poreuse».

**3** En ouvrant un coffret venu de l'Orient  
On opening a casket come from the East

**4** Dont la serrure grince et rechigne en criant,  
whose lock grates and balks with a cry,
> rechigner: «rechigner» = 'to balk, to grumble, to do reluctantly'. Paired with «grince» ('grates, creaks'), it half-personifies the lock, as if the casket resists being opened. «en criant» = 'while crying out' — the gerund «en + present participle» marks simultaneous action.


**5** Ou dans une maison déserte quelque armoire  
or in a deserted house, some wardrobe

**6** Pleine de l'âcre odeur des temps, poudreuse et noire,  
full of the acrid smell of past time, dusty and black,

**7** Parfois on trouve un vieux flacon qui se souvient,  
sometimes one finds an old flask that remembers,
> se souvenir (pronominal): «se souvenir» = 'to remember' — a pronominal verb that always carries the reflexive pronoun, and takes «de» before its object («se souvenir de qqch»). Here it stands alone and absolute — the flask simply «se souvient», 'remembers' — which is what lets a mere bottle become the carrier of an entire returning soul.

**8** D'où jaillit toute vive une âme qui revient.  
from which leaps, fully alive, a soul that returns.
> Verb–subject inversion: After the locative «d'où» ('from which'), French inverts verb and subject: «jaillit … une âme» = 'a soul leaps forth'. «jaillir» = 'to spurt, gush, spring out'. «toute vive» ('quite alive', feminine of «vif») agrees with «âme» — the soul bursts out wholly living.


**9** Mille pensers dormaient, chrysalides funèbres,  
A thousand thoughts lay sleeping, funereal chrysalises,
> penser (archaic noun): «pensers» is an archaic, poetic noun meaning 'thoughts' (the modern word is «pensées»). Using the verb «penser» as a masculine noun lends an old, elevated tone. The thoughts are likened to «chrysalides funèbres» — chrysalises waiting in mournful dormancy to hatch.

**10** Frémissant doucement dans les lourdes ténèbres,  
quivering softly in the heavy darkness,

**11** Qui dégagent leur aile et prennent leur essor,  
that free their wings and take their flight,

**12** Teintés d'azur, glacés de rose, lamés d'or.  
tinted with azure, glazed with rose, spangled with gold.
> lamé / glacé (metallurgy of color): «lamé» means 'spangled, threaded with metal' (the fabric «lamé» is woven with gold or silver). «glacé» = 'glazed, iced, frosted'. The three past participles — «teintés», «glacés», «lamés» — turn the freed thoughts into shimmering, jewel-like wings, color rendered as precious metalwork.


**13** Voilà le souvenir enivrant qui voltige  
There is the intoxicating memory that flutters

**14** Dans l'air troublé; les yeux se ferment; le Vertige  
in the troubled air; the eyes close; Vertigo
> Reflexive for the passive/middle: «se fermer» = 'to close (by itself)'. French uses the pronominal «se» where English would say the eyes close or are closed — there is no separate agent. It gives the surrender a passive, involuntary feel, just before «le Vertige» seizes the soul in the next line.

**15** Saisit l'âme vaincue et la pousse à deux mains  
seizes the vanquished soul and shoves it with both hands

**16** Vers un gouffre obscurci de miasmes humains;  
toward an abyss darkened with human miasmas;


**17** Il la terrasse au bord d'un gouffre séculaire,  
It fells it at the edge of a centuries-old abyss,

**18** Où, Lazare odorant déchirant son suaire,  
where, a fragrant Lazarus tearing his shroud,

**19** Se meut dans son réveil le cadavre spectral  
the spectral corpse stirs in its waking,
> se mouvoir + inversion: «se mouvoir» = 'to move, to stir' (pronominal; «se meut» is its irregular present). The subject «le cadavre spectral» is held back to the end of the line, the inverted word order making the corpse seem to rise into motion only as the sentence completes.

**20** D'un vieil amour ranci, charmant et sépulcral.  
of an old rancid love, charming and sepulchral.


**21** Ainsi, quand je serai perdu dans la mémoire  
So, when I shall be lost in the memory
> quand + future tense: After «quand» ('when') for a future event, French requires the future tense — «je serai» ('I shall be') — where English uses the present ('when I am lost'). This stanza is the volta: the poet turns from describing flasks to imagining himself as one, the old bottle of a love discarded and forgotten.

**22** Des hommes, dans le coin d'une sinistre armoire  
of men, in the corner of a sinister wardrobe

**23** Quand on m'aura jeté, vieux flacon désolé,  
when I have been thrown away, an old desolate flask,
> Future perfect after «quand»: «on m'aura jeté» is the future perfect ('one will have thrown me away'), the impersonal «on» standing for 'people / someone'. After «quand», the future perfect marks an action completed before another future moment — once I have been cast off, then I will be that flask.

**24** Décrépit, poudreux, sale, abject, visqueux, fêlé,  
decrepit, dusty, dirty, abject, slimy, cracked,


**25** Je serai ton cercueil, aimable pestilence!  
I shall be your coffin, lovable pestilence!
> Oxymoron in the vocative: «aimable» = 'kind, lovable, amiable'; «pestilence» = 'plague, contagion, stench'. The exclamatory address yokes them into an oxymoron — the beloved is a sweet infection. This sets up the closing apostrophes: «Cher poison», «liqueur / Qui me ronge», love named as the dear poison that eats the heart.

**26** Le témoin de ta force et de ta virulence,  
the witness of your strength and your virulence,

**27** Cher poison préparé par les anges! liqueur  
dear poison brewed by the angels! a liquor

**28** Qui me ronge, ô la vie et la mort de mon coeur!  
that gnaws at me, O the life and the death of my heart!
> ronger: «ronger» = 'to gnaw, eat away, corrode' (literally, what a rodent or rust does). The relative «qui» refers to «liqueur» — the angelic poison that gnaws at the speaker. The final apposition «ô la vie et la mort de mon coeur» fuses the contraries one last time: this love is at once the life and the death of his heart.

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