French · Spleen and Ideal

Le Guignon

Ill Luck

14 lines · 7 notes

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1
To lift a weight so heavy,
Pourtopour · prepositionintroduces the infinitive clause of soulever
souleverliftsoulever · verb, infinitivemain verb of the sentence
unaun · determiner, masculine, singulardeterminer of poids
poidsweightpoids · noun, masculine, singulardirect object of soulever
sisosi · adverbmodifies lourd
lourdheavylourd · adjective, masculine, singularmodifies poids
2
Sisyphus, your courage would be needed!
GrammarConditional of impersonal «falloir» «il faudrait» is the conditional of the impersonal verb «falloir» ('to be necessary'), which exists only in the third-person «il» — 'it would take, one would need'. With a noun it means 'X would be needed': «il faudrait ton courage» = 'your courage would be needed'. The conditional softens the bald «il faut» ('it takes') into a wish set against the impossible, fitting a labour as endless as Sisyphus's.
3
Though one has heart for the work,
Grammar«bien que» + subjunctive «bien que» ('although, even though') always triggers the subjunctive: «ait» is the present subjunctive of «avoir», not the indicative «a». «avoir du coeur à l'ouvrage» is an idiom — 'to put one's heart into the work, to set to it willingly'. The concession sets up the defeat of line 4: willingness is not enough against time.
4
Art is long and Time is short.
5
Far from the famous sepulchres,
6
Toward a lonely graveyard,
7
My heart, like a muffled drum,
Word«un tambour voilé» — a muffled drum «voilé» is the past participle of «voiler» (to veil) used as an adjective: a drum 'veiled', i.e. draped in cloth to deaden its sound — the muffled drum of a funeral march. The simile prepares «marches funèbres» in the next line; the heart beats its own dead-march toward an unvisited grave.
8
Goes beating funeral marches.
Grammar«aller» + present participle «va battant» combines «aller» (to go) with the present participle «battant» (beating, from «battre»). This literary construction stresses a continuous, ongoing action — 'goes on beating, keeps beating' — much like the English 'goes beating'. It paints the heart's drumbeat as a steady, unstoppable procession toward the grave.
9
— Many a jewel sleeps buried
Word«maint» — many a «maint» is a literary, slightly archaic determiner meaning 'many a, more than one'. It takes the singular noun it qualifies — «maint joyau» = 'many a jewel' — and recurs as the feminine «mainte fleur» opening the final tercet, binding the two images of buried worth. «enseveli» (from «ensevelir», to bury, to shroud) makes the jewel sleep as in a grave.
10
In the darkness and oblivion,
11
Far away from the picks and the probes;
Word«la pioche» and «la sonde» «une pioche» is a pickaxe and «une sonde» a sounding-probe or drill — the tools that dig and prospect. The buried jewel lies «bien loin» ('far, far off') from any tool that might unearth it: genius without a discoverer. The mining image makes neglect physical, as if recognition were a seam no one will ever sink a shaft to find.
12
Many a flower pours out, reluctantly,
Word«à regret» — reluctantly «à regret» is a fixed adverbial phrase meaning 'reluctantly, with regret, against one's will'. The flower releases its scent «à regret» because it spends its sweetness on no one — wasted in the wilderness. «épancher» (to pour out, to give vent to) is usually reflexive («s'épancher», to open one's heart); used transitively here it means the flower 'sheds, pours forth' its perfume.
13
Its perfume sweet as a secret
14
In the deep solitudes.

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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