# Le Reniement de saint Pierre · The Denial of Saint Peter

Les Fleurs du mal · Charles Baudelaire · Revolt

Source: https://1732studios.com/books/baudelaire/le-reniement-de-saint-pierre. Data: https://1732studios.com/books/baudelaire/le-reniement-de-saint-pierre.json.

**1** Qu'est-ce que Dieu fait donc de ce flot d'anathèmes  
What, then, does God do with this flood of curses
> anathème (m.): «anathème» is a curse or solemn condemnation, originally an ecclesiastical excommunication. Baudelaire turns it back against heaven: the «flot d'anathèmes» is the daily tide of human blasphemy rising toward God.

**2** Qui monte tous les jours vers ses chers Séraphins?  
That rises every day toward his dear Seraphim?

**3** Comme un tyran gorgé de viande et de vins,  
Like a tyrant gorged with meat and wines,

**4** Il s'endort au doux bruit de nos affreux blasphèmes.  
He falls asleep to the sweet sound of our hideous blasphemies.
> Reflexive: s'endormir: «s'endormir» is the pronominal verb 'to fall asleep'. The reflexive «se» marks the change of state happening to the subject; «il s'endort» = 'he drifts off to sleep'.


**5** Les sanglots des martyrs et des suppliciés  
The sobs of the martyrs and of the tortured

**6** Sont une symphonie enivrante sans doute,  
Are an intoxicating symphony, no doubt,

**7** Puisque, malgré le sang que leur volupté coûte,  
Since, despite the blood their pleasure costs,

**8** Les cieux ne s'en sont point encore rassasiés!  
The heavens have not yet had their fill of it!
> Emphatic negation + the pronoun «en»: «ne ... point» is a literary negation stronger than «ne ... pas». «se rassasier de» = 'to have one's fill of'; the pronoun «en» stands in for 'of it' (the blood and sobs), so «ne s'en sont point rassasiés» = 'have not had their fill of it at all'.


**9** — Ah! Jésus, souviens-toi du Jardin des Olives!  
— Ah! Jesus, remember the Garden of Olives!
> Imperative of «se souvenir»: «se souvenir de» = 'to remember'. In the affirmative imperative the reflexive pronoun follows the verb and «te» becomes «toi»: «souviens-toi de» = 'remember'. The «de» links to «du Jardin des Olives» (de + le = du).

**10** Dans ta simplicité tu priais à genoux  
In your simplicity you prayed on your knees

**11** Celui qui dans son ciel riait au bruit des clous  
To the One who in his heaven laughed at the sound of the nails
> Celui qui = 'the one who': «celui» is the masculine demonstrative pronoun 'the one'; with «qui» it means 'the one who'. It is the object of «tu priais» in the preceding line — Jesus prayed 'to the One who ... laughed'. Capitalized in translation because it points to God the Father.

**12** Que d'ignobles bourreaux plantaient dans tes chairs vives,  
That vile executioners drove into your living flesh,


**13** Lorsque tu vis cracher sur ta divinité  
When you saw them spit upon your divinity
> Past historic of «voir»: «vis» is the «passé simple» (literary past tense) of «voir», 'to see' — here 'you saw'. The whole address to Christ is told in this narrative past, which lends it the distance of scripture rather than conversation.

**14** La crapule du corps de garde et des cuisines,  
The rabble of the guardroom and the kitchens,
> crapule (f.): «crapule» is a collective noun for a mob of low, debauched people — 'the rabble, the scum'. It is the subject of «cracher» ('to spit') in the line above: the dregs of the barracks and kitchens are who spit on him.

**15** Et lorsque tu sentis s'enfoncer les épines  
And when you felt the thorns sink in
> Perception verb + infinitive: A verb of perception like «sentir» ('to feel') takes a bare infinitive for what is perceived: «tu sentis s'enfoncer les épines» = 'you felt the thorns sink in'. «s'enfoncer» is the reflexive 'to drive itself in, to sink in'.

**16** Dans ton crâne où vivait l'immense Humanité;  
Into your skull where vast Humanity lived;


**17** Quand de ton corps brisé la pesanteur horrible  
When the horrible heaviness of your broken body
> Poetic word order: Prose order would be «la pesanteur horrible de ton corps brisé». Baudelaire fronts the complement «de ton corps brisé» ('of your broken body') before its noun «la pesanteur» ('the heaviness') for meter; read it as one noun phrase, subject of «allongeait» in the next line.

**18** Allongeait tes deux bras distendus, que ton sang  
Stretched out your two outspread arms, while your blood

**19** Et ta sueur coulaient de ton front pâlissant,  
And your sweat ran down from your paling brow,

**20** Quand tu fus devant tous posé comme une cible,  
When before everyone you were set up like a target,


**21** Rêvais-tu de ces jours si brillants et si beaux  
Were you dreaming of those days so bright and so fair
> Inversion for a question: Subject-verb inversion («Rêvais-tu» for «tu rêvais») poses the question: 'Were you dreaming...?'. This one question runs across stanzas 6–7 — the long clauses introduced by «Où» ('when, on which') all hang on it before the question mark finally lands.

**22** Où tu vins pour remplir l'éternelle promesse,  
When you came to fulfill the eternal promise,

**23** Où tu foulais, monté sur une douce ânesse,  
When you trod, mounted on a gentle she-donkey,

**24** Des chemins tout jonchés de fleurs et de rameaux,  
Roads all strewn with flowers and with boughs,


**25** Où, le coeur tout gonflé d'espoir et de vaillance,  
When, your heart all swollen with hope and valor,

**26** Tu fouettais tous ces vils marchands à tour de bras,  
You whipped all those vile merchants with all your might,
> Idiom: à tour de bras: «à tour de bras» = 'with all one's strength, with full swings of the arm'. The line recalls Christ driving the money-changers from the Temple — the one moment of action and mastery the speaker dwells on.

**27** Où tu fus maître enfin? Le remords n'a-t-il pas  
When you were master at last? Has remorse not
> Negative question with inversion: «n'a-t-il pas ... ?» = 'has it not ... ?'. The «-t-» is a euphonic insert between two vowels in inversion. A negative question like this expects the answer 'yes' — it presses the claim that remorse has indeed pierced him.

**28** Pénétré dans ton flanc plus avant que la lance?  
Pierced into your side deeper than the lance?


**29** — Certes, je sortirai, quant à moi, satisfait  
— Certainly, for my part, I shall depart satisfied
> quant à: «quant à» = 'as for, as regards'; «quant à moi» = 'as for me, for my part'. The second em-dash hands the poem to the speaker's own voice for the closing verdict.

**30** D'un monde où l'action n'est pas la soeur du rêve;  
From a world where action is not the sister of the dream;

**31** Puissé-je user du glaive et périr par le glaive!  
Would that I might wield the sword and perish by the sword!
> Subjunctive of wish: «Puissé-je»: «Puissé-je» is an inverted present subjunctive of «pouvoir», a fixed literary formula for a wish: 'may I be able to, would that I might'. «user de» = 'to make use of, to wield'; the line echoes the Gospel's 'all who take the sword shall perish by the sword'.

**32** Saint Pierre a renié Jésus... il a bien fait!  
Saint Peter denied Jesus... he did well!
> renier: «renier» = 'to disown, to deny, to repudiate' — used of denying one's faith or one's master. The title and final line both turn on it: Peter's three-fold denial of Christ, which the blasphemous speaker chooses to applaud.

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