# Le Soleil · The Sun

Les Fleurs du mal · Charles Baudelaire · Parisian Scenes

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

**1** Le long du vieux faubourg, où pendent aux masures  
Along the old faubourg, where on the hovels hang
> faubourg (m.): A «faubourg» is an outlying district of a city, an old suburb just beyond the historic center. «le vieux faubourg» sets the poem in the shabby outskirts of Paris, among the «masures» (hovels) named in the same line.

**2** Les persiennes, abri des secrètes luxures,  
The slatted shutters, shelter of secret lusts,
> persienne (f.): «persiennes» are louvered or slatted shutters that let air through while blocking sight — hence «abri des secrètes luxures», 'shelter of secret lusts': they hide what goes on behind the windows of the slum.

**3** Quand le soleil cruel frappe à traits redoublés  
When the cruel sun strikes with redoubled darts
> trait (m.); redoublé: A «trait» here is a shaft or dart (as of an arrow or a ray); «redoublé» means 'redoubled, repeated'. «frappe à traits redoublés» pictures the sun striking blow on blow, like arrows — the cruelty Baudelaire gives it before turning it kind.

**4** Sur la ville et les champs, sur les toits et les blés,  
On the town and the fields, on the rooftops and the wheat,

**5** Je vais m'exercer seul à ma fantasque escrime,  
I go to drill alone at my fanciful fencing,
> Pronominal verb «s'exercer»: «s'exercer» is a pronominal (reflexive) verb meaning 'to practice, to train oneself'. The «m'» is the reflexive pronoun agreeing with «je»: «je vais m'exercer» = 'I am going to practice'. «escrime» is fencing — the poet trains at his solitary swordplay with words.

**6** Flairant dans tous les coins les hasards de la rime,  
Scenting in every corner the chance-finds of rhyme,
> Present participle «flairant»: «flairant» is the present participle of «flairer», 'to sniff out, to scent' (as a hound does). Used here without «en», it describes the poet as he goes: 'sniffing out the chance happenings of rhyme in every corner' — the hunt for a lucky word.

**7** Trébuchant sur les mots comme sur les pavés  
Stumbling over words as over the paving-stones,

**8** Heurtant parfois des vers depuis longtemps rêvés.  
Sometimes knocking against lines long since dreamed of.
> heurter (v.); vers (m.): «heurter» is to knock or collide against; «vers» means a line of verse. «Heurtant parfois des vers depuis longtemps rêvés» = 'sometimes bumping into lines long dreamed of' — the poet stumbles, as on cobblestones, into verses he had wanted for years.


**9** Ce père nourricier, ennemi des chloroses,  
This foster-father, enemy of the green sicknesses,
> chlorose (f.): «chlorose» was an old name for an anemia that left the skin pale-greenish, the 'green sickness'. The sun, «ennemi des chloroses», is the foster-father that drives out pallor and feeds growth — set against the morbidity elsewhere in «Les Fleurs du mal».

**10** Eveille dans les champs les vers comme les roses;  
Wakes in the fields the worms as well as the roses;
> vers (m.): worms vs. verse: Here «les vers» means worms, not lines of verse — a deliberate echo of «des vers» (verses) two lines above. The sun «éveille... les vers comme les roses», waking worm and rose alike, low life with high, all in its impartial gift of growth.

**11** Il fait s'évaporer les soucis vers le ciel,  
It makes our cares evaporate toward the sky,
> Causative «faire» + pronominal infinitive: «faire» plus an infinitive forms the causative ('to make something happen'); the infinitive «s'évaporer» is itself pronominal, 'to evaporate'. «Il fait s'évaporer les soucis» = 'It makes the cares evaporate' — the sun lifts worry skyward like mist.

**12** Et remplit les cerveaux et les ruches de miel.  
And fills the brains and the beehives with honey.

**13** C'est lui qui rajeunit les porteurs de béquilles  
It is he who makes young again the bearers of crutches
> Cleft sentence «c'est ... qui»: «C'est lui qui rajeunit...» is a cleft construction that singles out and stresses the subject: 'It is he who makes young again...'. French uses «c'est ... qui» where English raises the voice — here it puts all the power of renewal on the sun.

**14** Et les rend gais et doux comme des jeunes filles,  
And makes them gay and gentle as young girls,
> «rendre» + adjective: «rendre» plus an adjective means 'to make (something) become' that quality: «les rend gais et doux» = 'makes them cheerful and gentle'. Distinct from «faire» + infinitive above; «rendre» takes an adjective as its result.

**15** Et commande aux moissons de croître et de mûrir  
And bids the harvests to grow and to ripen
> «commander à qqn de faire»: «commander» takes its object with «à» (the one commanded) and «de» before the infinitive (what is ordered): «commande aux moissons de croître et de mûrir» = 'commands the harvests to grow and to ripen'. The sun rules the fields like a sovereign.

**16** Dans le coeur immortel qui toujours veut fleurir!  
In the immortal heart that always longs to flower!


**17** Quand, ainsi qu'un poète, il descend dans les villes,  
When, just like a poet, it comes down into the towns,
> ainsi que = 'just as, like': «ainsi que» is a literary equivalent of «comme», 'just as / like'. «ainsi qu'un poète» = 'like a poet': the sun descending into the city to ennoble lowly things is openly compared to the poet of the first stanza, making the two one.

**18** Il ennoblit le sort des choses les plus viles,  
It ennobles the lot of the vilest things,

**19** Et s'introduit en roi, sans bruit et sans valets,  
And enters as a king, without noise and without servants,
> Pronominal «s'introduire»; «en roi»: «s'introduire» is pronominal, 'to make one's way in, to enter'. «en roi» uses «en» + a noun to mean 'as a king, in the manner of a king' (compare «en maître»). The sun lets itself in everywhere like a king who needs no escort.

**20** Dans tous les hôpitaux et dans tous les palais.  
Into all the hospitals and into all the palaces.

---

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