French · Parisian Scenes

Le Squelette laboureur

The Laboring Skeleton

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I
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Among the anatomical plates
Dansamongdans · prepositionpreposition marking planches
lesthele · determiner, pluraldeterminer of planches
planchesplatesplanche · noun, feminine, pluralhead of the phrase
d'ofde · prepositionpreposition marking anatomie
anatomieanatomyanatomie · noun, feminine, singularmodifies planches
Wordplanche (f.) A «planche» here is an engraved plate or illustration, not a board: «les planches d'anatomie» are the anatomy plates of old medical books, the kind sold on the «quais» (riverside quays) of Paris. The whole first part is set among these used books laid out for sale.
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that lie about on these dusty quays
Wordtraîner «traîner» literally means 'to drag', but used of objects it means 'to lie around, to be left lying about'. «Qui traînent sur ces quais poudreux» = 'that lie about on these dusty quays' — the neglected old books strewn along the Seine's bookstalls.
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where many a cadaverous book
Grammarmaint (literary determiner) «maint» is a literary, slightly archaic word for 'many a': «maint livre» = 'many a book'. It takes a singular noun, like its English equivalent, and lends the line an old-fashioned, bookish tone fitting the dusty volumes it describes.
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sleeps like an ancient mummy,
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Drawings to which the gravity
GrammarRelative «auquel» (pl. «auxquels») «auxquels» contracts «à» + «lesquels» — 'to which' — agreeing in the masculine plural with «Dessins». It sets up the long sentence whose verb arrives two lines later: «Dessins auxquels… ont communiqué la Beauté» = 'Drawings to which… have imparted Beauty'.
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and the learning of an old artist,
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though the subject of them be sad,
Grammar«bien que» + subjunctive «bien que» ('although') always governs the subjunctive: «soit» is the present subjunctive of «être». The pronoun «en» means 'of them / of it', pointing back to the «Dessins». «Bien que le sujet en soit triste» = 'although their subject be sad'.
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have imparted Beauty,
Wordcommuniquer Here «communiquer» means not 'to communicate (a message)' but 'to impart, to transmit (a quality)' to something: «ont communiqué la Beauté» = 'have imparted Beauty'. The capitalized «Beauté» is one of Baudelaire's abstractions — the art that redeems even a grim anatomical subject.
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One sees, which makes more complete
GrammarImpersonal «on» «on» is the indefinite subject 'one / people / we', far commoner in French than impersonal 'one' in English. «On voit» = 'one sees, you can see'. Its object — «Des Ecorchés et des Squelettes» — is held back to the end of the stanza for the grim reveal.
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these mysterious horrors,
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spading like plowmen,
Wordbêcher / laboureur «bêcher» is to dig or turn earth with a «bêche» (a spade); a «laboureur» is one who works the soil, a plowman or peasant farmer. The present participle «Bêchant» modifies the skeletons below: they are shown digging «comme des laboureurs», like farmhands — the image that gives the poem its title.
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Flayed Men and Skeletons.
Wordun écorché An «écorché» is a 'flayed figure' — an anatomical drawing or model of a body with the skin removed to show the muscles, a staple of art and medical study. Baudelaire capitalizes «Ecorchés» and «Squelettes», personifying the plates' figures into the laborers of the second part. (Note the older spelling «Ecorchés», without the accent on the capital.)
II
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From this ground that you dig into,
Wordfouiller «fouiller» means 'to dig into, to search, to excavate'. The poet now turns to address the skeletons directly with the formal «vous». «De ce terrain que vous fouillez» = 'from this ground that you dig into' — opening the long question that runs through the rest of the poem.
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Resigned and funereal serfs,
Wordle manant A «manant» is a medieval villein or peasant bound to the land; by extension, a lowly boor. Addressed to the skeletons, «Manants résignés et funèbres» = 'resigned and funereal serfs' casts them as toilers conscripted to labor even in death.
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with all the effort of your vertebrae,
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or of your stripped muscles,
Worddépouillé «dépouillé» is the past participle of «dépouiller», 'to strip, to lay bare'. «vos muscles dépouillés» = 'your stripped muscles' — muscles laid bare of skin, the very thing an «écorché» plate displays.
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Say, what strange harvest,
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convicts torn from the charnel-house,
Wordforçat / charnier A «forçat» is a convict sentenced to hard labor; a «charnier» is a charnel-house or mass grave where bones are heaped. «Forçats arrachés au charnier» = 'convicts torn from the charnel-house' — the dead conscripted as a chain gang of the grave.
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do you draw, and for what farmer
GrammarInterrogative inversion A question by inversion: the subject «vous» flips behind the verb, «Tirez-vous?» = 'do you draw / pull?'. Its object is «quelle moisson étrange» two lines above — French freely strings the question across the verse. Read it: 'what strange harvest do you draw…?'
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must you fill the barn?
Grammar«avoir à» + infinitive «avoir à» + an infinitive expresses obligation — 'to have to, to be obliged to': «Avez-vous à remplir la grange?» = 'must you fill the barn?'. The inversion «Avez-vous» again marks the question; the «grange» (barn) is the harvest's grim destination.
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Do you wish (of a fate too harsh
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a dreadful and clear emblem!)
Wordemblème (m.) An «emblème» is a symbol or allegorical figure that stands for an idea. The parenthesis names the skeletons themselves as «un emblème» of a fate too harsh — 'a dreadful and clear emblem'. (Note the older capital spelling «Epouvantable», without the accent.)
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to show that in the very grave
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the promised sleep is not assured;
Wordle sommeil promis «le sommeil» is sleep, here the eternal rest «promis» (promised) by death. «Le sommeil promis n'est pas sûr» = 'the promised sleep is not assured' — the poem's central dread, that the grave offers no real repose.
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that toward us the Void is treacherous;
Wordle Néant «le Néant» is nothingness, the Void — capitalized by Baudelaire as a personified power. «envers nous» = 'toward us'. «le Néant est traître» = 'the Void is treacherous': even oblivion breaks its promise of rest.
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that everything, even Death, lies to us,
Grammarmentir + indirect object «nous» «mentir» ('to lie') takes an indirect object with «à»: 'to lie to someone'. The pronoun «nous» is that object — «nous ment» = 'lies to us'. «Que tout, même la Mort, nous ment» = 'that everything, even Death, lies to us' — the bleak heart of the poem's revelation.
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and that everlastingly
Wordsempiternellement «sempiternellement» = 'everlastingly, for ever and ever' — from the Latin «sempiternus». Heavier and more wearied than «éternellement», it stresses dreary, unending repetition: the toil that, the poem fears, never stops even in death.
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alas! we shall perhaps have to,
GrammarImpersonal «falloir» (future) «falloir» is impersonal — only ever 'il faut' — meaning 'it is necessary'. «faudra» is its future; the pronoun «nous» marks who is obliged. «il nous faudra peut-être… écorcher la terre» = 'we shall perhaps have to… flay the earth', the infinitive arriving in the final stanza.
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In some unknown country
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to flay the stubborn earth
Wordécorcher / revêche «écorcher» means 'to flay, to skin' — the same verb behind «Ecorchés» above; applied to the soil it means to break and strip the earth's surface. «revêche» = 'harsh, surly, intractable'. «Ecorcher la terre revêche» = 'to flay the stubborn earth', binding the skeletons' digging to their own flayed bodies.
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and to drive a heavy spade
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beneath our bleeding and naked foot?
Wordsanglant et nu «sanglant» = 'bloody, bleeding'; «nu» = 'bare, naked'. The shift from the skeletons' «vous» to «notre pied» ('our foot') folds the living reader into the toil: the poem ends on the question mark of an eternal, barefoot, bleeding labor.

The particulars

The text: Les Fleurs du mal, Charles Baudelaire. Parisian Scenes.
Words: Every word of the text, by letter.
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