# Le Squelette laboureur · The Laboring Skeleton

Les Fleurs du mal · Charles Baudelaire · Parisian Scenes

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


## I

**1** Dans les planches d'anatomie  
Among the anatomical plates
> planche (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.

**2** Qui traînent sur ces quais poudreux  
that lie about on these dusty quays
> traîner: «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.

**3** Où maint livre cadavéreux  
where many a cadaverous book
> maint (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.

**4** Dort comme une antique momie,  
sleeps like an ancient mummy,


**5** Dessins auxquels la gravité  
Drawings to which the gravity
> Relative «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'.

**6** Et le savoir d'un vieil artiste,  
and the learning of an old artist,

**7** Bien que le sujet en soit triste,  
though the subject of them be sad,
> «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'.

**8** Ont communiqué la Beauté,  
have imparted Beauty,
> communiquer: 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.


**9** On voit, ce qui rend plus complètes  
One sees, which makes more complete
> Impersonal «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.

**10** Ces mystérieuses horreurs,  
these mysterious horrors,

**11** Bêchant comme des laboureurs,  
spading like plowmen,
> bêcher / 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.

**12** Des Ecorchés et des Squelettes.  
Flayed Men and Skeletons.
> un 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


**13** De ce terrain que vous fouillez,  
From this ground that you dig into,
> fouiller: «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.

**14** Manants résignés et funèbres  
Resigned and funereal serfs,
> le 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.

**15** De tout l'effort de vos vertèbres,  
with all the effort of your vertebrae,

**16** Ou de vos muscles dépouillés,  
or of your stripped muscles,
> dépouillé: «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.


**17** Dites, quelle moisson étrange,  
Say, what strange harvest,

**18** Forçats arrachés au charnier,  
convicts torn from the charnel-house,
> forçat / 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.

**19** Tirez-vous, et de quel fermier  
do you draw, and for what farmer
> Interrogative 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…?'

**20** Avez-vous à remplir la grange?  
must you fill the barn?
> «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.


**21** Voulez-vous (d'un destin trop dur  
Do you wish (of a fate too harsh

**22** Epouvantable et clair emblème!)  
a dreadful and clear emblem!)
> emblème (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.)

**23** Montrer que dans la fosse même  
to show that in the very grave

**24** Le sommeil promis n'est pas sûr;  
the promised sleep is not assured;
> le 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.


**25** Qu'envers nous le Néant est traître;  
that toward us the Void is treacherous;
> le 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.

**26** Que tout, même la Mort, nous ment,  
that everything, even Death, lies to us,
> mentir + 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.

**27** Et que sempiternellement  
and that everlastingly
> sempiternellement: «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.

**28** Hélas! il nous faudra peut-être  
alas! we shall perhaps have to,
> Impersonal «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.


**29** Dans quelque pays inconnu  
In some unknown country

**30** Ecorcher la terre revêche  
to flay the stubborn earth
> écorcher / 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.

**31** Et pousser une lourde bêche  
and to drive a heavy spade

**32** Sous notre pied sanglant et nu?  
beneath our bleeding and naked foot?
> sanglant 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.

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