# Le Vin de l'assassin · The Murderer's Wine

Les Fleurs du mal · Charles Baudelaire · Wine

Source: https://1732studios.com/books/baudelaire/le-vin-de-l-assassin. Data: https://1732studios.com/books/baudelaire/le-vin-de-l-assassin.json.

**1** Ma femme est morte, je suis libre!  
My wife is dead, I am free!

**2** Je puis donc boire tout mon soûl.  
So now I can drink my fill.
> boire son soûl: «boire (tout) son soûl» = 'to drink one's fill, to drink as much as one wants'. «soûl» as a noun means 'one's fill'; as an adjective the same word means 'drunk'. «Je puis» is a literary form of «je peux» ('I can'), from «pouvoir».

**3** Lorsque je rentrais sans un sou,  
When I would come home without a penny,

**4** Ses cris me déchiraient la fibre.  
her screaming tore me to the core.
> déchirer la fibre: «déchirer» = 'to tear, to rip'; «la fibre» is the fibre of one's being, the rawest nerve. «Ses cris me déchiraient la fibre» = literally 'her cries tore my fibre' — they cut him to the quick. «déchiraient» is the imperfect, an action repeated night after night.


**5** Autant qu'un roi je suis heureux;  
As happy as a king am I;
> «autant que» (as much as): «autant que» = 'as much as'. Fronted for emphasis, «Autant qu'un roi je suis heureux» = 'I am as happy as a king'. French freely moves such comparative phrases to the head of the line, a word order verse often exploits.

**6** L'air est pur, le ciel admirable...  
the air is pure, the sky sublime...

**7** Nous avions un été semblable  
We had a summer just like this

**8** Lorsque j'en devins amoureux!  
when I first fell in love with her!
> «devenir amoureux de» + «en»: «devenir amoureux de quelqu'un» = 'to fall in love with someone'. The pronoun «en» stands in for «d'elle» ('with her'): «j'en devins amoureux» = 'I fell in love with her'. «devins» is the passé simple of «devenir» ('to become'), the literary past used for single completed actions.


**9** L'horrible soif qui me déchire  
The horrible thirst that rends me

**10** Aurait besoin pour s'assouvir  
would need, in order to be slaked,
> Reflexive «s'assouvir»: «assouvir» = 'to satisfy, to quench (a hunger or thirst)'; the reflexive «s'assouvir» = 'to be sated, to slake itself'. «pour s'assouvir» = 'in order to be slaked'. «Aurait besoin» is the conditional of «avoir besoin de» ('to need') — the thirst would need.

**11** D'autant de vin qu'en peut tenir  
as much wine as could be held

**12** Son tombeau; — ce n'est pas peu dire:  
by her tomb; — and that is saying plenty:
> ce n'est pas peu dire: «ce n'est pas peu dire» is a set phrase = 'that's saying a lot / no small thing'. By litotes (understatement), the murderer boasts of the monstrous scale of his thirst: it would take all the wine her tomb could hold — «ce n'est pas peu dire».


**13** Je l'ai jetée au fond d'un puits,  
I threw her down to the bottom of a well,
> Past-participle agreement with «la»: With «avoir», the past participle agrees with a preceding direct object. Here the object «l'» = «la» (his wife, feminine), so «jeté» takes a feminine -e: «je l'ai jetée» = 'I threw her'. The silent agreement is visible only in writing.

**14** Et j'ai même poussé sur elle  
and I even shoved down on top of her

**15** Tous les pavés de la margelle.  
all the paving-stones of the well's rim.
> margelle (f.): «la margelle» is the stone curb or coping that rings the mouth of a well. «les pavés de la margelle» = 'the paving-stones of the well's rim' — the very stones he pries loose and heaps down onto the body to bury it under water.

**16** — Je l'oublierai si je le puis!  
— I will forget her if I can!


**17** Au nom des serments de tendresse,  
In the name of the vows of tenderness,

**18** Dont rien ne peut nous délier,  
from which nothing can release us,
> Relative «dont» (de + which): «dont» replaces «de» + a noun — here 'from which'. «délier de» = 'to release / untie from'; «Dont rien ne peut nous délier» = 'from which nothing can free us'. The vows bind the couple together even in murder.

**19** Et pour nous réconcilier  
and so as to reconcile us

**20** Comme au beau temps de notre ivresse,  
as in the fair days of our drunkenness,


**21** J'implorai d'elle un rendez-vous,  
I begged of her a rendezvous,
> Passé simple «implorai»: «implorer» = 'to beg, to implore'. «J'implorai» is the passé simple (literary narrative past) of the first-person singular, ending in -ai. From here the stanza recounts the lure of the meeting as a chain of single, completed past actions.

**22** Le soir, sur une route obscure.  
in the evening, on a darkened road.

**23** Elle y vint — folle créature!  
She came there — the mad creature!
> «y» + passé simple «vint»: «y» = 'there', standing in for «sur cette route» ('to that road'). «vint» is the passé simple of «venir» ('to come'). «Elle y vint» = 'she came there'. The curt verb lands the trap: she walked into it.

**24** Nous sommes tous plus ou moins fous!  
We are all of us more or less mad!


**25** Elle était encore jolie,  
She was still pretty,

**26** Quoique bien fatiguée! et moi,  
though very worn out! and I,
> «quoique» (although): «quoique» = 'although, even though' and properly takes the subjunctive; in speech and verse it often shortens to an elliptical phrase with the verb dropped: «quoique bien fatiguée» = 'although (she was) very tired'. «bien» here intensifies — 'quite, very'.

**27** Je l'aimais trop! voilà pourquoi  
I loved her too much! that is why

**28** Je lui dis: Sors de cette vie!  
I said to her: Get out of this life!
> Imperative «sors»: «sors» is the «tu» imperative of «sortir» ('to go out, to leave'); «sortir de» = 'to get out of'. «Sors de cette vie!» = 'Get out of this life!' — a death sentence pronounced as a command, the moment of the murder.


**29** Nul ne peut me comprendre. Un seul  
No one can understand me. Has a single one,
> «nul ne» (no one): «nul» as a subject pronoun = 'no one', a formal equivalent of «personne», paired with «ne»: «Nul ne peut me comprendre» = 'No one can understand me'. «Un seul» ('a single one') then opens the question that runs across the rest of the stanza.

**30** Parmi ces ivrognes stupides  
among these stupid drunkards,

**31** Songea-t-il dans ses nuits morbides  
ever dreamed, in his morbid nights,
> Inversion «songea-t-il»: «songer (à)» = 'to dream, to think (of)'. The question inverts verb and subject; the inserted «-t-» is a euphonic buffer between two vowels: «songea-t-il» = 'did he dream… ?'. In the passé simple, it asks whether any of these drunkards ever conceived such a thing.

**32** À faire du vin un linceul?  
of making a shroud out of wine?
> linceul (m.): «un linceul» = 'a shroud, a winding-sheet', the cloth wrapping a corpse. «faire du vin un linceul» = 'to make a shroud out of wine' — to use drink itself to bury the deed and the memory. «faire de X un Y» = 'to make a Y out of X'.


**33** Cette crapule invulnérable  
This invulnerable rabble,
> crapule (f.): «la crapule» means both 'a scoundrel' and, collectively, 'the drunken rabble, the dregs'. Here it is the herd of insensible drinkers, «invulnérable» like cold machinery — a crowd that has never known true love and so could never imagine his crime.

**34** Comme les machines de fer  
like the engines of iron,

**35** Jamais, ni l'été ni l'hiver,  
never, neither in summer nor in winter,

**36** N'a connu l'amour véritable,  
has known true love,
> «ne… jamais» + «connaître»: The negation «ne… jamais» ('never') is split across the lines: «Jamais… N'a connu» = 'has never known'. «connaître» = 'to know, to be acquainted with' (a person or feeling), as opposed to «savoir» (to know a fact). This «crapule» has never known «l'amour véritable» — true love.


**37** Avec ses noirs enchantements,  
with its black enchantments,

**38** Son cortège infernal d'alarmes,  
its infernal train of alarms,
> cortège (m.): «un cortège» = 'a procession, a retinue, a train' — the entourage that follows behind. «son cortège infernal d'alarmes» = 'its hellish train of alarms'; love drags along after it a whole procession of dread, poison-vials, tears, and rattling chains in the lines that follow.

**39** Ses fioles de poison, ses larmes,  
its vials of poison, its tears,

**40** Ses bruits de chaîne et d'ossements!  
its noise of chains and of bones!


**41** — Me voilà libre et solitaire!  
— Here I am, free and alone!
> «me voilà» (here I am): «voilà» = 'there is / behold', and «voici» 'here is'. With a pronoun, «me voilà» = 'here I am'. It presents the speaker to view as if pointing at himself: «Me voilà libre et solitaire!» — 'Here I am, free and alone!'

**42** Je serai ce soir ivre mort;  
Tonight I will be dead drunk;
> ivre mort: «ivre mort» = 'dead drunk', literally 'drunk-dead' — «ivre» ('drunk') intensified by «mort» ('dead'). The grim pun is exact: he plans to drink himself into a deathlike stupor on the very night he has dealt out a real death. «Je serai» is the future of «être».

**43** Alors, sans peur et sans remords,  
then, without fear and without remorse,

**44** Je me coucherai sur la terre,  
I will lie down upon the ground,
> Reflexive «se coucher»: «coucher» = 'to lay down (something)'; the reflexive «se coucher» = 'to lie down, to go to bed'. «Je me coucherai sur la terre» = 'I will lie down on the ground'. The reflexive «me» turns the verb back on the subject — he lays himself down in the dirt.


**45** Et je dormirai comme un chien!  
and I will sleep like a dog!

**46** Le chariot aux lourdes roues  
The cart with its heavy wheels,

**47** Chargé de pierres et de boues,  
loaded with stones and with mud,

**48** Le wagon enragé peut bien  
the raging wagon may well
> «pouvoir bien» (concessive): «pouvoir bien (faire)» = 'may well (do), can quite freely (do)' — a concessive use that grants the possibility with a shrug. «Le wagon… peut bien / Écraser ma tête» = 'the wagon may well crush my head'; the verb «peut» reaches across the stanza break to its infinitive «Écraser».


**49** Ecraser ma tête coupable  
crush my guilty head

**50** Ou me couper par le milieu,  
or cut me in two at the middle,

**51** Je m'en moque comme de Dieu,  
I care no more than I do for God,
> «se moquer de» / «en»: «se moquer de» = 'to make fun of' or, idiomatically, 'not to care about'. The reflexive «se» plus «en» (= 'of it') gives «je m'en moque» = 'I couldn't care less'. «comme de Dieu» = 'as (I do) of God' — he cares for being crushed exactly as little as he cares for God, the Devil, or the altar.

**52** Du Diable ou de la Sainte Table!  
for the Devil, or the Holy Table!
> la Sainte Table: «la Sainte Table» — 'the Holy Table' — is the altar or communion rail where the Eucharist is received. Lumping God, the Devil, and the Sainte Table together as equally worthless, the murderer ends in flat blasphemy: nothing sacred or damned holds any weight against his wine.

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