French · Wine

Le Vin des chiffonniers

The Ragpickers' Wine

32 lines · 24 notes

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1
Often, by the red glow of a street-lamp
Souventoftensouvent · adverbhead of the phrase
àbyà · prepositionpreposition marking clarté
lathele · determiner, feminine, singulardeterminer of clarté
clartéglowclarté · noun, feminine, singularobject of preposition à
rougeredrouge · adjective, feminine, singularmodifies clarté
d'ofde · prepositionpreposition marking réverbère
unaun · determiner, masculine, singulardeterminer of réverbère
réverbèrestreet-lampréverbère · noun, masculine, singularobject of preposition d', modifies clarté
Wordréverbère (m.) A «réverbère» is a street-lamp — originally an oil lamp fitted with a reflector («réverbère» comes from «réverbérer», to throw light back). Its «clarté rouge» (red glow) and guttering flame set the smoky, working-class night of the slum.
2
Whose flame the wind beats and whose glass it torments,
GrammarRelative pronoun «dont» «dont» is a relative pronoun standing for «de» + the lamp: 'of which / whose'. Here it marks possession across two clauses — «dont le vent bat la flamme et tourmente le verre» = 'whose flame the wind beats and whose glass it torments'. The clause follows standard SVO order: «le vent» (subject) + «bat» (verb) + «la flamme» (object) — the object does not precede its verb.
3
In the heart of an old faubourg, a miry labyrinth
Wordfaubourg (m.); fangeux A «faubourg» is an outlying district just beyond a city's historic center, here a poor quarter of Paris. «fangeux» means 'muddy, miry' (from «fange», filth) — the «labyrinthe fangeux» is the tangle of foul, miry streets where the ragpicker lives.
4
Where humanity swarms in stormy ferments,
Wordgrouiller (v.) «grouiller» is to swarm, teem, or crawl with life — the verb used of insects or maggots. «l'humanité grouille en ferments orageux» pictures the crowded slum as a seething, fermenting mass, half-alive and half-rotting, ready to boil over.
5
One sees a ragpicker who comes along, nodding his head,
Wordchiffonnier (m.) A «chiffonnier» is a ragpicker — one who scavenged the streets of old Paris by night for rags, scraps, and refuse to sell. The figure fascinated Baudelaire as a poet's double: both gather what the city throws away and make something of it.
6
Lurching, and knocking into the walls like a poet,
GrammarPronominal «se cogner» «se cogner» is a pronominal verb, 'to bump / knock oneself (against)'. The present participle «se cognant aux murs» keeps the reflexive «se»: 'knocking himself into the walls'. The simile «comme un poète» openly twins the drunken ragpicker with the poet — both stumble through the night.
7
And, taking no care for the police spies, his subjects,
Wordmouchard (m.) A «mouchard» is a police informer or spy — slang of the period for the agents who watched the poor quarters. Calling them «ses sujets» (his subjects) begins the mock-royal fantasy: in his cups the ragpicker reigns over the very spies who shadow him.
8
Pours out his whole heart in glorious projects.
Wordépancher (v.) «épancher» is to pour out or unburden — most often «épancher son coeur», 'to pour out one's heart'. The verb keeps a liquid sense, fitting a poem about wine: the ragpicker's heart spills over with «glorieux projets», grand schemes, as freely as wine from a cask.
9
He swears oaths, dictates sublime laws,
Wordprêter serment «prêter serment» is the set phrase 'to swear an oath, to take a vow'; «prêter» here means 'to give' rather than 'to lend'. The drunk ragpicker plays sovereign and lawgiver — swearing oaths and dictating «lois sublimes», lofty laws — in his imagined empire.
10
Lays the wicked low, raises up the victims,
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And beneath the firmament, like a canopy hung above,
Worddais (m.) A «dais» is a canopy — the cloth of state stretched over a throne or carried above a king or the Host in procession. The sky itself becomes his royal «dais suspendu» (hanging canopy), crowning the ragpicker's drunken majesty.
12
Grows drunk on the splendors of his own virtue.
GrammarPronominal «s'enivrer de» «s'enivrer» is pronominal, 'to make oneself drunk, to get intoxicated'; it takes its cause with «de». «s'enivre des splendeurs de sa propre vertu» = 'gets drunk on the splendors of his own virtue' — the literal drunkenness slides into a moral one, as the man is intoxicated by self-righteousness.
13
Yes, these folk harried by household sorrows,
14
Ground down by labor and tormented by age,
Wordmoulu (past participle of «moudre») «moulu» is the past participle of «moudre», 'to grind / to mill'. Used of a person it means 'worn out, ground down', as if milled by the work. «Moulus par le travail» = 'ground down by labor' — the toil itself crushes them like grain.
15
Worn out and bending under a heap of refuse,
Wordéreinté (v. «éreinter») «éreinter» literally means to break someone's back («les reins», the loins); «éreinté» is 'exhausted, worn out, dead-tired'. The men are «éreintés et pliant» — broken-backed and bending — under the «tas de débris», the heap of scraps they carry on it.
16
Confused vomit of the enormous city of Paris,
Wordvomissement (m.) «vomissement» is the act of vomiting, or the vomit itself. In stark apposition, the débris on the ragpickers' backs — and the men with it — are named the «vomissement confus de l'énorme Paris»: the muddled refuse the huge city spews out. The image fuses waste and worker into one.
17
Return, perfumed with a smell of wine-casks,
Wordfutaille (f.) A «futaille» is a cask or barrel, especially for wine. «parfumés d'une odeur de futailles» = 'perfumed with a smell of wine-casks' — the ironic «parfumés» turns the reek of cheap wine into the incense of a triumph, as the verb «Reviennent» finally arrives for the subject «ces gens» one stanza back (introduced in the previous quatrain).
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Followed by companions, grown white in the battles,
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Whose mustaches droop like old battle-flags.
GrammarRelative «dont» = 'whose' «dont» again means 'whose', referring back to the «compagnons»: 'whose mustache hangs'. French keeps the singular «la moustache» where English prefers a plural. The simile «comme les vieux drapeaux» likens the drooping mustaches to faded, tattered regimental flags.
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The banners, the flowers, and the triumphal arches
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Rise up before them — solemn magic!
GrammarPronominal «se dresser» «se dresser» is pronominal, 'to rise up, to stand erect, to loom'. Its subject is the «bannières... fleurs... arcs» of the line before: «Se dressent devant eux» = 'rise up before them'. The verb is held back across the stanza break, so the pageant springs up only now, as if conjured.
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And in the dizzying and luminous orgy
Wordétourdissant (v. «étourdir») «étourdissant» is the present participle of «étourdir», 'to stun, daze, make giddy'; as an adjective it means 'dizzying, deafening, stupefying'. The «étourdissante et lumineuse orgie» is the head-spinning blaze of light and noise into which the wine lifts the marchers.
23
Of bugles, of sunlight, of shouts and of the drum,
24
They bring glory to a people drunk with love!
Wordivre de «ivre» means 'drunk, intoxicated', and «ivre de» takes the cause of the drunkenness. «le peuple ivre d'amour» = 'the people drunk with love' — the literal wine-drunkenness of the marchers turns into a figurative intoxication that they carry, like glory, to the whole people.
25
It is thus that, across frivolous Humanity,
GrammarCleft «c'est ainsi que» «c'est ainsi que» is a cleft phrase, 'it is in this way that / thus it is that', stressing the manner just described. It opens the poem's turn from scene to statement: 'It is thus that, across frivolous Humanity, the wine rolls its gold.'
26
The wine rolls gold, a dazzling Pactolus;
27
Through the throat of man it sings its exploits
Wordgosier (m.) The «gosier» is the throat or gullet, the passage by which one drinks and sings. «Par le gosier de l'homme il chante ses exploits» = 'through the throat of man it sings its exploits' — the wine, swallowed, then uses the drinker's own throat to praise itself.
28
And reigns by its gifts just as true kings do.
Grammarainsi que = 'just as, like' «ainsi que» is a literary equivalent of «comme», 'just as / like'. «règne par ses dons ainsi que les vrais rois» = 'reigns by its gifts just as true kings do' — wine rules not by force but by giving, the mark, the poem claims, of the genuine king.
29
To drown the rancor and cradle the indolence
Wordbercer (v.) «bercer» is to rock or cradle, as one rocks a child to sleep, and by extension to lull or soothe. Paired with «noyer» (to drown), it frames wine's two mercies: to drown bitterness and to «bercer l'indolence», rock the listless weariness of the poor to rest.
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Of all these old, accursed men who die in silence,
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God, touched by remorse, had made sleep;
GrammarPluperfect «avait fait» «avait fait» is the pluperfect (plus-que-parfait): «avait» + past participle, 'had made'. It sets God's act of creating sleep before the closing act of the poem: 'God... had made sleep' — and only then, in the final line's passé simple (the literary/simple past), «L'Homme ajouta le Vin», did Man add Wine.
32
Man added Wine, sacred son of the Sun!

The particulars

The text: Les Fleurs du mal, Charles Baudelaire. Wine.
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