# Le Vin des chiffonniers · The Ragpickers' Wine

Les Fleurs du mal · Charles Baudelaire · Wine

Source: https://1732studios.com/books/baudelaire/le-vin-des-chiffonniers. Data: https://1732studios.com/books/baudelaire/le-vin-des-chiffonniers.json.

**1** Souvent à la clarté rouge d'un réverbère  
Often, by the red glow of a street-lamp
> réverbère (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** Dont le vent bat la flamme et tourmente le verre,  
Whose flame the wind beats and whose glass it torments,
> Relative 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** Au coeur d'un vieux faubourg, labyrinthe fangeux  
In the heart of an old faubourg, a miry labyrinth
> faubourg (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** Où l'humanité grouille en ferments orageux,  
Where humanity swarms in stormy ferments,
> grouiller (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** On voit un chiffonnier qui vient, hochant la tête,  
One sees a ragpicker who comes along, nodding his head,
> chiffonnier (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** Butant, et se cognant aux murs comme un poète,  
Lurching, and knocking into the walls like a poet,
> Pronominal «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** Et, sans prendre souci des mouchards, ses sujets,  
And, taking no care for the police spies, his subjects,
> mouchard (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** Epanche tout son coeur en glorieux projets.  
Pours out his whole heart in glorious projects.
> épancher (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** Il prête des serments, dicte des lois sublimes,  
He swears oaths, dictates sublime laws,
> prêter 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** Terrasse les méchants, relève les victimes,  
Lays the wicked low, raises up the victims,

**11** Et sous le firmament comme un dais suspendu  
And beneath the firmament, like a canopy hung above,
> dais (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** S'enivre des splendeurs de sa propre vertu.  
Grows drunk on the splendors of his own virtue.
> Pronominal «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** Oui, ces gens harcelés de chagrins de ménage  
Yes, these folk harried by household sorrows,

**14** Moulus par le travail et tourmentés par l'âge  
Ground down by labor and tormented by age,
> moulu (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** Ereintés et pliant sous un tas de débris,  
Worn out and bending under a heap of refuse,
> éreinté (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** Vomissement confus de l'énorme Paris,  
Confused vomit of the enormous city of Paris,
> vomissement (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** Reviennent, parfumés d'une odeur de futailles,  
Return, perfumed with a smell of wine-casks,
> futaille (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).

**18** Suivis de compagnons, blanchis dans les batailles,  
Followed by companions, grown white in the battles,

**19** Dont la moustache pend comme les vieux drapeaux.  
Whose mustaches droop like old battle-flags.
> Relative «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.

**20** Les bannières, les fleurs et les arcs triomphaux  
The banners, the flowers, and the triumphal arches


**21** Se dressent devant eux, solennelle magie!  
Rise up before them — solemn magic!
> Pronominal «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.

**22** Et dans l'étourdissante et lumineuse orgie  
And in the dizzying and luminous orgy
> étourdissant (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** Des clairons, du soleil, des cris et du tambour,  
Of bugles, of sunlight, of shouts and of the drum,

**24** Ils apportent la gloire au peuple ivre d'amour!  
They bring glory to a people drunk with love!
> ivre 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** C'est ainsi qu'à travers l'Humanité frivole  
It is thus that, across frivolous Humanity,
> Cleft «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** Le vin roule de l'or, éblouissant Pactole;  
The wine rolls gold, a dazzling Pactolus;

**27** Par le gosier de l'homme il chante ses exploits  
Through the throat of man it sings its exploits
> gosier (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** Et règne par ses dons ainsi que les vrais rois.  
And reigns by its gifts just as true kings do.
> ainsi 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** Pour noyer la rancoeur et bercer l'indolence  
To drown the rancor and cradle the indolence
> bercer (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.

**30** De tous ces vieux maudits qui meurent en silence,  
Of all these old, accursed men who die in silence,

**31** Dieu, touché de remords, avait fait le sommeil;  
God, touched by remorse, had made sleep;
> Pluperfect «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** L'Homme ajouta le Vin, fils sacré du Soleil!  
Man added Wine, sacred son of the Sun!

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