# Le Voyage · The Voyage

Les Fleurs du mal · Charles Baudelaire · Death

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

**1** À Maxime du Camp  
To Maxime du Camp


**2** I  
I


**3** Pour l'enfant, amoureux de cartes et d'estampes,  
For the child, in love with maps and prints,
> amoureux de: «amoureux de» = 'in love with, enamored of'. Here it modifies «l'enfant» and takes its object with «de»: the child enamored «de cartes et d'estampes» — of maps and engravings. The whole poem grows from this single appetite, the child's globe shrinking as the eye of memory replaces it.

**4** L'univers est égal à son vaste appétit.  
the universe is equal to his vast appetite.

**5** Ah! que le monde est grand à la clarté des lampes!  
Ah! how great the world is by lamplight!
> Exclamatory «que»: «que» before an adjective makes an exclamation of degree — 'how...!'. «que le monde est grand» = 'how great the world is', answered next line by «que le monde est petit» ('how small the world is'). The mirrored exclamations frame the poem's whole arc: vast by lamplight, tiny once seen.

**6** Aux yeux du souvenir que le monde est petit!  
to the eyes of memory how small the world is!


**7** Un matin nous partons, le cerveau plein de flamme,  
One morning we set out, the brain full of flame,

**8** Le coeur gros de rancune et de désirs amers,  
the heart swollen with rancor and bitter desires,
> gros de: «gros de» = 'swollen with, heavy with, big with' — the same idiom as «gros de» a coming storm or «grosse» with child. The heart is not merely full but distended with «rancune» (rancor) and «désirs amers» (bitter desires): the departure is driven by grievance, not joy.

**9** Et nous allons, suivant le rythme de la lame,  
and on we go, following the rhythm of the wave,

**10** Berçant notre infini sur le fini des mers:  
cradling our infinite upon the finite of the seas:
> Present participle «berçant»: «bercer» = 'to rock, to cradle, to lull'; «berçant» is its present participle, here describing «nous» as we go. Baudelaire then plays adjectives as nouns — «notre infini» ('our infinite') rocked «sur le fini des mers» ('upon the finite of the seas') — setting the infinite longing against the measurable sea that carries it.


**11** Les uns, joyeux de fuir une patrie infâme;  
Some, glad to flee a vile homeland;

**12** D'autres, l'horreur de leurs berceaux, et quelques-uns,  
others, the horror of their cradles, and a few,
> «les uns ... d'autres»: «les uns ... les autres / d'autres» is the standard French pairing for 'some ... others'. Here it sorts the travelers into three kinds across the stanza — «Les uns» fleeing a homeland, «D'autres» fleeing their cradles, «quelques-uns» ('a few') drowned in a woman's eyes — before the next stanza explains how they keep from turning to beasts.

**13** Astrologues noyés dans les yeux d'une femme,  
astrologers drowned in the eyes of a woman,

**14** La Circé tyrannique aux dangereux parfums.  
the tyrannical Circe of dangerous perfumes.


**15** Pour n'être pas changés en bêtes, ils s'enivrent  
So as not to be changed into beasts, they get drunk
> Reflexive «s'enivrer»: «s'enivrer» is the pronominal verb 'to get drunk, to intoxicate oneself' (from «ivre», 'drunk'); the reflexive «s'» turns active «enivrer» ('to make drunk') back on the subject. They intoxicate themselves «de» — on space, light, and burning skies — the «de» marking what they drink in.

**16** D'espace et de lumière et de cieux embrasés;  
on space and light and skies set ablaze;

**17** La glace qui les mord, les soleils qui les cuivrent,  
the ice that bites them, the suns that bronze them,

**18** Effacent lentement la marque des baisers.  
slowly efface the mark of kisses.


**19** Mais les vrais voyageurs sont ceux-là seuls qui partent  
But the true travelers are those alone who leave

**20** Pour partir; coeurs légers, semblables aux ballons,  
to leave; light hearts, like balloons,

**21** De leur fatalité jamais ils ne s'écartent,  
from their fate they never swerve aside,
> Reflexive «s'écarter de» + inversion: «s'écarter de» = 'to move away from, to deviate from'. The object is fronted for emphasis — «De leur fatalité ... ils ne s'écartent» ('from their fate ... they never swerve') — so the prepositional phrase leads and the verb follows: the true travelers never stray from the doom that drives them.

**22** Et, sans savoir pourquoi, disent toujours: Allons!  
and, without knowing why, always say: Let's go!


**23** Ceux-là dont les désirs ont la forme des nues,  
Those whose desires have the shape of clouds,
> Relative «dont»: «dont» is the relative pronoun standing for «de qui / de quoi» — 'whose, of whom, of which'. «Ceux-là dont les désirs...» = 'those whose desires...'; it returns in line 4 as «dont l'esprit humain n'a jamais su le nom» ('whose name the human mind has never known'), binding the cloud-shaped longings to their namelessness.

**24** Et qui rêvent, ainsi qu'un conscrit le canon,  
and who dream, as a conscript dreams the cannon,

**25** De vastes voluptés, changeantes, inconnues,  
of vast delights, shifting, unknown,

**26** Et dont l'esprit humain n'a jamais su le nom!  
and whose name the human mind has never known!


**27** II  
II


**28** Nous imitons, horreur! la toupie et la boule  
We imitate, what horror! the top and the ball

**29** Dans leur valse et leurs bonds; même dans nos sommeils  
in their waltz and their bounds; even in our slumbers

**30** La Curiosité nous tourmente et nous roule  
Curiosity torments us and rolls us along

**31** Comme un Ange cruel qui fouette des soleils.  
like a cruel Angel whipping suns onward.


**32** Singulière fortune où le but se déplace,  
Strange fortune, where the goal keeps shifting,
> Reflexive «se déplacer»: «se déplacer» = 'to move (itself), to shift'; the pronominal «se» makes the goal move of its own accord rather than being moved. Being «nulle part» ('nowhere'), it «peut être n'importe où» — 'may be anywhere' — the pun on «peut-être» ('perhaps') and «peut être» ('may be') leaves the destination forever just ahead.

**33** Et, n'étant nulle part, peut être n'importe où!  
and, being nowhere, may be anywhere at all!

**34** Où l'Homme, dont jamais l'espérance n'est lasse,  
where Man, whose hope is never weary,

**35** Pour trouver le repos court toujours comme un fou!  
to find rest forever runs like a madman!


**36** Notre âme est un trois-mâts cherchant son Icarie;  
Our soul is a three-master seeking its Icaria;

**37** Une voix retentit sur le pont: «Ouvre l'oeil!»  
a voice rings out on the deck: "Keep watch!"

**38** Une voix de la hune, ardente et folle, crie:  
a voice from the masthead, ardent and wild, cries:

**39** «Amour... gloire... bonheur!» Enfer! c'est un écueil!  
"Love... glory... happiness!" Hell! it is a reef!


**40** Chaque îlot signalé par l'homme de vigie  
Each islet signaled by the lookout man

**41** Est un Eldorado promis par le Destin;  
is an Eldorado promised by Destiny;

**42** L'Imagination qui dresse son orgie  
Imagination, setting up its orgy,

**43** Ne trouve qu'un récif aux clartés du matin.  
finds only a reef in the light of morning.
> Restrictive «ne ... que»: «ne ... que» is not a negation but a restriction — 'only, nothing but'. «Ne trouve qu'un récif» = 'finds only a reef'. The promised «Eldorado» of the night before dwindles, by the «clartés du matin» (morning light), to a bare «récif» (reef): the voyage's deflation in one construction.


**44** Ô le pauvre amoureux des pays chimériques!  
O the poor lover of chimerical lands!

**45** Faut-il le mettre aux fers, le jeter à la mer,  
Must he be clapped in irons, thrown into the sea,
> Impersonal «falloir» + inversion: «il faut» (from «falloir», 'to be necessary') is impersonal — 'one must, it is necessary'. Inverted to «Faut-il...?» it asks 'must one...?'. With infinitives «le mettre aux fers» / «le jeter à la mer» ('put him in irons' / 'throw him into the sea'), it weighs whether to punish the deluded sailor whose mirage makes the gulf more bitter.

**46** Ce matelot ivrogne, inventeur d'Amériques  
this drunkard sailor, inventor of Americas

**47** Dont le mirage rend le gouffre plus amer?  
whose mirage makes the gulf more bitter?


**48** Tel le vieux vagabond, piétinant dans la boue,  
Like the old vagabond, tramping in the mud,

**49** Rêve, le nez en l'air, de brillants paradis;  
dreams, nose in the air, of brilliant paradises;

**50** Son oeil ensorcelé découvre une Capoue  
his bewitched eye discovers a Capua

**51** Partout où la chandelle illumine un taudis.  
everywhere a candle lights up a hovel.


**52** III  
III


**53** Etonnants voyageurs! quelles nobles histoires  
Astonishing travelers! what noble histories

**54** Nous lisons dans vos yeux profonds comme les mers!  
we read in your eyes deep as the seas!

**55** Montrez-nous les écrins de vos riches mémoires,  
Show us the caskets of your rich memories,
> Imperative with attached pronoun: In a positive command the object pronoun follows the verb, joined by a hyphen: «Montrez-nous» = 'show us'. The stay-at-homes address the returned voyagers directly here («Montrez-nous», then «Faites... passer»), begging them to display their «écrins» (jewel-caskets) of memory — the demand that the whole section is built on.

**56** Ces bijoux merveilleux, faits d'astres et d'éthers.  
those marvelous jewels, made of stars and ethers.


**57** Nous voulons voyager sans vapeur et sans voile!  
We wish to travel without steam and without sail!

**58** Faites, pour égayer l'ennui de nos prisons,  
Make, to brighten the tedium of our prisons,

**59** Passer sur nos esprits, tendus comme une toile,  
pass over our minds, stretched like a canvas,

**60** Vos souvenirs avec leurs cadres d'horizons.  
your memories with their frames of horizons.


**61** Dites, qu'avez-vous vu?  
Tell us, what have you seen?


**62** IV  
IV


**63** «Nous avons vu des astres  
"We have seen stars

**64** Et des flots, nous avons vu des sables aussi;  
and waves, we have seen sands as well;

**65** Et, malgré bien des chocs et d'imprévus désastres,  
and, despite many shocks and unforeseen disasters,

**66** Nous nous sommes souvent ennuyés, comme ici.  
we have often been bored, just as here.
> Reflexive passé composé «s'ennuyer»: «s'ennuyer» = 'to be bored, to get bored'. Pronominal verbs form the «passé composé» with «être», and the past participle agrees: «Nous nous sommes ... ennuyés» — 'we have been bored', masculine plural. The travelers' verdict, «comme ici» ('just as here'), is the poem's hinge: everywhere abroad reproduces the boredom of home.


**67** La gloire du soleil sur la mer violette,  
The glory of the sun on the violet sea,

**68** La gloire des cités dans le soleil couchant,  
the glory of cities in the setting sun,

**69** Allumaient dans nos coeurs une ardeur inquiète  
kindled in our hearts a restless ardor

**70** De plonger dans un ciel au reflet alléchant.  
to plunge into a sky of alluring reflection.


**71** Les plus riches cités, les plus grands paysages,  
The richest cities, the grandest landscapes,

**72** Jamais ne contenaient l'attrait mystérieux  
never held the mysterious allure

**73** De ceux que le hasard fait avec les nuages.  
of those that chance makes out of the clouds.

**74** Et toujours le désir nous rendait soucieux!  
and always desire left us full of care!


**75** — La jouissance ajoute au désir de la force.  
— Enjoyment adds strength to desire.

**76** Désir, vieil arbre à qui le plaisir sert d'engrais,  
Desire, old tree for which pleasure serves as manure,
> servir de: «servir de» = 'to serve as, to act as'; «engrais» is 'fertilizer, manure'. Pleasure «sert d'engrais» — serves as manure — to the old tree Desire: each gratification only feeds the trunk, thickening the bark while the branches reach for the sun. The image makes satisfaction the cause, not the cure, of further wanting.

**77** Cependant que grossit et durcit ton écorce,  
while your bark grows thick and hardens,

**78** Tes branches veulent voir le soleil de plus près!  
your branches long to see the sun from closer still!


**79** Grandiras-tu toujours, grand arbre plus vivace  
Will you keep growing forever, great tree more hardy

**80** Que le cyprès? — Pourtant nous avons, avec soin,  
than the cypress? — Yet we have, with care,

**81** Cueilli quelques croquis pour votre album vorace  
gathered a few sketches for your voracious album,

**82** Frères qui trouvez beau tout ce qui vient de loin!  
brothers who find beautiful all that comes from afar!


**83** Nous avons salué des idoles à trompe;  
We have greeted idols with trunks;

**84** Des trônes constellés de joyaux lumineux;  
thrones spangled with luminous jewels;

**85** Des palais ouvragés dont la féerique pompe  
wrought palaces whose fairy-tale pomp

**86** Serait pour vos banquiers un rêve ruineux;  
would be for your bankers a ruinous dream;
> Conditional «serait»: «serait» is the conditional of «être» — 'would be'. The wrought palaces' «féerique pompe» (fairy-tale pomp) «serait... un rêve ruineux» — 'would be a ruinous dream' for the stay-at-home bankers: a hypothetical cost, the splendor priced in money the travelers mock. The conditional keeps it a supposition, not a fact.


**87** Des costumes qui sont pour les yeux une ivresse;  
costumes that are an intoxication to the eyes;

**88** Des femmes dont les dents et les ongles sont teints,  
women whose teeth and nails are dyed,

**89** Et des jongleurs savants que le serpent caresse.»  
and cunning jugglers caressed by the serpent."


**90** V  
V


**91** Et puis, et puis encore?  
And then, and then what more?


**92** VI  
VI


**93** «Ô cerveaux enfantins!  
"O childish brains!


**94** Pour ne pas oublier la chose capitale,  
So as not to forget the capital thing,

**95** Nous avons vu partout, et sans l'avoir cherché,  
we have seen everywhere, and without having sought it,
> «sans» + past infinitive: «sans» + a past infinitive («avoir cherché») = 'without having + verb': «sans l'avoir cherché» means 'without having looked for it'. The «l'» is the object pronoun standing for the spectacle to come. The construction underlines that the «immortel péché» (immortal sin) was met unsought, the same everywhere on the «échelle fatale» (fatal ladder).

**96** Du haut jusques en bas de l'échelle fatale,  
from the top down to the bottom of the fatal ladder,

**97** Le spectacle ennuyeux de l'immortel péché:  
the wearisome spectacle of immortal sin:


**98** La femme, esclave vile, orgueilleuse et stupide,  
Woman, vile slave, haughty and stupid,

**99** Sans rire s'adorant et s'aimant sans dégoût;  
without laughter adoring herself and loving herself without disgust;
> Reflexive present participles: «s'adorer» / «s'aimer» = 'to adore oneself' / 'to love oneself'; the present participles «s'adorant» and «s'aimant» carry the reflexive «s'» with them. Woman worships and loves herself «sans rire» ('without laughing') and «sans dégoût» ('without disgust') — self-regard taken with deadly seriousness, the first exhibit in the catalogue of «immortel péché».

**100** L'homme, tyran goulu, paillard, dur et cupide,  
Man, greedy tyrant, lewd, hard and grasping,

**101** Esclave de l'esclave et ruisseau dans l'égout;  
slave of the slave and a streamlet in the sewer;


**102** Le bourreau qui jouit, le martyr qui sanglote;  
The executioner who takes pleasure, the martyr who sobs;

**103** La fête qu'assaisonne et parfume le sang;  
the feast that blood seasons and perfumes;
> Inverted relative clause: In the relative clause «que le sang assaisonne et parfume» the subject «le sang» follows its verbs by poetic inversion: 'the feast that blood seasons and perfumes'. «que» is the direct object (the feast), «le sang» the subject doing the seasoning. Read the verbs back to their trailing noun to untangle these lines — Baudelaire inverts often in this catalogue.

**104** Le poison du pouvoir énervant le despote,  
the poison of power unnerving the despot,

**105** Et le peuple amoureux du fouet abrutissant;  
and the people in love with the brutalizing whip;


**106** Plusieurs religions semblables à la nôtre,  
Several religions like our own,

**107** Toutes escaladant le ciel; la Sainteté,  
all scaling the heavens; Sanctity,

**108** Comme en un lit de plume un délicat se vautre,  
as a man of refinement wallows in a feather bed,
> se vautrer: «se vautrer» = 'to wallow, to sprawl, to roll about' (often with a sense of self-indulgence). The comparison is biting: just as a «délicat» (a fastidious, pampered man) wallows «en un lit de plume» (in a feather bed), so Sanctity seeks its «volupté» (sensual pleasure) «Dans les clous et le crin» — in nails and hair-shirt. Asceticism unmasked as another appetite.

**109** Dans les clous et le crin cherchant la volupté;  
seeking voluptuous pleasure in nails and horsehair;


**110** L'Humanité bavarde, ivre de son génie,  
Humanity, garrulous, drunk on its own genius,

**111** Et, folle maintenant comme elle était jadis,  
and, mad now as it was of old,

**112** Criant à Dieu, dans sa furibonde agonie:  
crying to God, in its furious agony:

**113** »Ô mon semblable, mon maître, je te maudis!«  
"O my fellow, my master, I curse you!"
> maudire: «maudire» = 'to curse, to damn'; «je te maudis» = 'I curse you' (the familiar «te» addressing God). «mon semblable, mon maître» ('my fellow, my master') turns «Au Lecteur»'s closing line — «mon semblable, mon frère» — inside out: where the reader was a brother, God is here both likeness and master, and humanity damns him in its agony. Note the reversed guillemets «»...«» Baudelaire uses for this inset cry.


**114** Et les moins sots, hardis amants de la Démence,  
And the least foolish, bold lovers of Madness,

**115** Fuyant le grand troupeau parqué par le Destin,  
fleeing the great herd penned in by Destiny,

**116** Et se réfugiant dans l'opium immense!  
and taking refuge in the immensity of opium!

**117** — Tel est du globe entier l'éternel bulletin.»  
— Such is the whole globe's eternal report."


**118** VII  
VII


**119** Amer savoir, celui qu'on tire du voyage!  
Bitter knowledge, that which one draws from travel!

**120** Le monde, monotone et petit, aujourd'hui,  
The world, monotonous and small, today,

**121** Hier, demain, toujours, nous fait voir notre image:  
yesterday, tomorrow, always, shows us our own image:
> Causative «faire» + infinitive: «faire» + an infinitive forms the causative — 'to make / have (something) be done'. «nous fait voir notre image» = 'makes us see our image, shows us our image'. The world, the same across «aujourd'hui, Hier, demain», can only mirror the traveler back to himself — the bitter conclusion of all the wandering.

**122** Une oasis d'horreur dans un désert d'ennui!  
an oasis of horror in a desert of tedium!


**123** Faut-il partir? rester? Si tu peux rester, reste;  
Must one leave? stay? If you can stay, stay;

**124** Pars, s'il le faut. L'un court, et l'autre se tapit  
leave, if you must. One runs, and another crouches
> Imperative «pars» / «reste»: «Pars» and «reste» are second-person singular imperatives of «partir» ('to leave') and «rester» ('to stay'). The line stages the poem's choice as two bare commands — «Si tu peux rester, reste; / Pars, s'il le faut» ('if you can stay, stay; leave, if you must') — before revealing that both runner and hider are only dodging the same enemy, Time.

**125** Pour tromper l'ennemi vigilant et funeste,  
to cheat the watchful and deadly enemy,

**126** Le Temps! Il est, hélas! des coureurs sans répit,  
Time! There are, alas! runners without respite,


**127** Comme le Juif errant et comme les apôtres,  
like the Wandering Jew and like the apostles,

**128** À qui rien ne suffit, ni wagon ni vaisseau,  
for whom nothing suffices, neither railway car nor ship,

**129** Pour fuir ce rétiaire infâme; il en est d'autres  
to flee that vile net-fighter; there are still others
> rétiaire: A «rétiaire» (Latin «retiarius») was the Roman gladiator who fought with a net and trident, snaring his opponent before the kill. Time is that «rétiaire infâme» ('vile net-fighter'): no «wagon» or «vaisseau» outruns his cast net. «il en est d'autres» is literary for «il y en a d'autres» — 'there are others' — who kill Time without leaving their cradle.

**130** Qui savent le tuer sans quitter leur berceau.  
who know how to kill it without leaving their cradle.


**131** Lorsque enfin il mettra le pied sur notre échine,  
When at last he sets his foot upon our spine,
> Future after «lorsque»: After «lorsque» ('when') French uses the future for a future event, where English prefers the present: «Lorsque ... il mettra le pied» is literally 'when ... he will set his foot', rendered 'when he sets his foot'. The poem turns here from Time the hunter to Death the liberator — the moment he treads on our spine becomes a release, «En avant!»

**132** Nous pourrons espérer et crier: En avant!  
we shall be able to hope and cry: Forward!

**133** De même qu'autrefois nous partions pour la Chine,  
just as long ago we set out for China,

**134** Les yeux fixés au large et les cheveux au vent,  
eyes fixed on the open sea and hair in the wind,


**135** Nous nous embarquerons sur la mer des Ténèbres  
We shall embark upon the sea of Darkness

**136** Avec le coeur joyeux d'un jeune passager.  
with the joyous heart of a young passenger.

**137** Entendez-vous ces voix charmantes et funèbres,  
Do you hear those voices, charming and funereal,

**138** Qui chantent: «Par ici vous qui voulez manger  
that sing: "This way, you who wish to eat


**139** Le Lotus parfumé! c'est ici qu'on vendange  
the perfumed Lotus! it is here that one harvests

**140** Les fruits miraculeux dont votre coeur a faim;  
the miraculous fruits your heart hungers for;

**141** Venez vous enivrer de la douceur étrange  
come and get drunk on the strange sweetness

**142** De cette après-midi qui n'a jamais de fin!»  
of this afternoon that never has an end!"


**143** À l'accent familier nous devinons le spectre;  
By the familiar accent we guess the specter;

**144** Nos Pylades là-bas tendent leurs bras vers nous.  
our Pyladeses yonder stretch their arms toward us.

**145** «Pour rafraîchir ton coeur nage vers ton Electre!»  
"To refresh your heart swim toward your Electra!"

**146** Dit celle dont jadis nous baisions les genoux.  
says she whose knees we once used to kiss.


**147** VIII  
VIII


**148** Ô Mort, vieux capitaine, il est temps! levons l'ancre!  
O Death, old captain, it is time! let us weigh anchor!
> First-person plural imperative: «levons» is the «nous» imperative of «lever» ('to raise') — 'let us raise / weigh', as in «levons l'ancre» ('let us weigh anchor'). The final stanza is a chain of such summons — «levons l'ancre», «Appareillons!» ('let us set sail!'), «Plonger» — the crew turning to Death as captain to launch the last voyage.

**149** Ce pays nous ennuie, ô Mort! Appareillons!  
This land wearies us, O Death! Let us set sail!

**150** Si le ciel et la mer sont noirs comme de l'encre,  
If the sky and the sea are black as ink,

**151** Nos coeurs que tu connais sont remplis de rayons!  
our hearts, which you know, are filled with rays of light!


**152** Verse-nous ton poison pour qu'il nous réconforte!  
Pour us your poison so that it may comfort us!
> «pour que» + subjunctive: «pour que» ('so that, in order that') always takes the subjunctive: «réconforte» is the present subjunctive of «réconforter» ('to comfort'). The travelers ask Death to pour out its poison «pour qu'il nous réconforte» — 'so that it may comfort us' — purpose, not fact: the longed-for solace lies on the far side of the plunge into the «Inconnu».

**153** Nous voulons, tant ce feu nous brûle le cerveau,  
We wish, so much does this fire burn our brain,

**154** Plonger au fond du gouffre, Enfer ou Ciel, qu'importe?  
to plunge to the bottom of the gulf, Hell or Heaven, what does it matter?

**155** Au fond de l'Inconnu pour trouver du nouveau!  
to the depths of the Unknown to find something new!
> du nouveau: «du nouveau» = 'something new' — the partitive «du» turning the adjective «nouveau» into 'some newness'. The book ends on this word: after a whole poem proving that travel only mirrors the self, the last hope is for «du nouveau» in death, «Au fond de l'Inconnu» ('in the depths of the Unknown') — novelty sought where it cannot be reported back.

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