French · Parisian Scenes

Les Aveugles

The Blind

14 lines · 12 notes

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1
Look at them, my soul; they are truly hideous!
Contemplelook atcontempler · verb, imperative, second-person, singularmain verb of the sentence
lesthemle · pronoun, pluraldirect object of Contemple
monmymon · determiner, singulardeterminer of âme
âmesoulâme · noun, feminine, singularvocative address
ilstheyil · pronoun, masculine, pluralsubject of sont
sontareêtre · verb, present, indicative, third-person, pluralcopula linking to affreux
vraimenttrulyvraiment · adverbmodifies affreux
affreuxhideousaffreux · adjective, masculinepredicate adjective, complement of sont
GrammarImperative with attached pronoun «Contemple» is the imperative of «contempler» ('to gaze upon, contemplate'). In an affirmative command the object pronoun follows the verb and is joined by a hyphen: «Contemple-les» = 'Gaze upon them'. The poet orders his own «âme» (soul) to look — the whole sonnet is staged as that act of looking.
2
Like mannequins; vaguely ridiculous;
Grammar«pareil à» — 'like, similar to' «pareil à» means 'like, similar to', and «à» contracts with «les» to give «aux»: «pareils aux mannequins» = 'like mannequins'. The adjective «pareils» is masculine plural, agreeing with «ils» (the blind men) — the first of a chain of comparisons that drains them of life, likening them to shop-window dummies.
3
Terrible, strange as sleepwalkers;
4
Aiming who knows where their darkened eyes.
Worddarder (v.); globe (m.) «darder» is to dart, hurl, or aim (as one would a «dard», a dart or sting); the present participle «dardant» opens the line with the action. «leurs globes ténébreux» — literally 'their shadowy globes' — are the eyeballs, dark because sightless. The blind aim their dead eyes «on ne sait où», 'no one knows where'.
5
Their eyes, from which the divine spark has departed,
GrammarRelative «d'où» + «partir» (être) «d'où» means 'from which' («de» + «où»), here pointing back to «yeux» (eyes). «partir» ('to leave, depart') takes «être» in compound tenses, so the past participle agrees with its subject: «la divine étincelle est partie» = 'the divine spark has departed' (feminine «partie»). The light of life has gone out of these eyes.
6
As if they were gazing into the distance, stay raised
Grammar«comme si» + imperfect «comme si» ('as if') takes the imperfect to set up an unreal comparison: «comme s'ils regardaient au loin» = 'as if they were looking into the distance'. The blind cannot see, yet their lifted eyes counterfeit the gaze of someone watching the horizon — the pathos turns on this 'as if'.
7
Toward the sky; one never sees them, toward the paving-stones,
8
dreamily bow their heavy heads.
Wordappesanti — weighed down «appesanti» is the past participle of «appesantir», 'to make heavy, to weigh down'; «leur tête appesantie» = 'their heavy-laden head'. The verb «pencher» ('to bow, to tilt') governs across lines 3–4: the blind never tilt their weighted heads down toward the «pavés» (paving-stones), as a brooding, sighted person would. They keep their faces turned up, toward an empty sky.
9
Thus they cross the limitless dark,
10
that brother of eternal silence. O city!
WordAppositive «ce frère» «Ce frère du silence éternel» ('this brother of eternal silence') stands in apposition to «le noir illimité» from the line before — the limitless dark is recast as the kin of an everlasting silence. The blackness the blind walk through is figured as death's sibling, deepening their walk into something more than a stroll across the city.
11
while all around us you sing, laugh and bellow,
Grammar«pendant que» + present; «beugler» «pendant que» ('while') introduces a clause of simultaneous time, here in the present: «tu chantes, ris et beugles» = 'you sing, laugh and bellow'. The «tu» is the «cité» (city), addressed directly. «beugler» is to bellow or low like cattle — a coarse, animal noise set against the blind men's silence.
12
Smitten with pleasure to the point of atrocity,
Wordépris(e) de — enamored of «épris de» means 'smitten with, enamored of' (past participle of «s'éprendre», 'to fall in love'). The feminine «éprise» agrees with «cité» (city) from the previous stanza: the city is 'in love with pleasure'. «jusqu'à l'atrocité» — 'to the point of atrocity' — pushes that craving past delight into something monstrous.
13
Look! I too drag myself along! but, more dazed than they,
GrammarPronominal «se traîner» «se traîner» is a pronominal (reflexive) verb, 'to drag oneself, to crawl along'; «je me traîne» = 'I drag myself'. The reflexive «me» turns «traîner» ('to drag' something) onto the speaker himself. With «aussi» ('too') the poet places himself among the blind — a fellow groper through the dark.
Wordhébété — dazed, stupefied «hébété» means 'dazed, stupefied, dulled' (as by shock or exhaustion). «plus qu'eux hébété» = 'more dazed than they' — the comparative «plus ... que» measures the poet against the blind men and finds him worse off: he sees, yet wanders more bewildered than the sightless.
14
I say: What do they seek in Heaven, all these blind men?
GrammarInterrogative inversion The closing question uses subject-verb inversion: «Que cherchent-ils...?» = 'What do they seek...?', with the pronoun «ils» placed after the verb «cherchent» and linked by a hyphen. The capitalized «Ciel» ('Heaven', not merely the sky) lifts the question to a metaphysical one: the blind tilt their dead eyes upward, and the poet asks what any of us hopes to find there.

The particulars

The text: Les Fleurs du mal, Charles Baudelaire. Parisian Scenes.
Words: Every word of the text, by letter.
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