French · Spleen and Ideal

Les Chats

Cats

14 lines · 8 notes

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1
Fervent lovers and austere scholars
Lesthele · determiner, pluraldeterminer of amoureux
amoureuxloversamoureux · noun, masculine, pluralsubject of Aiment
ferventsferventfervent · adjective, masculine, pluralmodifies amoureux
etandet · conjunctionlinks the coordination
lesthele · determiner, pluraldeterminer of savants
savantsscholarssavant · noun, masculine, pluralcoordinated with amoureux, subject of Aiment
austèresaustereaustère · adjective, masculine, pluralmodifies savants
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love alike, in their ripened season,
Word«mûr(e)» — ripe, mature «mûr» literally means 'ripe' (of fruit); applied to a «saison» (season) it turns figurative — the ripe, mature time of life. «dans leur mûre saison» = 'in their mature years'. The word quietly equates the lovers and the scholars: both have reached the same settled, autumnal stage.
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love the cats, powerful and gentle, pride of the house,
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who, like them, are chilly creatures and, like them, stay-at-homes.
Word«frileux» and «sédentaire» «frileux» = 'sensitive to the cold, fond of warmth' — the cat curled by the fire. «sédentaire» = 'settled, homebound, sedentary'. The repeated «comme eux» ('like them') stitches cat to human: the same love of warmth and stillness binds the beast to the lover and the scholar.
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Friends of knowledge and of sensual delight,
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they seek out silence and the horror of the dark;
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Erebus would have taken them for his funereal steeds,
Word«Érèbe» — Erebus «Érèbe» (Erebus) is the primordial darkness of Greek myth, a region of the underworld between earth and Hades. Casting the cats as the «coursiers funèbres» ('funereal steeds') that might draw the chariot of Erebus lifts the housecat into a creature of the night and the dead — sphinx, oracle, and familiar of the dark.
Grammar«eût pris» — the literary conditional «eût pris» is the pluperfect subjunctive of «prendre», used here as the second-form literary conditional ('would have taken'). It pairs with «S'ils pouvaient» in the next line to form a counterfactual: Erebus would have harnessed them — if only they could bend their pride to servitude. The whole hinge of the sentence is this unreal 'if'.
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if they could bend their pride to bondage.
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Dreaming, they take on the noble attitudes
Grammar«en» + present participle (gerund) «en songeant» is the gerund of «songer» (to dream, to muse): «en» + present participle gives 'while / by doing'. So «ils prennent en songeant» = 'they take on, as they dream'. The cats do not strike a pose deliberately; the sphinx-like stillness simply settles over them in the act of dreaming.
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of great sphinxes stretched out in the depths of solitude,
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who seem to fall asleep in an endless dream;
GrammarPronominal «s'endormir» «s'endormir» is the pronominal verb 'to fall asleep' (vs. «dormir», 'to sleep'). The reflexive «se» marks the change of state — drifting off — not a sleep already settled. The sphinxes are caught in the act of sinking into «un rêve sans fin», an endless dream, forever on the edge of sleep.
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Their fertile loins are full of magic sparks,
Word«les reins» «les reins» (always plural) are the loins, the lower back — the seat of generative and sexual force. «féconds» = 'fertile, teeming'. The image turns the cat's body into a hidden reservoir of energy — the «étincelles magiques» ('magic sparks') that the final line scatters into its eyes as flecks of gold.
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and flecks of gold, like a fine sand,
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faintly star their mystic pupils.
Word«étoiler» — to star, to spangle «étoiler» is a verb coined from «étoile» (star): 'to spangle, to scatter with star-like points'. The flecks of gold «étoilent» the cats' «prunelles» (pupils) — they sow the eyes with tiny stars. The sonnet ends by turning the animal's gaze into a small night sky, mystic and faintly glittering.

The particulars

The text: Les Fleurs du mal, Charles Baudelaire. Spleen and Ideal.
Words: Every word of the text, by letter.
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