French · Flowers of Evil

Les Deux Bonnes Soeurs

The Two Good Sisters

14 lines · 9 notes

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1
Debauchery and Death are two amiable girls,
Lathele · determiner, feminine, singulardeterminer of Débauche
DébaucheDebaucherydébauche · noun, feminine, singularsubject of sont, coordinated with Mort
etandet · conjunctionlinks the coordination
lathele · determiner, feminine, singulardeterminer of Mort
MortDeathmort · noun, feminine, singularcoordinated with Débauche, subject of sont
sontareêtre · auxiliary verb, present, indicative, third-person, pluralcopula linking to filles
deuxtwodeux · numeralquantifies filles
aimablesamiableaimable · adjective, feminine, pluralmodifies filles
fillesgirlsfille · noun, feminine, pluralpredicate noun, head of the phrase
Word«aimable» «aimable» means 'kind, amiable, pleasant', from «aimer» (to love) — not 'lovable' in English. Applied to «la Débauche et la Mort» (Debauchery and Death), the polite, almost social word is deliberately jarring: the two are introduced as obliging, well-mannered «filles» (girls), the personified sisters the whole sonnet will address.
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Lavish with kisses and rich in health,
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Whose flank, forever virgin and draped in rags,
GrammarRelative pronoun «dont» «dont» is the relative pronoun for «de qui / de quoi» — 'whose, of whom'. It reaches back to «deux aimables filles» and links them to «le flanc» (the flank, womb, side): 'two girls whose flank…'. The clause runs across two lines before its verb «n'a jamais enfanté» arrives in the next line. «les guenilles» (f. pl.) are rags: «drapé de guenilles» = 'draped in rags', the sisters at once ragged and statuesque.
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Beneath eternal labour, has never given birth.
Word«le labeur»; «enfanter» «le labeur» is hard, ceaseless toil; «enfanter» is 'to give birth, to bring forth a child'. Setting «l'éternel labeur» (eternal toil) beside «n'a jamais enfanté» (has never given birth) plays on the two senses of labour — endless exertion that, unlike the labour of childbirth, is forever sterile. «ne... jamais» is the negation 'never'.
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To the sinister poet, enemy of families,
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Favourite of hell, a poorly pensioned courtier,
Word«renté»; «mal renté» «renté» means 'provided with a «rente»', i.e. with a private income or pension; «mal renté» = 'badly endowed, poorly paid'. The poet is hell's «favori» (favourite) yet a «courtisan» (courtier) who serves at court for little reward — honoured in the underworld, penniless in this one.
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Tombs and brothels show, beneath their leafy bowers,
Word«le lupanar»; «la charmille» «un lupanar» is a brothel (a literary, Latin-flavoured word); «une charmille» is an arbour or hedge of hornbeam, a shaded garden bower. Yoking «tombeaux et lupanars» (tombs and brothels) under the same green «charmilles» fuses the realms of Death and Debauchery into one inviting, leafy threshold.
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A bed that remorse has never frequented.
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And the coffin and the alcove, fertile in blasphemies,
Word«la bière» (faux ami) «la bière» here is a false friend: besides 'beer', it means 'coffin, bier'. Paired with «l'alcôve» (the alcove, the curtained recess of a bed), it again sets Death beside Debauchery. «fécondes» (fertile, fruitful) is feminine plural, agreeing with the two feminine nouns «la bière et l'alcôve»: the deathbed and the love-bed are both 'fertile in blasphemies'.
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Offer us by turns, like two good sisters,
Word«tour à tour» «tour à tour» is the idiom 'in turn, by turns, alternately'. Death and Debauchery «nous offrent tour à tour» — take turns offering us their gifts — «comme deux bonnes soeurs», 'like two good sisters'. This is the line that names the poem and crowns the sisterhood the title announces.
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Terrible pleasures and hideous sweetnesses.
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When will you bury me, Debauchery of the filthy arms?
GrammarQuestion inversion; object pronoun «m'» The subject «tu» is inverted after the verb to form the question: «veux-tu» = 'do you want / will you'. «m'enterrer» is «me» + «enterrer» (to bury): the object pronoun «m'» (me) goes before the infinitive, so «Quand veux-tu m'enterrer?» = 'When do you want to bury me?'. The poet turns to address «Débauche» directly — «aux bras immondes», 'with the filthy arms'.
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O Death, when will you come, her rival in charms,
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Onto her foul myrtles graft your black cypresses?
Word«enter» (greffer) «enter» is an old, technical verb meaning 'to graft' a shoot onto a stock — the modern word is «greffer». Death is asked to «enter tes noirs cyprès» (graft your black cypresses) «sur ses myrtes infects» (onto her foul myrtles): the «myrte» (myrtle), sacred to Venus and to love, is to be grafted with the «cyprès» (cypress), the tree of graveyards — the two sisters fused into one plant.

The particulars

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