# Les Deux Bonnes Soeurs · The Two Good Sisters

Les Fleurs du mal · Charles Baudelaire · Flowers of Evil

Source: https://1732studios.com/books/baudelaire/les-deux-bonnes-soeurs. Data: https://1732studios.com/books/baudelaire/les-deux-bonnes-soeurs.json.

**1** La Débauche et la Mort sont deux aimables filles,  
Debauchery and Death are two amiable girls,
> «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.

**2** Prodigues de baisers et riches de santé,  
Lavish with kisses and rich in health,

**3** Dont le flanc toujours vierge et drapé de guenilles  
Whose flank, forever virgin and draped in rags,
> Relative 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.

**4** Sous l'éternel labeur n'a jamais enfanté.  
Beneath eternal labour, has never given birth.
> «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'.


**5** Au poète sinistre, ennemi des familles,  
To the sinister poet, enemy of families,

**6** Favori de l'enfer, courtisan mal renté,  
Favourite of hell, a poorly pensioned courtier,
> «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.

**7** Tombeaux et lupanars montrent sous leurs charmilles  
Tombs and brothels show, beneath their leafy bowers,
> «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.

**8** Un lit que le remords n'a jamais fréquenté.  
A bed that remorse has never frequented.


**9** Et la bière et l'alcôve en blasphèmes fécondes  
And the coffin and the alcove, fertile in blasphemies,
> «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'.

**10** Nous offrent tour à tour, comme deux bonnes soeurs,  
Offer us by turns, like two good sisters,
> «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.

**11** De terribles plaisirs et d'affreuses douceurs.  
Terrible pleasures and hideous sweetnesses.


**12** Quand veux-tu m'enterrer, Débauche aux bras immondes?  
When will you bury me, Debauchery of the filthy arms?
> Question 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'.

**13** Ô Mort, quand viendras-tu, sa rivale en attraits,  
O Death, when will you come, her rival in charms,

**14** Sur ses myrtes infects enter tes noirs cyprès?  
Onto her foul myrtles graft your black cypresses?
> «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.

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