# Les Hiboux · The Owls

Les Fleurs du mal · Charles Baudelaire · Spleen and Ideal

Source: https://1732studios.com/books/baudelaire/les-hiboux. Data: https://1732studios.com/books/baudelaire/les-hiboux.json.

**1** Sous les ifs noirs qui les abritent  
Beneath the black yews that shelter them
> «un if» — a yew: «un if» is the yew tree, the dark, slow-growing evergreen traditionally planted in churchyards and long associated with death and mourning. «Sous les ifs noirs qui les abritent» = 'beneath the black yews that shelter them'. The funereal tree sets the still, tomb-like key of the whole scene before the owls are even named.

**2** Les hiboux se tiennent rangés  
the owls hold themselves in a row
> Pronominal «se tenir» — to hold oneself, to stand: «se tenir» (reflexive «tenir») means 'to hold oneself, to stand, to keep still'. «Les hiboux se tiennent rangés» = 'the owls hold themselves drawn up in a row'. «rangés» is the past participle of «ranger» (to arrange, to line up), here describing how they stand — motionless and orderly, like a row of idols.

**3** Ainsi que des dieux étrangers  
just like alien gods

**4** Dardant leur oeil rouge. Ils méditent.  
darting their red eye. They meditate.
> Present participle «darder»: «dardant» is the present participle of «darder» — to shoot or dart (a beam, a glance), from «un dard», a dart or sting. «Dardant leur oeil rouge» = 'darting their red eye', the fixed predatory stare leveled outward like a thrown spear. The clipped final sentence «Ils méditent.» ('They meditate.') closes the quatrain on the owls' uncanny stillness.


**5** Sans remuer ils se tiendront  
Without stirring they will hold still
> Future of pronominal «se tenir»: «se tiendront» is the future of the pronominal «se tenir» (to hold oneself, to keep still), the same verb as «se tiennent» in the first stanza. «Sans remuer ils se tiendront» = 'without stirring they will hold still'. «sans + infinitive» («sans remuer» = 'without moving') is the standard way French expresses 'without ...-ing'. The future tense projects the owls' immobility forward across the whole coming day.

**6** Jusqu'à l'heure mélancolique  
until the melancholy hour

**7** Où, poussant le soleil oblique,  
when, pushing aside the slanting sun,

**8** Les ténèbres s'établiront.  
the darkness will settle in.
> «les ténèbres» — darkness (plural): «les ténèbres» is a grammatically plural, always-elevated noun for deep darkness or gloom, weightier than ordinary «l'obscurité». «s'établiront» is the future of pronominal «s'établir» (to establish itself, to settle in). «Les ténèbres s'établiront» = 'the darkness will settle in' — night arrives not as a fall but as a sovereign taking up residence.


**9** Leur attitude au sage enseigne  
Their bearing teaches the wise man

**10** Qu'il faut en ce monde qu'il craigne  
that in this world he must dread
> Subjunctive after «il faut que»: «il faut que» ('it is necessary that / one must') always triggers the subjunctive. «craigne» is the present subjunctive of «craindre» (to fear, to dread). Read straight: «leur attitude enseigne au sage qu'il faut qu'il craigne...» = 'their bearing teaches the wise man that he must dread...'. The owls' stillness is moralized into a lesson: fear movement and tumult.

**11** Le tumulte et le mouvement;  
all tumult and all movement;


**12** L'homme ivre d'une ombre qui passe  
The man drunk on a passing shadow
> «ivre de» — drunk on, intoxicated by: «ivre» = 'drunk, intoxicated'; «ivre de» means 'drunk on / mad for' something. «une ombre qui passe» is 'a shadow that passes', a fleeting, insubstantial thing. «L'homme ivre d'une ombre qui passe» = 'the man intoxicated by a passing shadow' — the restless dreamer who chases mere appearances, set against the motionless, contemplative owls.

**13** Porte toujours le châtiment  
always bears the punishment

**14** D'avoir voulu changer de place.  
of having wished to change his place.
> Past infinitive «avoir voulu»: «avoir voulu» is the past infinitive — «avoir» plus the past participle of «vouloir» (to want, to wish) — expressing a completed prior action: 'to have wished'. «le châtiment d'avoir voulu changer de place» = 'the punishment for having wished to change his place'. «changer de place» = 'to move, to change position'. The sin punished is simply the desire to be elsewhere — the opposite of the owls' rooted calm.

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