# Les Litanies de Satan · The Litanies of Satan

Les Fleurs du mal · Charles Baudelaire · Revolt

Source: https://1732studios.com/books/baudelaire/les-litanies-de-satan. Data: https://1732studios.com/books/baudelaire/les-litanies-de-satan.json.

**1** Ô toi, le plus savant et le plus beau des Anges,  
O you, the most learned and the most beautiful of Angels,

**2** Dieu trahi par le sort et privé de louanges,  
a God betrayed by fate and stripped of praises,
> privé de + noun: «privé de» = 'deprived of, stripped of'. The past participle «privé» agrees with «Dieu» (masc. sing.) and «de» introduces what is lacking, with no article: «privé de louanges» = 'deprived of praises'.


**3** Ô Satan, prends pitié de ma longue misère!  
O Satan, take pity on my long misery!
> Imperative «prendre pitié de»: «prends» is the «tu» imperative of «prendre». The fixed idiom «prendre pitié de quelqu'un» = 'to take pity on someone'. This line is the refrain — a litany response that returns after every invocation, the way a congregation answers a priest.


**4** Ô Prince de l'exil, à qui l'on a fait tort  
O Prince of exile, to whom a wrong was done
> faire tort à: «faire tort à quelqu'un» = 'to wrong someone, to do someone an injustice'. The «l'» in «l'on» is purely euphonic (it smooths the vowel clash after «à qui»), not a pronoun. Satan is cast as the wronged party, the exile who was treated unfairly.

**5** Et qui, vaincu, toujours te redresses plus fort,  
and who, vanquished, always raise yourself up stronger,
> se redresser (pronominal): «se redresser» = 'to straighten up, to rise again'. The reflexive «te» marks the action as done to oneself: «tu te redresses» = 'you raise yourself back up'. Note the address shifts to «tu» («te»), even though «qui» grammatically governs the verb — Baudelaire speaks directly to Satan.


**6** Ô Satan, prends pitié de ma longue misère!  
O Satan, take pity on my long misery!


**7** Toi qui sais tout, grand roi des choses souterraines,  
You who know all, great king of subterranean things,

**8** Guérisseur familier des angoisses humaines,  
familiar healer of human anguishes,
> guérisseur: «guérisseur» is a folk-healer or faith-healer, not a trained doctor — one who cures by laying-on of hands or charms. «familier» = 'familiar, intimate'. Satan is the homely, everyday healer of human dread, a deliberately tender title for the Devil.


**9** Ô Satan, prends pitié de ma longue misère!  
O Satan, take pity on my long misery!


**10** Toi qui, même aux lépreux, aux parias maudits,  
You who, even to the lepers, to the accursed pariahs,

**11** Enseignes par l'amour le goût du Paradis,  
teach through love the taste of Paradise,


**12** Ô Satan, prends pitié de ma longue misère!  
O Satan, take pity on my long misery!


**13** Ô toi qui de la Mort, ta vieille et forte amante,  
O you who, on Death, your old and mighty mistress,

**14** Engendras l'Espérance, — une folle charmante!  
begot Hope — a charming madwoman!
> Passé simple: «engendrer»: «engendras» is the passé simple (literary past tense) of «engendrer» = 'to beget, to father', second person singular. The construction is «engendrer X de Y» — to beget X upon Y: here Satan begets «l'Espérance» (Hope) upon «la Mort» (Death), his aged mistress.


**15** Ô Satan, prends pitié de ma longue misère!  
O Satan, take pity on my long misery!


**16** Toi qui fais au proscrit ce regard calme et haut  
You who give the outlaw that calm and lofty gaze
> le proscrit: «le proscrit» = 'the proscribed one, the outlaw, the banished man' — someone outlawed and condemned by the state. «faire un regard à quelqu'un» here means to lend or give him that look. The condemned man's serene defiance damns the crowd watching him die.

**17** Qui damne tout un peuple autour d'un échafaud.  
that damns a whole people around a scaffold.


**18** Ô Satan, prends pitié de ma longue misère!  
O Satan, take pity on my long misery!


**19** Toi qui sais en quels coins des terres envieuses  
You who know in what corners of the grudging earth

**20** Le Dieu jaloux cacha les pierres précieuses,  
the jealous God hid the precious stones,
> Passé simple: «cacher»: «cacha» is the passé simple of «cacher» = 'to hide', third person singular ('hid'). The litany keeps reaching back into a mythic past tense: the «Dieu jaloux» once buried the gems, and only Satan knows where.


**21** Ô Satan, prends pitié de ma longue misère!  
O Satan, take pity on my long misery!


**22** Toi dont l'oeil clair connaît les profonds arsenaux  
You whose clear eye knows the deep arsenals
> Relative «dont» (= of whom / whose): «dont» replaces «de qui / duquel» and here marks possession: «toi dont l'oeil» = 'you whose eye'. It links Satan to «l'oeil clair» that follows. The anaphora «Toi qui… / Toi dont…» drives the whole litany of attributes.

**23** Où dort enseveli le peuple des métaux,  
where the people of the metals lies buried asleep,


**24** Ô Satan, prends pitié de ma longue misère!  
O Satan, take pity on my long misery!


**25** Toi dont la large main cache les précipices  
You whose broad hand hides the precipices

**26** Au somnambule errant au bord des édifices,  
from the sleepwalker wandering at the edge of the buildings,
> cacher qqch à qqn: «cacher quelque chose à quelqu'un» = 'to hide something from someone' — French uses «à» where English uses 'from'. So «cache les précipices au somnambule» = 'hides the precipices from the sleepwalker'. Satan, perversely, protects the dreamer from the fall.


**27** Ô Satan, prends pitié de ma longue misère!  
O Satan, take pity on my long misery!


**28** Toi qui, magiquement, assouplis les vieux os  
You who, by magic, make supple again the old bones

**29** De l'ivrogne attardé foulé par les chevaux,  
of the belated drunkard trampled by the horses,


**30** Ô Satan, prends pitié de ma longue misère!  
O Satan, take pity on my long misery!


**31** Toi qui, pour consoler l'homme frêle qui souffre,  
You who, to console the frail man who suffers,

**32** Nous appris à mêler le salpêtre et le soufre,  
taught us to mix saltpetre and sulphur,


**33** Ô Satan, prends pitié de ma longue misère!  
O Satan, take pity on my long misery!


**34** Toi qui poses ta marque, ô complice subtil,  
You who set your mark, O subtle accomplice,

**35** Sur le front du Crésus impitoyable et vil,  
on the brow of the pitiless and base Croesus,


**36** Ô Satan, prends pitié de ma longue misère!  
O Satan, take pity on my long misery!


**37** Toi qui mets dans les yeux et dans le coeur des filles  
You who put into the eyes and into the heart of girls

**38** Le culte de la plaie et l'amour des guenilles,  
the cult of the wound and the love of rags,
> les guenilles: «guenilles» = 'rags, tatters' — worn-out, filthy clothing, hence wretchedness itself. «des filles» here carries its harsher sense of fallen or kept women. Satan teaches the poor and the prostitute to worship their own sores and squalor.


**39** Ô Satan, prends pitié de ma longue misère!  
O Satan, take pity on my long misery!


**40** Bâton des exilés, lampe des inventeurs,  
Staff of the exiled, lamp of the inventors,

**41** Confesseur des pendus et des conspirateurs,  
confessor of the hanged and of the conspirators,


**42** Ô Satan, prends pitié de ma longue misère!  
O Satan, take pity on my long misery!


**43** Père adoptif de ceux qu'en sa noire colère  
Adoptive father of those whom, in his black wrath,

**44** Du paradis terrestre a chassés Dieu le Père,  
God the Father drove out of the earthly paradise,
> Past-participle agreement with «que»: In «ceux qu'... a chassés», the participle «chassés» agrees in gender and number (masc. pl., +s) with the preceding direct object «ceux» ('those'), which the relative «que» stands for. The rule: a participle conjugated with «avoir» agrees with a direct object that comes before it. The word order is inverted — «Dieu le Père» (the subject) lands at the very end.


**45** Ô Satan, prends pitié de ma longue misère!  
O Satan, take pity on my long misery!


**46** Prière  
Prayer


**47** Gloire et louange à toi, Satan, dans les hauteurs  
Glory and praise to you, Satan, in the heights

**48** Du Ciel, où tu régnas, et dans les profondeurs  
of Heaven, where you reigned, and in the depths
> Passé simple: «régner»: «régnas» is the passé simple of «régner» = 'to reign', second person singular ('you reigned'). The closing prayer balances two tenses of dominion: «où tu régnas» (where you once reigned, in Heaven) against «où… tu rêves» (where you now dream, in Hell).

**49** De l'Enfer, où, vaincu, tu rêves en silence!  
of Hell, where, vanquished, you dream in silence!

**50** Fais que mon âme un jour, sous l'Arbre de Science,  
Grant that my soul, one day, beneath the Tree of Knowledge,
> «faire que» + subjunctive: «Fais que» ('bring it about that, grant that') is a command that forces the subjunctive in the clause it governs: «se repose» (third person of «se reposer») is subjunctive, not indicative. The whole sentence is a petition — the «Prière» proper — asking that the soul one day rest beside Satan.

**51** Près de toi se repose, à l'heure où sur ton front  
may rest near you, at the hour when upon your brow

**52** Comme un Temple nouveau ses rameaux s'épandront!  
its boughs, like a new Temple, will spread wide!
> Future of «s'épandre»: «s'épandront» is the simple future of the pronominal verb «s'épandre» = 'to spread out, to extend'. The subject «ses rameaux» (its boughs — those of the Tree of Knowledge) stands in normal preverbal order; it is the fronted comparison «Comme un Temple nouveau» that pushes subject and verb to the end of the line. The poem closes on a vision of the future: the tree's branches will arch over Satan's brow like a new temple.

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