# Moesta et errabunda · Sorrowful and Wandering

Les Fleurs du mal · Charles Baudelaire · Spleen and Ideal

Source: https://1732studios.com/books/baudelaire/moesta-et-errabunda. Data: https://1732studios.com/books/baudelaire/moesta-et-errabunda.json.

**1** Dis-moi ton coeur parfois s'envole-t-il, Agathe,  
Tell me, does your heart sometimes take flight, Agatha,
> Reflexive «s'envoler» + inversion: «s'envoler» is a pronominal verb, 'to fly off, take flight'. The «-t-il» is interrogative inversion: subject «il» (the «coeur») follows the verb, with a euphonic «-t-» inserted between two vowels. «s'envole-t-il?» = 'does it take flight?'

**2** Loin du noir océan de l'immonde cité  
Far from the black ocean of the filthy city

**3** Vers un autre océan où la splendeur éclate,  
Toward another ocean where splendor blazes,

**4** Bleu, clair, profond, ainsi que la virginité?  
Blue, bright, deep, as is virginity itself?
> «ainsi que» = 'just as, like': «ainsi que» introduces a comparison, 'just as / in the same way as'. Here «bleu, clair, profond, ainsi que la virginité» likens the far ocean's color and depth to virginity — pure, untouched, unfathomable.

**5** Dis-moi, ton coeur parfois s'envole-t-il, Agathe?  
Tell me, does your heart sometimes take flight, Agatha?


**6** La mer, la vaste mer, console nos labeurs!  
The sea, the vast sea, consoles our toils!

**7** Quel démon a doté la mer, rauque chanteuse  
What demon endowed the sea, that hoarse songstress
> «rauque», «chanteuse»: «rauque» = 'hoarse, raucous, throaty'; «chanteuse» is the feminine 'singer'. The sea is personified as a rough-voiced woman singer, accompanied in the next line by the «orgue des vents» (organ of the winds).

**8** Qu'accompagne l'immense orgue des vents grondeurs,  
Whom the immense organ of the growling winds accompanies,
> Relative «que» with inverted subject: «que» is the object relative, referring back to «la mer». The subject «l'immense orgue des vents» is inverted to follow the verb «accompagne». Untangled: 'whom the immense organ of the winds accompanies' — the sea sings, the winds play.

**9** De cette fonction sublime de berceuse?  
With this sublime office of a lullaby-singer?

**10** La mer, la vaste mer, console nos labeurs!  
The sea, the vast sea, consoles our toils!


**11** Emporte-moi wagon! enlève-moi, frégate!  
Carry me off, railway car! bear me away, frigate!
> Imperative + postposed «moi»: Both are affirmative imperatives with the object pronoun placed after and joined by a hyphen, using the stressed form «moi» (not «me»). «Emporte-moi» = 'carry me off'; «enlève-moi» = 'take me away'. The address to a «wagon» and a «frégate» makes inanimate vehicles into agents of escape.

**12** Loin! loin! ici la boue est faite de nos pleurs!  
Far! far away! here the mud is made of our tears!

**13** — Est-il vrai que parfois le triste coeur d'Agathe  
— Is it true that sometimes the sorrowful heart of Agatha

**14** Dise: Loin des remords, des crimes, des douleurs,  
Says: Far from remorse, from crimes, from sorrows,
> Present subjunctive «dise»: «dise» is the present subjunctive of «dire» ('to say'), triggered by «Est-il vrai que…» — a doubting, questioning frame that calls for the subjunctive rather than the indicative «dit». The mood marks the heart's hoped-for speech as something uncertain, only longed for.

**15** Emporte-moi, wagon, enlève-moi, frégate?  
Carry me off, railway car, bear me away, frigate?


**16** Comme vous êtes loin, paradis parfumé,  
How far away you are, perfumed paradise,
> Exclamatory «comme»: «comme» here is exclamatory, not comparative: «Comme vous êtes loin» = 'How far away you are!' It opens a lament addressed directly («vous») to the lost paradise, the way one might cry out to a person.

**17** Où sous un clair azur tout n'est qu'amour et joie,  
Where under a clear blue all is nothing but love and joy,
> «ne… que» = 'only / nothing but': «ne… que» is the restrictive construction meaning 'only, nothing but'. «tout n'est qu'amour et joie» = 'everything is nothing but love and joy'. It is not a negation of «être» but a limiting of it to that one thing.

**18** Où tout ce que l'on aime est digne d'être aimé,  
Where all that one loves is worthy of being loved,

**19** Où dans la volupté pure le coeur se noie!  
Where in pure delight the heart drowns itself!
> «se noyer», «volupté»: «se noyer» is reflexive, 'to drown oneself, to be drowned'. «volupté» is sensual delight, richer and more bodily than plain 'pleasure'. The heart willingly drowns in that delight — a sweet undoing rather than a death.

**20** Comme vous êtes loin, paradis parfumé!  
How far away you are, perfumed paradise!


**21** Mais le vert paradis des amours enfantines,  
But the green paradise of childhood loves,
> «amours» (f. pl.), «enfantin»: «amour» is masculine in the singular but conventionally feminine in the poetic plural, hence the feminine «enfantines». «enfantin» = 'childlike, of childhood'. The «vert paradis des amours enfantines» — the green paradise of childhood loves — became one of Baudelaire's most quoted phrases.

**22** Les courses, les chansons, les baisers, les bouquets,  
The races, the songs, the kisses, the bouquets,

**23** Les violons vibrant derrière les collines,  
The violins quivering behind the hills,
> Present participle «vibrant»: «vibrant» is the present participle of «vibrer» ('to vibrate, quiver, throb'). Used as an invariant verbal form it describes the violins in the act of trembling — 'the violins quivering behind the hills' — keeping the scene alive and ongoing rather than fixed.

**24** Avec les brocs de vin, le soir, dans les bosquets,  
With the jugs of wine, at evening, among the groves,

**25** — Mais le vert paradis des amours enfantines,  
— But the green paradise of childhood loves,


**26** L'innocent paradis, plein de plaisirs furtifs,  
The innocent paradise, full of furtive pleasures,

**27** Est-il déjà plus loin que l'Inde et que la Chine?  
Is it already farther off than India and than China?

**28** Peut-on le rappeler avec des cris plaintifs,  
Can one call it back with plaintive cries,
> «rappeler»: «rappeler» = 'to call back, recall, summon again'. Here it is the lost paradise that one tries to «rappeler» — to call back into being. The verb keeps the cruel hope that childhood, like a person, might answer if called loudly enough.

**29** Et l'animer encor d'une voix argentine,  
And quicken it once more with a silvery voice,
> «argentin(e)»: «argentin» means 'silvery', especially of a sound — clear, ringing, bell-like — from «argent» ('silver'). «une voix argentine» is a bright, silver-toned voice, the kind imagined as belonging to children, fit to summon the lost innocent paradise.

**30** L'innocent paradis plein de plaisirs furtifs?  
The innocent paradise full of furtive pleasures?

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