# Paysage · Landscape

Les Fleurs du mal · Charles Baudelaire · Parisian Scenes

Source: https://1732studios.com/books/baudelaire/paysage. Data: https://1732studios.com/books/baudelaire/paysage.json.

**1** Je veux, pour composer chastement mes églogues,  
I wish, to compose my eclogues chastely,
> églogue (f.): An «églogue» is an eclogue — a short pastoral poem in the tradition of Virgil. «chastement» = chastely, purely; the poet wants the quiet, untouched mood of pastoral verse, made here from rooftops rather than fields.

**2** Coucher auprès du ciel, comme les astrologues,  
To lie down close to the sky, like the astrologers,

**3** Et, voisin des clochers écouter en rêvant  
And, neighbor to the bell-towers, to listen as I dream
> Gerund: en + present participle: «en rêvant» is the gérondif — «en» plus the present participle of «rêver» — expressing an action done at the same time as the main verb: 'while dreaming, as I dream'. French uses it where English often says 'while -ing'.

**4** Leurs hymnes solennels emportés par le vent.  
Their solemn hymns carried off by the wind.

**5** Les deux mains au menton, du haut de ma mansarde,  
Both hands beneath my chin, high in my garret,
> mansarde (f.): A «mansarde» is an attic or garret room, tucked under a sloping roof — named for the architect Mansart. It is the cheap top-floor lodging of the poor artist, and the poem's whole vantage point onto the city.

**6** Je verrai l'atelier qui chante et qui bavarde;  
I will see the workshop that sings and that chatters;

**7** Les tuyaux, les clochers, ces mâts de la cité,  
The chimney-pipes, the steeples, those masts of the city,
> mât (m.): A «mât» is a ship's mast. Calling the chimneys and steeples «ces mâts de la cité» — 'those masts of the city' — turns the Paris skyline into a harbor of ships, a metaphor that runs on into the 'rivers of coal' below.

**8** Et les grands ciels qui font rêver d'éternité.  
And the great skies that set one dreaming of eternity.
> Causative faire + infinitive: «faire» plus an infinitive forms the causative: it makes something happen. «qui font rêver d'éternité» = 'that make one dream of eternity'. The subject of the dreaming is left unspecified — 'that set one dreaming'.


**9** Il est doux, à travers les brumes, de voir naître  
It is sweet, through the mists, to watch coming to birth
> Impersonal «il est ... de»: «Il est doux de voir» uses the impersonal «il» — not 'he' but a dummy subject, like English 'it'. The real subject is the infinitive clause «de voir naître...» = 'It is sweet to watch... be born'.

**10** L'étoile dans l'azur, la lampe à la fenêtre  
The star in the blue, the lamp at the window,

**11** Les fleuves de charbon monter au firmament  
The rivers of coal-smoke climbing to the firmament,
> charbon (m.): «charbon» = coal. «Les fleuves de charbon» — literally 'the rivers of coal' — are the streams of coal-smoke rising from countless chimneys; «monter» depends on «voir» above ('to see... climb to the firmament').

**12** Et la lune verser son pâle enchantement.  
And the moon pouring out its pale enchantment.

**13** Je verrai les printemps, les étés, les automnes;  
I will see the springs, the summers, the autumns;

**14** Et quand viendra l'hiver aux neiges monotones,  
And when winter comes with its monotonous snows,
> Future after «quand»; inversion: After «quand» about the future, French uses the future tense where English uses the present: «quand viendra l'hiver» = 'when winter comes'. The verb is also inverted before its subject («viendra l'hiver») — a poetic word order.

**15** Je fermerai partout portières et volets  
I will close everywhere the curtains and the shutters

**16** Pour bâtir dans la nuit mes féeriques palais.  
To build within the night my fairy-tale palaces.
> féerique (adj.): «féerique» comes from «fée» (fairy) and means enchanted, magical, fairy-like — the stuff of a «féerie», a fairy spectacle. «mes féeriques palais» = 'my enchanted palaces', conjured by imagination once the shutters are closed.

**17** Alors je rêverai des horizons bleuâtres,  
Then I will dream of bluish horizons,

**18** Des jardins, des jets d'eau pleurant dans les albâtres,  
Of gardens, of fountains weeping into the alabaster,
> jet d'eau / albâtre: A «jet d'eau» is a fountain's jet or spray of water; «albâtre» is alabaster, the pale stone of the basins. The water «pleurant» — 'weeping' — into white stone basins is a refined, dreamlike garden image.

**19** Des baisers, des oiseaux chantant soir et matin,  
Of kisses, of birds singing evening and morning,

**20** Et tout ce que l'Idylle a de plus enfantin.  
And all that is most childlike in the Idyll.
> «ce que ... a de + adjective»: The construction «ce que X a de plus enfantin» means 'what is most childlike about X'. The «de» before the adjective is required and stays masculine singular: «tout ce que l'Idylle a de plus enfantin» = 'all that is most childlike in the Idyll'.

**21** L'Emeute, tempêtant vainement à ma vitre,  
The Riot, storming in vain against my windowpane,
> émeute (f.): «émeute» = riot, uprising. Baudelaire capitalizes it as a personified force, «L'Emeute», that 'storms in vain' at the glass — the political turmoil of the streets, shut out of the poet's interior world.

**22** Ne fera pas lever mon front de mon pupitre;  
Will not make me lift my brow from my writing-desk;
> Causative «faire lever»: Another causative «faire» + infinitive: «faire lever mon front» = 'to make my brow rise / to make me raise my brow'. With the negation «ne ... pas», the Riot 'will not make me lift my brow' from the desk.

**23** Car je serai plongé dans cette volupté  
For I will be plunged in this voluptuous delight
> volupté (f.): «volupté» is sensuous pleasure, voluptuousness — a keyword of Baudelaire's, stronger and more bodily than 'pleasure'. «cette volupté» is the rapture of summoning spring by sheer will, described in the lines that follow.

**24** D'évoquer le Printemps avec ma volonté,  
Of summoning the Spring by my own will,

**25** De tirer un soleil de mon coeur, et de faire  
Of drawing a sun out of my heart, and of making

**26** De mes pensers brûlants une tiède atmosphère.  
Of my burning thoughts a warm atmosphere.
> penser (m., archaic): «pensers» is an archaic, poetic noun meaning 'thoughts' (modern French uses «pensées»). «faire de mes pensers brûlants une tiède atmosphère» = 'to make of my burning thoughts a warm atmosphere' — turning inner heat into a livable climate.

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