French · Spleen and Ideal

Que diras-tu ce soir, pauvre âme solitaire

What will you say tonight, poor lonely soul

15 lines · 10 notes

Tap a line to open its words.

1
What will you say tonight, poor lonely soul,
Quewhatque · pronoundirect object of diras
diraswill saydire · verb, future, second-person, singularmain verb of the sentence
tuyoutu · pronoun, second-person, singularsubject of diras
cethisce · determiner, masculine, singulardeterminer of soir
soirtonightsoir · noun, masculine, singularadverbial time complement of diras
pauvrepoorpauvre · adjective, singularmodifies âme
âmesoulâme · noun, feminine, singularhead of the vocative phrase
solitairelonelysolitaire · adjective, singularmodifies âme
2
what will you say, my heart, heart once withered,
Word«flétri» — withered, faded «flétri» is the past participle of «flétrir», 'to wither, to wilt' (of a flower), and figuratively 'to blight, to dishonor'. «autrefois» = 'formerly, once'. The heart was once a faded, blighted thing — set against «refleuri» ('bloomed again') three lines down, the floral metaphor frames the beloved's gaze as a second spring.
3
to the very beautiful, to the very good, to the very
GrammarAnaphora and the rejet of «chère» Three times «à la très …» piles superlative on superlative ('to the very …'), addressing the beloved. The third adjective is held back: «la très» dangles at the line's end and only completes on the next line as «chère». This deliberate break across the line — a rejet — makes the litany strain forward, like a prayer reaching for its last word.
4
dear,
5
whose divine gaze has suddenly made you bloom again?
Word«refleurir» — to flower again «refleurir» = 'to blossom anew, to flower again' (the prefix «re-» on «fleurir», 'to bloom'). «Dont le regard divin» = 'whose divine gaze', the relative «dont» pointing back to the beloved. Her look revives the «coeur autrefois flétri» — the withered heart blooms once more, closing the flower image of the quatrain.
6
— We shall set our pride on singing her praises:
Grammar«mettre son orgueil à» + infinitive «mettre son orgueil à faire qch» = 'to take pride in doing something, to make it a point of pride'. The em-dash «—» opening the stanza marks the soul's answer to the question of the first quatrain: rather than fall silent, it will glory in praising her. «chanter ses louanges» = 'to sing her praises'.
7
nothing equals the sweetness of her authority;
8
her spiritual flesh has the fragrance of the Angels
Word«chair» — flesh «la chair» is 'flesh' (the body, the carnal), usually opposed to the spirit. Yoking it to «spirituelle» — 'spiritual flesh' — is a calculated paradox: in this beloved the carnal and the angelic merge, so that her body carries «le parfum des Anges», the very perfume of the Angels.
9
and her eye clothes us in a garment of light.
Grammar«revêtir quelqu'un de» — to clothe someone in «revêtir» = 'to clothe, to dress, to robe'; «revêtir qn de qch» = 'to clothe someone in something'. «son oeil nous revêt d'un habit de clarté» = 'her eye clothes us in a garment of light'. The beloved's gaze does not merely shine on us — it dresses us, like a sacred vestment, in «clarté», radiance.
10
Whether it be in the night and in solitude,
Grammar«que ce soit» — the subjunctive of concession «soit» is the present subjunctive of «être»; «que ce soit … que ce soit …» = 'whether it be … or whether it be …'. The doubled subjunctive grants every setting at once — night or street, solitude or crowd — so that her phantom is present everywhere, dancing «comme un flambeau» in the line that follows.
11
whether it be in the street and in the multitude,
12
her phantom in the air dances like a torch.
13
Sometimes it speaks and says: "I am beautiful, and I command
Grammar«ordonner que» + subjunctive of command «ordonner» = 'to command, to order'; «ordonner que» governs the subjunctive. The command itself lands in the next line: «aimiez» is the present subjunctive of «aimer». So «j'ordonne / Que … vous n'aimiez que le Beau» = 'I command that … you love nothing but the Beautiful'. The phantom now speaks in her own voice, decreeing the poet's devotion.
14
that for love of me you love nothing but the Beautiful;
Grammar«ne … que» — nothing but, only «ne … que» is the restrictive 'only / nothing but' (not a true negation). «vous n'aimiez que le Beau» = 'you love only the Beautiful'. «le Beau» — capitalized Beauty as an absolute — is what she orders him to love «pour l'amour de moi», 'for love of me': loving her means loving Beauty itself.
15
I am the guardian Angel, the Muse and the Madonna."
WordGuardian Angel, Muse, Madonna The phantom names herself in three sacred guises: «l'Ange gardien», the guardian angel who protects; «la Muse», who inspires the poet's art; «la Madone», the Madonna, the Virgin who is worshipped. The line fuses spiritual guardianship, poetic inspiration, and religious adoration — the beloved as protector, source, and object of a cult, the «guillemets» closing on her own self-declaration.

The particulars

The text: Les Fleurs du mal, Charles Baudelaire. Spleen and Ideal.
Words: Every word of the text, by letter.
Data: JSON · Markdown · A guide for agents