# Rêve parisien · Parisian Dream

Les Fleurs du mal · Charles Baudelaire · Parisian Scenes

Source: https://1732studios.com/books/baudelaire/reve-parisien. Data: https://1732studios.com/books/baudelaire/reve-parisien.json.

**1** À Constantin Guys  
To Constantin Guys


**2** I  
I


**3** De ce terrible paysage,  
Of that terrible landscape,

**4** Tel que jamais mortel n'en vit,  
Such as no mortal ever saw,
> The pronoun «en»: «en» stands in for «de + noun», here «de ce paysage» (of that landscape). «jamais mortel n'en vit» = 'no mortal ever saw any of it'. «vit» is the passé simple of «voir», the literary past tense for narration.

**5** Ce matin encore l'image,  
This very morning still the image,

**6** Vague et lointaine, me ravit.  
Hazy and far-off, enraptures me.
> ravir: «ravir» means 'to enrapture, to carry off, to delight'. «me ravit» = 'enraptures me, sweeps me away'. The verb keeps a trace of its older sense of seizing or abducting, fitting for a dream-vision that takes hold of the poet.


**7** Le sommeil est plein de miracles!  
Sleep is full of miracles!

**8** Par un caprice singulier  
By a singular whim

**9** J'avais banni de ces spectacles  
I had banished from these spectacles
> The pluperfect (plus-que-parfait): «avais banni» is the plus-que-parfait: «avoir» in the imperfect plus the past participle. It marks an action completed before another past moment — 'I had banished' — setting up the dream-world as already arranged before the scene begins.

**10** Le végétal irrégulier,  
All irregular vegetation,


**11** Et, peintre fier de mon génie,  
And, a painter proud of my genius,

**12** Je savourais dans mon tableau  
I savored within my picture

**13** L'enivrante monotonie  
The intoxicating monotony
> enivrant(e): «enivrant» means 'intoxicating', from «enivrer», 'to make drunk' (related to «ivre», drunk). Pairing it with «monotonie» is a deliberate paradox: the sameness of metal, marble, and water is itself heady, like wine.

**14** Du métal, du marbre et de l'eau.  
Of metal, of marble, and of water.


**15** Babel d'escaliers et d'arcades,  
A Babel of staircases and arcades,

**16** C'était un palais infini  
It was an infinite palace

**17** Plein de bassins et de cascades  
Full of basins and of cascades

**18** Tombant dans l'or mat ou bruni;  
Falling into the gold, matte or burnished;
> mat / bruni: «mat» means 'matte, dull, without sheen'; «bruni» (past participle of «brunir») means 'burnished, polished to a shine'. The two opposite finishes of gold show the poet relishing the precise textures of his metallic dream.


**19** Et des cataractes pesantes,  
And ponderous cataracts,

**20** Comme des rideaux de cristal  
Like curtains of crystal

**21** Se suspendaient, éblouissantes,  
Hung suspended, dazzling,
> Pronominal verb «se suspendre»: «se suspendre» is the pronominal form of «suspendre». The reflexive «se» gives an intransitive, almost passive sense — 'to hang, to be suspended' — so the cataracts seem to hang of their own accord rather than being hung by anyone.

**22** À des murailles de métal.  
From walls of metal.


**23** Non d'arbres, mais de colonnades  
Not with trees, but with colonnades

**24** Les étangs dormants s'entouraient  
The sleeping pools surrounded themselves
> s'entourer de: «s'entourer de» = 'to surround oneself with'. The pronominal verb takes «de» before what does the surrounding: «s'entouraient... de colonnades» = 'surrounded themselves with colonnades'. Note the inversion — the object «de colonnades» is fronted ahead of the verb for emphasis.

**25** Où de gigantesques naïades,  
Where gigantic naiads,

**26** Comme des femmes, se miraient.  
Like women, gazed at themselves.
> se mirer: «se mirer» means 'to look at one's reflection, to be mirrored'. The naiads (water nymphs) «se miraient» in the pools — gazing at their own image in the water, as in a mirror («miroir»).


**27** Des nappes d'eau s'épanchaient, bleues,  
Sheets of water spread out, blue,

**28** Entre des quais roses et verts,  
Between quays of pink and green,

**29** Pendant des millions de lieues,  
For millions of leagues,

**30** Vers les confins de l'univers:  
Toward the bounds of the universe:


**31** C'étaient des pierres inouïes  
There were unheard-of stones
> inouï(e): «inouï» literally means 'unheard-of' (from «ouïr», an archaic verb 'to hear') and so 'extraordinary, unprecedented'. The diaeresis on the «ï» signals that «ou-ï» is sounded as two separate syllables.

**32** Et des flots magiques, c'étaient  
And magical waves, there were

**33** D'immenses glaces éblouies  
Immense mirrors dazzled
> la glace: «glace» means both 'mirror' and 'ice' (and 'ice cream'). Here it is 'mirrors' — «d'immenses glaces» — though the icy sense glints through in this cold, crystalline scene. «éblouies» = 'dazzled', past participle agreeing with the feminine plural «glaces».

**34** Par tout ce qu'elles reflétaient!  
By all that they reflected!


**35** Insouciants et taciturnes,  
Carefree and taciturn,

**36** Des Ganges, dans le firmament,  
Ganges rivers, in the firmament,

**37** Versaient le trésor de leurs urnes  
Poured the treasure of their urns

**38** Dans des gouffres de diamant.  
Into chasms of diamond.


**39** Architecte de mes féeries,  
Architect of my enchantments,
> la féerie: «féerie» (from «fée», fairy) means a fairy-tale spectacle, an enchantment — and specifically the lavish stage-shows of fairyland popular in Baudelaire's day. The poet casts himself as the author and «architecte» of his own such wonder.

**40** Je faisais, à ma volonté,  
I made, at my will,

**41** Sous un tunnel de pierreries  
Beneath a tunnel of gemstones

**42** Passer un océan dompté;  
A tamed ocean pass through;
> Causative «faire» + infinitive: «faire» followed by an infinitive means 'to make/have something happen'. «Je faisais... passer un océan» = 'I made an ocean pass'. The construction is split across the stanza, with «faisais» up top and its infinitive «passer» here. «dompté» = 'tamed, subdued' (from «dompter»).


**43** Et tout, même la couleur noire,  
And everything, even the color black,

**44** Semblait fourbi, clair, irisé;  
Seemed polished, bright, iridescent;
> fourbi: «fourbir» means 'to scour, to burnish, to polish up' (as one polishes a weapon or metal). «fourbi» = 'scoured bright, gleaming'. Even blackness, in the dream, is buffed to a shine — keeping the whole vision hard, clean, and metallic.

**45** Le liquide enchâssait sa gloire  
The liquid enshrined its glory
> enchâsser: «enchâsser» means 'to set, to mount (a gem in a setting), to enshrine'. The water sets its own brilliance like a jewel within «le rayon cristallisé» — the crystallized ray of the next line — fusing liquid and mineral.

**46** Dans le rayon cristallisé.  
In the crystallized ray.


**47** Nul astre d'ailleurs, nuls vestiges  
No star, moreover, no trace
> «nul» as a negative determiner: «nul» means 'no, not any', a more emphatic, literary equivalent of «aucun». It agrees in gender and number: «nul astre» (m. sg.), «nuls vestiges» (m. pl.). It normally pairs with «ne», but in poetry the «ne» is often dropped, as here.

**48** De soleil, même au bas du ciel,  
Of sun, even low on the horizon,

**49** Pour illuminer ces prodiges,  
To light up these marvels,

**50** Qui brillaient d'un feu personnel!  
Which shone with a fire of their own!


**51** Et sur ces mouvantes merveilles  
And over these moving marvels

**52** Planait (terrible nouveauté!  
Hovered (a terrible novelty!
> Subject–verb inversion: The verb «planait» (was hovering, from «planer») comes before its subject «Un silence d'éternité», which arrives only two lines later. Fronting the place («sur ces mouvantes merveilles») and the verb suspends the sentence, letting the silence land as the final, weighted word.

**53** Tout pour l'oeil, rien pour les oreilles!)  
All for the eye, nothing for the ears!)

**54** Un silence d'éternité.  
A silence of eternity.


**55** II  
II


**56** En rouvrant mes yeux pleins de flamme  
On reopening my eyes full of flame
> «en» + gerund: «en» plus the present participle forms the gerund («le gérondif»), expressing the manner or moment of an action: 'on/while/by doing'. «En rouvrant mes yeux» = 'on reopening my eyes', marking the instant of waking that snaps the dream shut.

**57** J'ai vu l'horreur de mon taudis,  
I saw the horror of my hovel,
> le taudis: «taudis» means 'hovel, slum, squalid lodging'. After the diamond palace, the single word drops the poet — and us — back into a wretched real room. The whole second part turns on this contrast.

**58** Et senti, rentrant dans mon âme,  
And felt, returning into my soul,

**59** La pointe des soucis maudits;  
The sting of accursed cares;


**60** La pendule aux accents funèbres  
The clock with its funereal voice

**61** Sonnait brutalement midi,  
Was brutally striking noon,

**62** Et le ciel versait des ténèbres  
And the sky was pouring down darkness
> les ténèbres: «ténèbres» is a feminine plural noun with no singular: 'darkness, gloom, shadows'. That the sky pours «des ténèbres» at high noon completes the reversal — the dream was self-lit, the waking world is dark even at midday.

**63** Sur le triste monde engourdi.  
Upon the sad, numbed world.
> engourdi: «engourdi» means 'numb, torpid, sluggish' (from «engourdir», 'to numb'). It closes the poem on a world deadened and half-asleep — the opposite of the dazzling, hyper-alert dream.

---

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