French · Spleen and Ideal

Sépulture

Burial

14 lines · 9 notes

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1
If on some heavy, sombre night
SiIfsi · subordinating conjunctionintroduces the conditional clause
paronpar · prepositionpreposition marking nuit
unesomeun · determiner, feminine, singulardeterminer of nuit
nuitnightnuit · noun, feminine, singularobject of par
lourdeheavylourd · adjective, feminine, singularmodifies nuit
etandet · conjunctionlinks the coordination
sombresombresombre · adjective, singularcoordinated with lourde
GrammarThe «Si» that opens the sentence «si» is 'if', and it launches a single long conditional that runs across the whole first quatrain: «Si … Un bon chrétien … Enterre votre corps» = 'If … some good Christian … buries your body'. «par une nuit lourde et sombre» = 'on some heavy, sombre night', where «par» sets the time-frame ('on / one such'). The «si» is never closed by a 'then' word — the consequence simply opens in the second stanza, with «À l'heure où…».
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Some good Christian, out of charity,
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Behind some heap of old debris
Word«décombre» — rubble, ruins «des décombres» (usually plural) means rubble, debris, the ruins of a fallen building; the singular «quelque vieux décombre» = 'some old heap of rubble'. «quelque» here is the vague 'some (or other)'. The burial is furtive and dishonoured — not in a churchyard but tossed behind a ruin, which is why the body will be left to spiders, vipers, and wolves rather than to rest in consecrated ground.
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Buries your once-vaunted body,
Word«vanté» — praised, vaunted «vanté» is the past participle of «vanter» (to praise, to extol, to boast of), used as an adjective: «votre corps vanté» = 'your praised, much-vaunted body'. The flattery is past tense and ironic — the body once celebrated (in life, in love, perhaps in these very poems) is now the thing a stranger shoves behind a ruin. «Enterre» is the verb of the whole 'if'-clause: '(if a good Christian) buries…'.
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At the hour when the chaste stars
Grammar«à l'heure où» — at the hour when «où» normally means 'where', but after a noun of time it means 'when': «à l'heure où» = 'at the hour when'. The phrase opens the consequence of the first stanza's «si», setting the midnight scene. «les chastes étoiles / Ferment leurs yeux» personifies the stars as chaste sleepers who shut their eyes — so that no pure thing will witness what the grave does after dark.
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Close their heavy-laden eyes,
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The spider will spin its webs there,
GrammarThe pronoun «y» — 'there' «y» stands in for a place already named — here the grave behind the ruin: «L'araignée y fera ses toiles» = 'the spider will make its webs there'. «une toile» is a web or cloth (a spider's «toile» is its web); «fera» is the future of «faire» (to make, to do). The future tense across this stanza — «fera», «ses petits» (will have her young) — promises what the buried body must endure year after year.
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And the viper rear its young;
GrammarAn understood verb The verb is omitted but carried over from the line above: «Et la vipère [fera] ses petits» = 'and the viper [will make / bear] her young'. French verse readily drops a repeated verb this way, leaving the two clauses to share «fera». «ses petits» means 'her young / her little ones'. The grave becomes a nursery for vermin — spiders nesting, vipers breeding in the dishonoured body.
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All year long you will hear
GrammarThe dead «vous» that still hears «entendrez» is the future of «entendre» (to hear): «Vous entendrez» = 'you will hear'. The horror is that the corpse, though buried, still has senses — addressed throughout as «votre corps», «votre tête», «vous». «toute l'année» = 'all year long, the whole year through', stretching the torment beyond any single night into a permanent, conscious death.
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Above your condemned head
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The mournful cries of the wolves
Word«lamentable» — wailing, mournful In French «lamentable» keeps its root sense of 'wailing, full of lament' (from «se lamenter», to wail) more than the English 'pitiful, pathetic'. «les cris lamentables des loups» = 'the mournful, wailing cries of the wolves'. This is the direct object of «entendrez» two lines up: 'you will hear … the wailing cries of the wolves', the sound that hangs over the condemned head all year.
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And of starving witches,
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The frolics of lecherous old men
Word«ébats» and «lubrique» — frolics and lust «les ébats» (almost always plural) are frolics, gambols, amorous sport; «lubrique» means lewd, lustful, salacious. «les ébats des vieillards lubriques» = 'the lewd frolics of lecherous old men'. The cold grave is surrounded not by mourning but by obscene revelry — the final insult is that even the dishonoured dead are denied silence, ringed instead by witches, lechers, and thieves.
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And the plots of black-hearted thieves.

The particulars

The text: Les Fleurs du mal, Charles Baudelaire. Spleen and Ideal.
Words: Every word of the text, by letter.
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