French · Spleen and Ideal

Sonnet d'automne

Autumn Sonnet

14 lines · 13 notes

Tap a line to open its words.

1
They say to me, your eyes, clear as crystal:
Ilstheyil · pronoun, masculine, pluralsubject of disent
meto meme · pronoun, singularindirect object of disent
disentsaydire · verb, present, indicative, third-person, pluralmain verb of the sentence
tesyourton · determiner, pluraldeterminer of yeux
yeuxeyesoeil · noun, masculine, pluralsubject, in apposition with Ils
clairsclearclair · adjective, masculine, pluralmodifies yeux
commeascomme · prepositionpreposition marking cristal
lethele · determiner, masculine, singulardeterminer of cristal
cristalcrystalcristal · noun, masculine, singularterm of comparison modifying clairs
GrammarDislocation: pronoun before its noun The plain order would be «tes yeux me disent» — 'your eyes say to me'. Baudelaire fronts the verb with the pronoun «ils» ('they'), then adds the real subject «tes yeux» ('your eyes') after a comma as an afterthought — a «dislocation» common in French speech and verse. Read «ils» and «tes yeux» as the same thing. The colon hands the next line over to the eyes' own words.
2
"For you, strange lover, what then is my worth?"
Grammar«donc» as an intensifier Here «donc» is not 'therefore' but an untranslatable little goad that sharpens a question — 'what then, what on earth, just what is my worth to you?'. «quel est mon mérite» = 'what is my merit / worth'; «mon mérite» is what one deserves to be valued for. The eyes, speaking inside the «guillemets» («…», the French quotation marks), press the cold lover to say why he keeps them.
3
— Be charming and be silent! My heart, which everything irritates,
GrammarTwo imperatives: «être» and the pronominal «se taire» «sois» is the irregular «tu» imperative of «être» (to be): «sois charmante» = 'be charming'. «tais-toi» is the imperative of the pronominal verb «se taire» (to fall silent, to shut up): in the positive command the pronoun follows and «te» becomes the stressed «toi», hyphenated — «tais-toi!» = 'be quiet!'. The dash marks the lover cutting the eyes off mid-question; he wants beauty without speech.
4
except the innocence of the ancient animal,
Word«candeur» — innocence, not candour «la candeur» is a «faux ami»: it means 'innocence, guilelessness, purity', not English 'candour' (frankness). «l'antique animal» — 'the ancient animal' — is the only thing that does not irritate this heart: a primal, unspeaking innocence, set against the talking, demanding lover of the line above. The thought runs on across the quatrain: «mon coeur… ne veut pas te montrer son secret» (line 5).
5
does not wish to show you its infernal secret,
GrammarCompleting the subject across the stanza break This line has no new subject — it finishes the sentence begun before the white space: «Mon coeur… ne veut pas te montrer son secret». «vouloir» (to want) governs the infinitive «montrer» (to show), and the object pronoun «te» ('you') sits in front of that infinitive: «te montrer» = 'show you'. Baudelaire lets one sentence span the gap between the two quatrains, so the heart's refusal arrives only after the pause.
6
lullaby whose hand invites me to long slumbers,
Grammar«une berceuse» and the relative «dont» «une berceuse» is a cradle-song, a lullaby — and, by extension, the woman who lulls; it is in apposition to the beloved. «dont» is the relative meaning 'whose / of whom / of which': «la berceuse dont la main m'invite» = 'the lullaby whose hand invites me'. «aux longs sommeils» (à + les) = 'to long sleeps' — sleep here shading toward death, the «long sommeil» being a common image for the grave.
7
nor its dark legend written in flame.
8
I hate passion, and wit makes me ache!
Word«haïr» and the double sense of «l'esprit» «je hais» is the present of «haïr» (to hate); the diaeresis is dropped in the «je» form, giving one syllable «hais». «l'esprit» means both 'mind / intellect' and 'wit, cleverness' — the sparkling cleverness the talking eyes demand. «me fait mal» = 'hurts me, makes me ache'. The line is the heart of the poem's refusal: this lover rejects both heat («la passion») and brilliance («l'esprit»), wanting only the dumb innocence of line 4.
9
Let us love gently. Love, in his sentry-box,
GrammarFirst-person plural imperative of «s'aimer» «aimons-nous» is the 'let's…' imperative of the pronominal «s'aimer» (to love each other): the «-ons» ending plus the attached «nous» = 'let us love one another'. «doucement» = 'gently, softly, quietly' — the muted, undemanding love this poem prefers to passion. The capitalized «l'Amour» then personifies Love as a figure (Cupid), set in «sa guérite», his little guard-post, in the lines that follow.
10
shadowy, lying in ambush, draws his fatal bow.
Word«s'embusquer» and «bander un arc» «embusqué» is the past participle of «s'embusquer», 'to lie in ambush, to lurk'; «ténébreux» = 'dark, shadowy, gloomy'. «bander» means 'to bend, to draw taut' a bow: «bande son arc fatal» = 'draws his deadly bow'. Love here is the armed Cupid of myth, hidden in his «guérite» (sentry-box), aiming the arrow named in the next tercet — «Crime, horreur et folie».
11
I know the engines of his old arsenal:
Word«les engins» — war-machines «un engin» is a device or machine, and in older martial use a siege-engine or weapon (the root of English 'engine'). «un arsenal» is the store of arms. «les engins de son vieil arsenal» = 'the engines of his old arsenal' — Love's familiar, well-worn weaponry. The colon opens the inventory, which the final tercet names in three blunt nouns. «je connais» ('I know') makes the poet a veteran who has seen these arms before.
12
Crime, horror, and madness! — O pale daisy!
Word«la marguerite» — daisy, and a name «une marguerite» is the daisy — the flower of «il m'aime, un peu, beaucoup…», French 'he loves me, he loves me not'. Lower-case here, it is the flower; capitalized in the last line («Marguerite») it becomes a woman's name. The dash swings the poem from Love's catalogue of weapons — «Crime, horreur et folie» — straight to this pale bloom, the cold beloved the closing lines address.
13
Like me, are you not an autumn sun,
GrammarNegative interrogative by inversion «n'es-tu pas…?» inverts subject and verb to ask a question — «tu es» becomes «es-tu», wrapped in the negative «ne… pas»: 'are you not…?'. A negative question like this expects agreement ('surely you are…'). «un soleil automnal» = 'an autumn sun', warm but waning. «comme moi» ('like me') folds the beloved into the poet's own late-season coldness — both of them suns past their summer.
14
O my so white, O my so cold Marguerite?
Word«Marguerite» — the name, white and cold Now capitalized, «Marguerite» is the woman's name, the pun closing the poem: she is at once the pale daisy of line 12 and a person. «si» here is the intensifier 'so' — «si blanche», «si froide» = 'so white, so cold'. The repeated «ô ma… ô ma…» turns address into a chill litany; the warmth of «un soleil automnal» is undercut at once by the whiteness and cold of the name, leaving the sonnet on frost, not heat.

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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