French · Spleen and Ideal

Spleen (J'ai plus de souvenirs)

Spleen (I Have More Memories)

24 lines · 14 notes

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1
I have more memories than if I had lived a thousand years.
J'Ije · pronoun, singularsubject of ai
aihaveavoir · verb, present, indicative, first-person, singularmain verb of the sentence
plusmoreplus · adverbquantifier modifying souvenirs
deofde · prepositionpartitive marker introducing souvenirs
souvenirsmemoriessouvenir · noun, masculine, pluraldirect object of ai
quethanque · subordinating conjunctionintroduces the comparison
siifsi · subordinating conjunctionintroduces the clause of avais
j'Ije · pronoun, singularsubject of avais
avaishadavoir · verb, imperfect, indicative, first-person, singularverb of the conditional clause
millethousandmille · numeralquantifies ans
ansyearsan · noun, masculine, pluraldirect object of avais
Grammar«si» + imperfect (counterfactual) «si» plus the imperfect «avais» frames an unreal hypothesis: 'than if I had a thousand years'. The comparison is impossible by design — the speaker claims more memories than a thousand-year life could hold, opening the poem on a mind crushed under its own accumulated past.
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A great chest of drawers cluttered with balance-sheets,
Word«un meuble à tiroirs» «un meuble» is any piece of furniture; «à tiroirs» ('with drawers') specifies a chest or bureau. «un bilan» is an accountant's balance-sheet or statement. The image opens a long catalogue of dead paperwork — accounts, verses, love-notes, lawsuits — crammed into furniture that still hides fewer secrets than the speaker's brain.
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of verses, love-letters, lawsuits, and ballads,
Word«un billet doux» / «une romance» «un billet doux» is a love-note (literally a 'sweet note'); «une romance» is a sentimental ballad or song. Note «de vers» here means 'verses, lines of poetry' — a different word from «les vers» ('worms') that crawl through stanza two below. Baudelaire will let that pun do quiet work.
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with heavy locks of hair rolled up in receipts,
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hides fewer secrets than my mournful brain.
GrammarHeld-back verb and «moins... que» The single verb «cache» ('hides') governs the whole sentence and is held back across four lines, arriving only here: it is the chest of drawers that 'hides'. «moins de secrets que» = 'fewer secrets than' — the furniture, for all its crammed papers, conceals less than «mon triste cerveau», the speaker's own sorrowful brain.
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It is a pyramid, an immense burial-vault,
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that holds more dead than the common grave.
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— I am a graveyard loathed by the moon,
GrammarPast participle + «de» (agent) «abhorré» ('abhorred, loathed') is a past participle agreeing with «cimetière»; the agent is introduced by «de» rather than «par», an elevated literary usage common with verbs of feeling. So 'a graveyard loathed by the moon' — even the moon turns its face from this burial-ground of the self.
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where, like pangs of remorse, long worms drag themselves
Grammar«se traîner» (pronominal) + the «vers» pun «se traîner» = 'to drag oneself, to crawl' — the pronominal «se» makes the worms creep of their own accord. With inversion the subject «de longs vers» ('long worms') follows its verb. «vers» now means 'worms', echoing «de vers» ('verses') in the chest above: the poet's lines and the grave's worms are the same word, both gnawing his cherished dead.
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that forever set upon my dearest dead.
Word«s'acharner sur» «s'acharner sur» = 'to set upon relentlessly, to torment without let-up' — the pronominal verb carries an idea of dogged, savage persistence. The worms (and the remorse they stand for) fasten on «mes morts les plus chers», the memories the speaker loves most, never sparing them.
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I am an old boudoir full of withered roses,
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where lies a whole jumble of outmoded fashions,
Word«gésir» / «suranné» «gît» is from the defective verb «gésir» ('to lie'), the verb of tombstones — «ci-gît» means 'here lies'. «suranné» = 'outdated, antiquated, gone out of fashion'. So the boudoir's clutter of old gowns and styles does not merely sit there but 'lies' as the dead lie — the room is one more grave.
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where plaintive pastels and pale Bouchers,
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alone, breathe in the scent of an unstoppered flask.
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Nothing equals in length the limping days,
Word«boiteux» — limping «boiteux/boiteuse» = 'lame, limping, halting'. The days do not pass so much as hobble. «en longueur» = 'in length, drawn out'. Nothing drags longer than these crippled days when boredom swells, under winter's snows, to the size of eternity.
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when, beneath the heavy flakes of the snowing years,
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ennui, the fruit of dismal incuriosity,
Word«l'ennui» and «l'incuriosité» «ennui» is far stronger than English 'boredom': a soul-deep, listless despair — the «spleen» the whole section is named against. «l'incuriosité» = the want of all curiosity, indifference to everything. Boredom is its 'fruit': born of caring about nothing, it ripens until it swells «aux proportions de l'immortalité» in the next line.
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takes on the proportions of immortality.
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— Henceforth you are no more, O living matter!
Grammar«ne... plus» + apostrophe «ne... plus» = 'no longer, no more'. «désormais» = 'from now on, henceforth'. The speaker turns to address himself as «ô matière vivante» ('O living matter') in the second person «tu» — a self-apostrophe. What follows («Qu'un granit...») completes the thought: you are no longer anything but a block of granite.
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but a block of granite ringed by a vague dread,
Grammar«ne... plus que» — nothing more than This «Qu'» completes «tu n'es plus» from the line above: the construction «ne... plus que» means 'no longer anything but'. So 'you are now nothing but a granite block, ringed by a vague terror' — the living man has hardened into inert stone in a fog-bound desert.
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drowsing in the depths of a misty Sahara;
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an old sphinx unknown to the heedless world,
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forgotten on the map, and whose sullen mood
GrammarRelative «dont» (= of which / whose) «dont» is the relative meaning 'of which, of whom, whose', standing in for «de» + antecedent — here referring to the sphinx: 'whose sullen mood'. «farouche» = 'wild, shy, fierce, unsociable'. The clause runs on into the last line: this sphinx's mood «ne chante qu'aux rayons du soleil qui se couche».
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sings only in the rays of the setting sun.
Grammar«ne... que» — only «ne... que» means 'only, nothing but' — not a negation but a restriction. So «ne chante qu'aux rayons du soleil qui se couche» = 'sings only in the rays of the setting sun'. «se coucher» (pronominal) is the verb for the sun 'going down'. The forgotten sphinx finds voice at one moment alone — the dying of the light — and the poem ends there.

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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