# Spleen (Quand le ciel bas et lourd) · Spleen (When the Low, Heavy Sky)

Les Fleurs du mal · Charles Baudelaire · Spleen and Ideal

Source: https://1732studios.com/books/baudelaire/spleen-quand-le-ciel-bas-et-lourd. Data: https://1732studios.com/books/baudelaire/spleen-quand-le-ciel-bas-et-lourd.json.

**1** Quand le ciel bas et lourd pèse comme un couvercle  
When the low, heavy sky weighs down like a lid

**2** Sur l'esprit gémissant en proie aux longs ennuis,  
upon the groaning spirit prey to long ennuis,
> «en proie à» — prey to: «en proie à» = 'a prey to, in the grip of, beset by'. «une proie» is literally the prey of a hunting animal, so the spirit is being devoured by its «longs ennuis». «ennui» here is far heavier than English 'boredom' — the soul-deep weariness and despair that is the very «spleen» the poem and its section are named for.

**3** Et que de l'horizon embrassant tout le cercle  
and when, embracing the whole circle of the horizon,
> «Et que» — resuming a «Quand» clause: «que» here stands in for a repeated «Quand»: rather than write «Quand... et quand...», French uses «Quand... et que...» to chain a second 'when' clause without repeating the conjunction. The poem opens three of its four first stanzas with «Quand», so each «Et que» you meet ('and when') is hooking another condition onto that long suspended sentence.

**4** Il nous verse un jour noir plus triste que les nuits;  
it pours upon us a black day sadder than the nights;


**5** Quand la terre est changée en un cachot humide,  
When the earth is changed into a dank dungeon,
> «cachot» — a dungeon cell: «un cachot» is a dark, often underground prison cell or dungeon — narrower and grimmer than the general «prison» of the next stanza. «humide» = 'damp, dank'. The whole earth shrinks to a wet cell, and «l'Espérance» (Hope) becomes its trapped prisoner, beating the walls in the lines that follow.

**6** Où l'Espérance, comme une chauve-souris,  
where Hope, like a bat,

**7** S'en va battant les murs de son aile timide  
goes beating the walls with its timid wing
> «s'en aller» + present participle: «s'en aller» is the pronominal verb 'to go off, to go away' (stronger and more departing than plain «aller»). Followed by the present participle «battant», it expresses ongoing motion: 'goes off beating / keeps beating'. Hope, the caged bat, «s'en va battant les murs» — flits about striking the walls — never escaping the «cachot».

**8** Et se cognant la tête à des plafonds pourris;  
and knocking its head against rotten ceilings;
> «se cogner la tête» — reflexive with a body part: «se cogner» = 'to knock, bump oneself'. With a part of the body the reflexive «se» does the work English does with a possessive: «se cogner la tête» = 'to bang one's head' (literally 'to bang oneself the head'). The bat-Hope bruises itself blindly against the «plafonds pourris» (rotten ceilings) of its prison.


**9** Quand la pluie étalant ses immenses traînées  
When the rain, spreading out its immense streaks,

**10** D'une vaste prison imite les barreaux,  
imitates the bars of a vast prison,

**11** Et qu'un peuple muet d'infâmes araignées  
and when a mute people of vile spiders

**12** Vient tendre ses filets au fond de nos cerveaux,  
comes to stretch its webs in the depths of our brains,
> «tendre ses filets» — to set its nets: «tendre» = 'to stretch tight, to set, to lay' and «un filet» is a net or web; «tendre ses filets» is the set phrase for laying snares or spinning a web. The silent army of spiders spins its webs «au fond de nos cerveaux» — in the very depths of our brains — making despair an infestation of the mind, much as the «Démons» swarm the brain in «Au Lecteur».


**13** Des cloches tout à coup sautent avec furie  
Bells all at once leap up with fury

**14** Et lancent vers le ciel un affreux hurlement,  
and hurl toward the sky a hideous howling,

**15** Ainsi que des esprits errants et sans patrie  
just like wandering spirits with no homeland
> «errant» — wandering (a false friend): «errant» means 'wandering, roaming, straying' (from «errer», to roam) — not the English 'erring'. The clanging bells are likened to «des esprits errants et sans patrie» — homeless, wandering souls 'with no homeland' — who, in the next line, break into an obstinate moaning. The same root gives «le Juif errant», the Wandering Jew.

**16** Qui se mettent à geindre opiniâtrement.  
who set themselves to whine obstinately.
> «se mettre à» + infinitive — to start to: «se mettre à» + infinitive = 'to begin to, to set about (doing)', stressing the abrupt onset of an action. «geindre» = 'to whine, moan, groan'; «opiniâtrement» = 'stubbornly, doggedly'. The homeless spirits «se mettent à geindre opiniâtrement» — break into a relentless, obstinate moaning — the very sound the furious bells make.


**17** — Et de longs corbillards, sans tambours ni musique,  
— And long hearses, with neither drums nor music,
> «corbillard» — a hearse: «un corbillard» is a hearse, the carriage that bears the coffin in a funeral. The opening em-dash and «Et» mark the turn into the final movement: the outer storm collapses into an inner funeral, a slow file of hearses «sans tambours ni musique» (with neither drums nor music) processing «dans mon âme» — through the speaker's very soul.

**18** Défilent lentement dans mon âme; l'Espoir,  
file slowly through my soul; Hope,

**19** Vaincu, pleure, et l'Angoisse atroce, despotique,  
vanquished, weeps, and atrocious, despotic Anguish
> «vaincu» — past participle of «vaincre»: «vaincu» is the past participle of the irregular verb «vaincre» ('to vanquish, defeat'). Set off as an adjective describing «l'Espoir» across the line break — «l'Espoir, / Vaincu, pleure» — it means 'Hope, defeated, weeps'. With Hope beaten and in tears, «l'Angoisse» (Anguish) seizes power in the final image.

**20** Sur mon crâne incliné plante son drapeau noir.  
plants its black flag on my bowed skull.

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