French · Spleen and Ideal

Tout entière

Wholly One

24 lines · 21 notes

Tap a line to open its words.

1
The Demon, in my high room,
Lethele · determiner, masculine, singulardeterminer of Démon
DémonDemonDémon · proper noun, masculine, singularhead of the phrase
dansindans · prepositionpreposition marking chambre
mamymon · determiner, feminine, singulardeterminer of chambre
chambreroomchambre · noun, feminine, singularmodifies Démon
hautehighhaut · adjective, singularmodifies chambre
Word«haut» — high, upper «haut» means 'high'; «ma chambre haute» is 'my high room', an upper chamber set above the street. The capitalized «Démon» enters this lofty, near-monastic space at once — the tempter climbing to the poet's heights, the everyday French «chambre» (bedroom) lifted by «haute» into something almost a tower.
2
Came this morning to see me,
Grammar«venir» in the passé composé with «être» «venir» (to come) forms its passé composé with «être», not «avoir»: «est venu» = 'came / has come', and the participle «venu» would agree with a feminine or plural subject. «venir + infinitive» means 'to come (in order) to do' — «est venu me voir» = 'came to see me'. The pronoun «me» sits before the infinitive «voir» it belongs to.
3
And, trying to catch me at fault,
Grammar«tâcher à» — the present participle, archaic «à» «tâchant» is the present participle of «tâcher» (to try, to strive), here describing the Demon: 'trying to'. Modern French prefers «tâcher de + infinitive»; Baudelaire keeps the older «tâcher à», which gives the line an archaic poise. «prendre en faute» is the idiom 'to catch (someone) in the wrong, at fault'.
4
Said to me: "I should very much like to know
Grammar«voudrais» — the conditional as polite wish «voudrais» is the conditional of «vouloir» (to want), softening 'I want' into 'I should like / I would like'. Reinforced by «bien», «je voudrais bien savoir» = 'I should very much like to know'. The conditional lends the Demon a mock courtesy — the tempter's question arrives wrapped in drawing-room politeness, opening the «guillemets» that hold his speech to the end of the poem.
5
Among all the beautiful things
Word«parmi» — among «parmi» means 'among, amid', used for things one is set in the midst of. «parmi toutes les belles choses» = 'among all the beautiful things'. The anaphora — «Parmi … / Parmi …» across this stanza — lays the woman out as an inventory of parts, exactly the division the soul will go on to refuse.
6
Of which her enchantment is made,
Grammar«dont» — relative 'of which', with inversion «dont» is the relative pronoun standing for «de + …» ('of which, whose'): «les belles choses dont est fait son enchantement» = 'the beautiful things of which her enchantment is made'. The verb is fronted before its subject — «est fait son enchantement» rather than «son enchantement est fait» — a poetic inversion that lets «enchantement» fall, weighted, at the line's end.
7
Among the objects black or pink
8
That compose her charming body,
Word«composer» — to make up, to compose «composer» here is 'to make up, to constitute' rather than 'to write music'; «les objets … qui composent son corps» = 'the objects that make up her body'. The Demon's premise is that the body is composed of separable parts — «objets noirs ou roses», 'black or pink objects' — and his trap is to ask which single part the poet prefers.
9
Which is the sweetest." — O my soul!
Grammar«le plus doux» — the superlative «le plus + adjective» forms the superlative: «le plus doux» = 'the sweetest'. The Demon's question closes here — the «guillemets» shut after «doux» — and the em-dash «—» wrenches the poem back to the speaker's own cry, «Ô mon âme!» ('O my soul!'), as the soul prepares to answer the tempter.
10
You answered the Abhorred One:
Grammar«répondis» — the passé simple «répondis» is the passé simple (literary past) of «répondre» (to answer), 'you answered' — a tense reserved for written narration, here giving the soul's reply the finality of scripture. «l'Abhorré» ('the Abhorred One') is a coined epithet for the Demon, the past participle of «abhorrer» (to abhor) capitalized into a proper name, like a title of the Devil.
11
"Since in Her all is balm,
Grammar«puisque» — since, given that «puisque» introduces a reason taken as already granted ('since, seeing that'), unlike «parce que» which answers 'why?'. It elides before a vowel: «puisqu'en Elle». The soul's whole rebuttal turns on this premise — «puisque … tout est dictame», 'since everything in her is balm' — from which the next line draws its conclusion. «Elle» is capitalized to near-divinity.
Word«le dictame» — balm, healing herb «le dictame» is dittany, an aromatic herb the ancients prized as a wound-healer, and so by extension a balm or sovereign remedy. Saying «tout est dictame» — 'everything (in her) is balm' — makes the beloved wholly healing, every part of her a cure, which is why no single part can be 'preferred' over the rest.
12
Nothing can be preferred.
Grammar«rien … ne» and the passive infinitive Negation in French is two-part: «rien» pairs with «ne» around the verb — «rien ne peut» = 'nothing can'. «être préféré» is a passive infinitive ('to be preferred'), with «préféré» agreeing as a participle. The line is the poem's hinge: because all of her is balm, no part «peut être préféré» — can be singled out and ranked above another.
13
When everything ravishes me, I cannot tell
Word«ravir» — to ravish, to delight utterly «ravir» means 'to carry off, to enrapture, to delight beyond measure' — the older sense of English 'ravish'. «tout me ravit» = 'everything ravishes / enraptures me'. «Lorsque» ('when') opens the condition that the rest of the sentence answers: when the whole of her transports the poet at once, he can no longer isolate a cause.
14
If some one thing seduces me.
Grammar«ignorer si» — 'not to know whether' «ignorer» is a false friend: it means 'not to know, to be unaware', not 'to ignore'. «j'ignore si quelque chose me séduit» = 'I do not know whether any single thing seduces me'. The indirect question rides «si» ('whether') across the line break — the poet, ravished by the whole, cannot say which part charms him.
15
She dazzles like the Dawn
Word«éblouir» — to dazzle «éblouir» is 'to dazzle, to blind with brightness'. «Elle éblouit comme l'Aurore» = 'she dazzles like the Dawn'. «l'Aurore» is the dawn (and the goddess Aurora); capitalized, it pairs with «la Nuit» ('the Night') in the next line to set the beloved between two cosmic extremes — she does the work of both day's blaze and night's solace.
16
And consoles like the Night;
17
And the harmony is too exquisite,
Grammar«trop … pour que» + subjunctive «trop … pour que» means 'too … for (something to happen)' and forces the subjunctive in the clause it governs. The structure spans three lines: «l'harmonie est trop exquise … Pour que l'impuissante analyse En note les nombreux accords» — 'the harmony is too exquisite for powerless analysis to note its many chords'. «En note» is the subjunctive of «noter»; the whole is too perfect for the dividing mind to itemize.
18
That governs her whole fair body,
19
For powerless analysis
Word«impuissant» — powerless, impotent «impuissant» means 'powerless, unable, impotent'; the feminine «impuissante» agrees with «analyse». «l'impuissante analyse» = 'powerless analysis' — the dissecting intellect that takes a thing apart. The poem's argument is anti-analytic: the beloved's harmony is too fine for any breaking-down to catalogue, so the mind that would name her parts is left helpless.
20
To note down its many chords.
Word«les accords» — chords, harmonies «un accord» is a musical chord, and more widely an agreement or accord between parts. «les nombreux accords» = 'the many chords' of the harmony that governs her body. The metaphor is musical: she is a single harmony made of countless chords sounding together, which 'powerless analysis' could never write out note by note.
21
O mystic metamorphosis
22
Of all my senses melted into one!
Grammar«fondu» — past participle of «fondre» «fondus» is the past participle of «fondre» (to melt, to fuse), agreeing in the masculine plural with «mes sens» ('my senses'): «fondus en un» = 'melted / fused into one'. This is Baudelairean synesthesia — the senses run together until breath becomes music and voice becomes scent in the final couplet, the many made indivisibly one.
23
Her breath makes the music,
Word«l'haleine» — breath «l'haleine» is the breath one exhales (distinct from «le souffle», a current of breath or wind). «Son haleine fait la musique» = 'her breath makes the music'. The crossing of senses lands here: a breath, properly felt or smelled, is heard as music — and in the next line a voice is breathed as perfume, sense fused into sense.
24
As her voice makes the perfume!"
Word«comme» completing the synesthesia «comme» here means 'just as, in the same way that', balancing this clause against «Son haleine fait la musique»: breath is to music as voice is to perfume. «sa voix fait le parfum» = 'her voice makes the perfume' — sound become scent. The closing «guillemets» shut the soul's long reply, and the senses end wholly merged, the poem's title made flesh.

The particulars

The text: Les Fleurs du mal, Charles Baudelaire. Spleen and Ideal.
Words: Every word of the text, by letter.
Data: JSON · Markdown · A guide for agents