French · Spleen and Ideal

Tristesses de la lune

Sorrows of the Moon

14 lines · 15 notes

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1
Tonight the moon dreams with a deeper indolence;
Cethisce · determiner, masculine, singulardeterminer of soir
soireveningsoir · noun, masculine, singulartemporal adjunct of rêve
lathele · determiner, feminine, singulardeterminer of lune
lunemoonlune · noun, feminine, singularsubject of rêve
rêvedreamsrêver · verb, present, indicative, third-person, singularmain verb of the sentence
avecwithavec · prepositionpreposition marking paresse
plusmoreplus · adverbquantifies paresse
deofde · prepositionintroduces paresse after plus
paresseindolenceparesse · noun, feminine, singularoblique argument of avec
Word«rêver» — and the personified moon «rêver» is 'to dream'. From the first line the moon is no object but a languid woman: «la lune rêve avec plus de paresse» — 'the moon dreams with more laziness'. «la paresse» is idleness, sloth; «avec plus de paresse» means 'more idly than usual', setting up the simile of the drowsing beauty that fills the whole first quatrain.
2
Just like a beauty who, upon her heaped-up cushions,
Grammar«ainsi que» — 'just as, like' «ainsi que» means 'just as, in the same way as' and here opens the governing simile: the moon dreams «ainsi qu'une beauté» — 'like a beautiful woman'. Everything from this line to «le contour de ses seins» describes that woman, not the moon directly; the comparison is sustained across three lines before the poem returns to the sky.
3
With an absent, weightless hand goes caressing
Word«distrait(e)» — absent-minded «distrait», feminine «distraite», means absent-minded, inattentive, lost in thought — not 'distracted' by anything in particular. «d'une main distraite et légère» — 'with an absent, light hand' — gives the gesture its half-asleep idleness: the hand strays of its own accord, barely aware of what it touches.
GrammarVerb split from its object The verb «caresse» (caresses) sits at the end of this line, but its direct object «le contour de ses seins» does not arrive until the next line, after the long adverbial «Avant de s'endormir». French verse readily strains word order this way for rhyme and suspense; in reading, link «caresse» straight through to «le contour» — 'caresses the curve of her breasts'.
4
The curve of her own breasts before she falls asleep,
Grammar«avant de» + infinitive; pronominal «s'endormir» «avant de» is followed by the infinitive, never a conjugated verb: «avant de s'endormir» = 'before falling asleep'. «s'endormir» is the pronominal verb 'to fall asleep' (as opposed to «dormir», 'to sleep'), the «se» marking the change of state the sleeper undergoes in herself. The subject of the infinitive is understood from the clause — the beauty of the simile.
5
Upon the satin back of soft, slow avalanches,
Word«mou / molle» and the cloud-avalanches «mou», feminine «molle», means soft, slack, yielding. The «molles avalanches» are the billowing banks of cloud the moon now reclines on, imagined as soft, satin-backed snowslides. «Avalanche» keeps its sense of a slow, heaped mass in motion — luxurious bedding rather than disaster — continuing the boudoir image of the cushions above.
6
Dying away, she gives herself to long deep swoons,
GrammarPronominal «se livrer à» — to give oneself over to «livrer» is 'to deliver, hand over'; the pronominal «se livrer à» means 'to give oneself up to, surrender to' something. «elle se livre aux longues pâmoisons» — 'she abandons herself to long swoons'. «Mourante» (dying, fem.) is a participle agreeing with «elle» (the moon): she sinks, faint and yielding, into her own languor.
Word«la pâmoison» — a swoon «la pâmoison» is a swoon or fainting fit, an ecstatic loss of consciousness (from «se pâmer», to swoon). The plural «les longues pâmoisons» — 'long swoons' — fuses erotic abandon with the moon's slow setting: she faints by degrees into the clouds, voluptuous and half-dead at once.
7
And lets her gaze stray over the white apparitions
Word«promener ses yeux / son regard» Literally 'to walk one's eyes', the idiom «promener ses yeux (sur)» means to let one's gaze wander or rove slowly over something. «promène ses yeux sur les visions blanches» — 'lets her eyes drift over the white visions', the pale cloud-shapes she watches rise. The verb keeps the dreamy, unhurried motion of the whole poem.
8
That climb into the blue like slow unfoldings of bloom.
Word«la floraison» — a flowering «la floraison» is the act or season of flowering, a blossoming. The white visions «montent dans l'azur comme des floraisons» — rise into the blue 'like flowerings', as if the clouds were blooming open in the sky. «l'azur» (the azure) is a favourite Baudelairean word for the bright upper heavens, the ideal toward which the images ascend.
9
When at times, upon this orb, in her idle languor,
Word«la langueur» and «oisif / oisive» «la langueur» is languor — a soft weariness, a melancholy lack of energy. «oisif», feminine «oisive», means idle, doing nothing. «en sa langueur oisive» — 'in her idle languor' — and «ce globe» is the moon's own disk; the tercet now opens the conditional moment when, out of all this listlessness, a single tear may fall.
10
She lets a furtive teardrop slip and fall,
Grammar«laisser» + infinitive — to let (something) happen «laisser» followed by an infinitive means 'to let / allow (something) to do': «elle laisse filer une larme» = 'she lets a tear slip away'. «filer» here is 'to slide, slip, trickle'. The construction makes the tear escape almost without her will — «furtive», stolen and unnoticed — the one drop the whole sonnet has been moving toward.
11
A pious poet, sworn enemy of sleep,
12
Into the hollow of his hand takes up that pale tear,
GrammarFronted adverbial with delayed verb The sentence began with its subject «Un poète pieux» in the line before; here the adverbial «Dans le creux de sa main» (in the hollow of his hand) is fronted ahead of the verb «prend» (takes), which has no repeated subject pronoun. Read it as 'a pious poet… takes that pale tear into the hollow of his hand'. The inversion keeps the gesture suspended to the very end of the poem.
13
With iridescent glints like a shard of opal,
Word«irisé» — iridescent; descriptive «à» «irisé» means iridescent, shimmering with rainbow colours (from «iris», the rainbow). The phrase «aux reflets irisés» uses «à» to attach a defining trait to the tear of the previous line — 'the tear with iridescent gleams' — comparing it «comme un fragment d'opale», like a chip of opal: a small, precious, many-coloured stone.
14
And hides it in his heart, far from the eyes of the sun.
GrammarObject pronoun «la» — the tear «la» is the feminine direct-object pronoun standing for «la larme» (the tear), and precedes its verb «met» (puts): «la met dans son coeur» = 'puts it in his heart'. The closing line opposes the secret heart to «les yeux du soleil» — the eyes of the sun, daylight and the public world — the poet guarding the moon's one tear where the sun can never reach it.

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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