French · Spleen and Ideal

Tu mettrais l'univers entier dans ta ruelle

You would put the whole universe in your alcove

18 lines · 13 notes

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1
You would put the whole universe in your alcove,
Tuyoutu · pronoun, singularsubject of mettrais
mettraiswould putmettre · verb, present, conditional, second-person, singularmain verb of the sentence
l'thele · determiner, masculine, singulardeterminer of univers
universuniverseunivers · noun, masculine, singulardirect object of mettrais
entierwholeentier · adjective, masculine, singularmodifies univers
dansindans · prepositionpreposition marking ruelle
tayourton · determiner, feminine, singulardeterminer of ruelle
ruellealcoveruelle · noun, feminine, singularoblique argument of mettrais
Word«la ruelle» — the bedside «ruelle» literally means a 'little street, alley', but in older usage it is the narrow space between a bed and the wall — the alcove where a woman received visitors from her bed. The hyperbole is sexual and devouring: she would cram the entire «univers» into that intimate, bedside space.
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Impure woman! Boredom makes your soul cruel.
Grammar«rendre» + adjective — 'to make' «rendre» followed by an object and an adjective means 'to make (something) X': «l'ennui rend ton âme cruelle» = 'boredom makes your soul cruel'. Distinct from «faire», which takes an infinitive; «rendre» takes the adjective directly. «ennui» here is the book's keynote — a soul-deep weariness, not mere boredom.
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To train your teeth at this singular game,
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you need each day a heart upon the rack.
Word«le râtelier» — the feeding rack «le râtelier» is the slatted rack on a stable wall from which animals feed (also, colloquially, a set of false teeth). «un coeur au râtelier» casts the woman as a beast at its trough, needing a fresh heart served up daily — the «dents» of the line before now bite into prey, not food.
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Your eyes, lit up like shop-fronts
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and like blazing yews at public festivals,
Word«l'if» — yew, and the fireworks frame «if» is the yew tree, but here it names a pyramidal wooden frame studded with candles or fireworks — shaped like a yew — set up to illuminate public celebrations. Paired with the lit «boutiques» (shop-fronts) of the previous line, the simile makes her eyes shine with a borrowed, theatrical, public glare rather than any inner light.
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make insolent use of a borrowed power,
Grammar«user de» — to make use of «user de quelque chose» (with «de») means 'to make use of, to exercise' something — not to be confused with «user quelque chose», 'to wear it out'. «tes yeux… usent d'un pouvoir emprunté» = 'your eyes wield a borrowed power'. The power is «emprunté» (borrowed): the eyes dazzle without owning what they dazzle by.
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without ever knowing the law of their own beauty.
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Blind and deaf machine, fertile in cruelties!
Grammar«fécond en» + inverted adjective «fécond en quelque chose» = 'fertile / teeming in something'. Normal prose order would be «féconde en cruautés»; Baudelaire inverts it to «en cruautés féconde» to land the rhyme on «féconde» (with «monde»). Such adjective inversions are a standard licence of French verse — read the «en…» phrase as completing the adjective that follows it.
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Salutary instrument, drinker of the world's blood,
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How are you not ashamed, and how have you not
Word«avoir honte» — to be ashamed «avoir honte» (literally 'to have shame') is the French idiom for 'to be ashamed'. The interrogative inversion «n'as-tu pas honte» = 'are you not ashamed?'. The second «comment n'as-tu pas» dangles across the line break, its verb «vu» («vu pâlir tes appas») delivered only in the next line — a suspended, accusing question.
12
before every mirror seen your charms grow pale?
Word«les appas» — charms, allurements «les appas» (plural, masculine) is a literary word for a woman's physical charms or allurements — close to «attraits». «vu pâlir tes appas» = 'seen your charms grow pale': «pâlir» ('to grow pale, to fade') is the infinitive after «vu», so she has watched her own allure fade in every mirror without shame.
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The grandeur of this evil in which you think yourself learned
Grammar«se croire» + adjective «se croire» is the pronominal 'to believe oneself (to be) X': «tu te crois savante» = 'you think yourself learned / believe yourself an expert' (in «ce mal», this evil). The reflexive «te» refers back to the subject «tu»; «savante» is feminine, agreeing with the woman addressed throughout.
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has it then never made you recoil in dread,
Grammar«faire» + infinitive (causative) «faire reculer quelqu'un» = 'to make someone draw back': «la grandeur de ce mal… ne t'a jamais fait reculer» = 'the grandeur of this evil has never made you recoil'. The object pronoun «te/t'» precedes the conjugated «faire»; «reculer d'épouvante» — 'to recoil in dread' — gives the cause with «de».
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when Nature, great in her hidden designs,
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makes use of you, O woman, O queen of sins,
Grammar«se servir de» — to use «se servir de quelque chose/quelqu'un» is the pronominal idiom for 'to make use of'. Prose order would be «la nature se sert de toi»; Baudelaire fronts «De toi» for emphasis and rhyme: 'of you Nature makes use'. The fronting puts the woman first as the mere instrument Nature wields.
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— of you, vile animal, — to mold a genius?
Word«pétrir» — to knead, to mold «pétrir» is to knead dough or work clay — to shape a malleable mass by hand. «pour pétrir un génie» = 'to mold a genius': Nature uses even this «vil animal» as raw material out of which a genius (the poet himself) is kneaded. The two em-dashes set off «De toi, vil animal» as a contemptuous aside.
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O miry grandeur! sublime ignominy!
Word«fangeux» — miry; the closing oxymorons «fangeux» means 'muddy, miry, slimy', from «la fange», mire or filth. The final line yokes opposites into two oxymorons — «fangeuse grandeur» (miry grandeur) and «sublime ignominie» (sublime ignominy) — fusing the woman's degradation with the greatness it serves. The whole poem collapses into this single paradox: glory bred out of filth.

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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