French · Spleen and Ideal

Une nuit que j'étais près d'une affreuse Juive

One Night When I Lay Beside a Hideous Jewess

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1
One night when I lay beside a hideous Jewess,
Uneoneun · determiner, feminine, singulardeterminer of nuit
nuitnightnuit · noun, feminine, singularhead of the phrase
quewhenque · subordinating conjunctionintroduces the relative clause of étais, modifying nuit
j'Ije · pronoun, singularsubject of étais
étaislayêtre · verb, imperfect, indicative, first-person, singularmain verb of the relative clause modifying nuit
prèsnearprès · adverbadverbial modifying étais, forms près de with d'
d'ofde · prepositionpreposition marking Juive (près de)
uneaun · determiner, feminine, singulardeterminer of Juive
affreusehideousaffreux · adjective, feminine, singularmodifies Juive
JuiveJewessjuive · noun, feminine, singularobject of d'
Grammar«que» = 'when' after a time word After a noun of time like «une nuit» ('one night'), «que» works as a relative meaning 'when' rather than 'that': «une nuit que j'étais» = 'one night when I was'. It is the verse-friendly equivalent of «où» («une nuit où j'étais»). «affreuse» is the feminine of «affreux» — 'frightful, hideous, dreadful'.
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Like one corpse stretched out along another corpse,
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I fell to dreaming there beside that body sold,
Grammar«se prendre à» + infinitive — to start to «se prendre à faire qqch» means 'to begin / fall to doing something', often half against one's will. «Je me pris à songer» (past historic of «se prendre») = 'I began to muse / fell to dreaming'. «songer» is to muse, to dream, to let the mind drift — softer and more reverie-laden than «penser». «ce corps vendu» — 'that body sold' — names the woman as a paid prostitute.
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Of the sad beauty my desire denies itself.
GrammarPronominal «se priver de» — to deny oneself «se priver de qqch» is the pronominal verb 'to deprive / deny oneself of something'. The relative «dont» carries that «de»: «la beauté dont mon désir se prive» = 'the beauty of which my desire deprives itself' — the absent, longed-for woman the speaker dreams of while lying with the bought one. The whole quatrain hangs on this turn: a sordid present bed becomes the doorway to an idealized memory.
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I pictured to myself her inborn majesty,
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Her gaze armed with vigor and with graces,
GrammarPostposed participle «armé» Read in prose order: «son regard armé de vigueur et de grâces» — 'her gaze armed with vigour and graces'. Baudelaire delays the participle «armé» to the line's end for the rhyme and the cadence, so the qualities arrive before the weapon-word that gathers them. «armé de» = 'armed / equipped with'; the martial image turns the woman's look into something that strikes.
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Her hair that makes for her a perfumed helmet,
GrammarDative «lui» — 'for her' «lui» here is the indirect-object pronoun 'to / for her': «ses cheveux qui lui font un casque» = 'her hair that makes for her a helmet'. «un casque» is a helmet; «parfumé» ('perfumed, scented') is the participle of «parfumer». The martial figure of the line before continues — the woman's hair becomes armour — a motif Baudelaire develops at length in the companion poem «La Chevelure».
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And whose memory revives me again for love.
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For I would have fervently kissed your noble body,
GrammarLiterary past conditional «j'eusse baisé» «j'eusse baisé» is the second form of the past conditional (pluperfect subjunctive used for «j'aurais baisé») — 'I would have kissed', a high, literary register. «Car» ('for, because') opens the tercets, and the address swerves to «tu»: from here the speaker no longer describes the woman but speaks to her («ton noble corps»). «baiser» here keeps its older, courtly sense 'to kiss'.
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And from your cool feet up to your black tresses
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Unrolled the treasure of deep caresses,
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If, some evening, with a tear shed without effort
Word«un pleur» — a single tear (poetic) «un pleur» is a poetic, mostly literary word for a tear or weeping (compare everyday «une larme»). «d'un pleur obtenu sans effort» = 'with a tear obtained without effort' — a single tear, shed effortlessly. «Si» ('if') opens the condition that runs to the poem's end: the whole imagined ardor of the tercets is granted only on this one impossible price.
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You could only, O queen of cruel women!
Word«reine des cruelles» — substantivized adjective «ô» is the vocative interjection of formal, exclamatory address ('O…'). «reine des cruelles» = 'queen of the cruel ones / cruel women' — the adjective «cruelles» is used as a noun ('cruel women'), with the beloved their sovereign. «Tu pouvais seulement» ('you could only / if only you could') governs the infinitive «Obscurcir» in the final line.
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Darken the splendor of your cold pupils.
Word«obscurcir» and «la prunelle» «obscurcir» is to darken, dim, or cloud (from «obscur», 'dark'); «la prunelle» is the pupil of the eye, and by extension the eye itself. «Obscurcir la splendeur de tes froides prunelles» = 'to dim the splendour of your cold pupils' — to cloud that hard, brilliant gaze with a single tear of feeling. On this impossible condition the whole conditional ardor of the poem turns: the beloved's beauty is wanted only if it could once be softened by pity.

The particulars

The text: Les Fleurs du mal, Charles Baudelaire. Spleen and Ideal.
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