Section: «Poems»
Verse (ancient Greek ὁ στίχος — row, structure), a term in versification used in several meanings:
artistic speech organized by division into rhythmically commensurate segments; poetry in the narrow sense; in particular, it implies the properties of versification of a particular tradition ("antique verse", "Akhmatova's verse", etc.);
a line of poetic text organized according to a certain rhythmic pattern ("My uncle of the most honest rules").
Spleen (I)
Pluviôse, irrité contre la ville entière,De son urne à grands flots verse un froid ténébreuxAux pâles habitants du voisin cimetièreEt la mortalité..
© Charles Baudelaire
To She Who Is Too Light-Hearted
Your head, your gesture, your air,are lovely, like a lovely landscape:laughter’s alive, in your face,a fresh breeze in a clear atmosphere.The dour..
© Charles Baudelaire
The Seven Old Men
À Victor HugoAnt-like city, city full of dreams,where the passer-by, at dawn, meets the spectre!Mysteries everywhere are the sap that streamsthrough..
© Charles Baudelaire
Je N'Ai Pas Oublié, Voisine De La Ville (I'Ve Not Forgotten, Near The Town)
I've not forgotten, near to the town,our white house, small but alone:its Pomona of plaster, its Venus of oldhiding nude limbs in the meagre..
© Charles Baudelaire
La Géante (The Giantess)
Du temps que la Nature en sa verve puissanteConcevait chaque jour des enfants monstrueux,J'eusse aimé vivre auprès d'une jeune géante,Comme aux pieds..
© Charles Baudelaire
Incompatibility
Higher there, higher, far from the ways,from the farms and the valleys, beyond the trees,beyond the hills and the grasses’ haze,far from the..
© Charles Baudelaire
Evening Twilight
Here’s the criminal’s friend, delightful evening:come like an accomplice, with a wolf’s loping:slowly the sky’s vast vault hides each feature,and..
© Charles Baudelaire
Il Aimait À La Voir
It was in her white skirts that he loved to seeher run straight through the branches and leaves, gracefully,but still gauche, and hiding her leg from..
© Charles Baudelaire
Morning Twilight
Reveille was sounding on barrack-squares,and the wind of dawn blew on lighted stairs.It was the hour when a swarm of evil visionstorments swarthy..
© Charles Baudelaire
L'Homme Et La Mer (Man And The Sea)
Homme libre, toujours tu chériras la mer!La mer est ton miroir; tu contemples ton âmeDans le déroulement infini de sa lame,Et ton esprit n'est pas un..
© Charles Baudelaire
Le Tonneau De La Haine (The Cask Of Hate)
La Haine est le tonneau des pâles Danaïdes;La Vengeance éperdue aux bras rouges et fortsÀ beau précipiter dans ses ténèbres videsDe grands seaux..
© Charles Baudelaire
Le Possédé (The Possessed)
Le soleil s'est couvert d'un crêpe. Comme lui,Ô Lune de ma vie! emmitoufle-toi d'ombreDors ou fume à ton gré; sois muette, sois sombre,Et plonge tout..
© Charles Baudelaire
The Death Of The Poor
It is Death, alas, persuades us to keep on living:the goal of life and the only hope we have,like an elixir, rousing, intoxicating, givingthe..
© Charles Baudelaire
Landscape
In order to write my chaste verses I’ll lielike an astrologer near to the skyand, by the bell-towers, listen in dreamto their solemn hymns on the..
© Charles Baudelaire
Le Vampire (The Vampire)
Toi qui, comme un coup de couteau,Dans mon coeur plaintif es entrée;Toi qui, forte comme un troupeauDe démons, vins, folle et parée,De mon esprit..
© Charles Baudelaire
The Game
Old courtesans in washed-out armchairs,pale, eyebrows blacked, eyes ‘tender’, ‘fatal’,simpering still, and from their skinny earsloosing their..
© Charles Baudelaire
Une Nuit Que J'Étais Près D'Une Affreuse Juive (On Night I Lay With A Frightful Jewess)
Une nuit que j'étais près d'une affreuse Juive,Comme au long d'un cadavre un cadavre étendu,Je me pris à songer près de ce corps venduÀ la triste..
© Charles Baudelaire
Lover’s Wine
Today Space is fine!Like a horse mount this wine,without bridle, spurs, bit,for a heaven divine!We, two angels they torturewith merciless fever,will..
© Charles Baudelaire
The Digging Skeleton
IIn the anatomical platesdisplayed on the dusty quayswhere many a dry book sleepsmummified, as in ancient days,drawings to which the gravityand skill..
© Charles Baudelaire
Don Juan Aux Enfers (Don Juan In Hell)
Quand Don Juan descendit vers l'onde souterraineEt lorsqu'il eut donné son obole à Charon,Un sombre mendiant, l'oeil fier comme Antisthène,D'un bras..
© Charles Baudelaire
Hymn
To the too-dear, to the too-beautiful,who fills my heart with clarity,to the angel, to the immortal idol,All hail, in immortality!She flows through..
© Charles Baudelaire
To A Woman Of Malabar
Your feet are as slender as hands, your hips, to me,wide enough for the sweetest white girl’s envy:to the wise artist your body is sweet and dear,and..
© Charles Baudelaire
Duellum (The Duel)
Deux guerriers ont couru l'un sur l'autre, leurs armesOnt éclaboussé l'air de lueurs et de sang.Ces jeux, ces cliquetis du fer sont les vacarmesD'une..
© Charles Baudelaire
Un Fantôme (A Phantom)
I Les TénèbresDans les caveaux d'insondable tristesseOù le Destin m'a déjà relégué;Où jamais n'entre un rayon rose et gai;Où, seul avec la Nuit..
© Charles Baudelaire
Femmes Damnées
Like pensive cattle, lying on the sands,they turn their eyes towards the sea’s far hills,and, feet searching each other’s, touching hands,know sweet..
© Charles Baudelaire