Thread: Beauty - by Charles Baudelaire

I am as lovely as a dream in stone,
And this my heart where each finds death in turn,
Inspires the poet with a love as lone
As clay eternal and as taciturn.

Swan-white of heart, a sphinx no mortal knows,
My throne is in the heaven's azure deep;
I hate all movements that disturb my pose,
I smile not ever, neither do I weep.

Before my monumental attitudes,
That breathe a soul into the plastic arts,
My poets pray in austere studious moods,

For I, to fold enchantment round their hearts,
Have pools of light where beauty flames and dies,
The placid mirrors of my luminous eyes.

good lord.

i cannot believe no one has come to say how beautiful this is.

Hey Jen. Honestly, this poem makes me sad somehow.
"I smile not ever, neither do I weep."

And, the last 2 stanzas - how lonely and exhausting to be beauty it seems.

But, of course, beautifully written.

you would know, my dear, how exhausting it is to be beauty. ;)

Save that silver tongue for your poetry missy!

Wow! I love your wordplay. It seems to just bounce of my tongue when I read it. That is definitely important aspect of a poem. Thank You! It was great.

oh, leon.

i didn't write this one.

charles baudelaire did.

i wish...

Did he write it in French? As soon as I read

Swan-white of heart, a sphinx no mortal knows,

I thought "That should be Swan white hearted sphinx...", but what would I know?

Yeah, it's a rather silly translation in many places... you don't have to speak French to realize that.

This seems a little different from the general flowers of evil we associate with Baudelaire and decadents (why is France the only country that produces literary prodigies?) and it really seems sort of swoony.

Most contemporary poets would be embarrassed to show lines like:

Before my monumental attitudes,
That breathe a soul into the plastic arts,

or

The placid mirrors of my luminous eyes.

or, hell, most of them. For fear of having people say: Get over yourself, you egotistical sissy. And rightly so, really.

In fact, calling a poem "Beauty" would get you laughed out of most seminars.

olly, you do not think something could be 'swan white of heart' regarding a pure heart?

I don't see a difference in meaning between
Swan white of heart, a sphinx no mortal knows
and
A swan white hearted sphinx no mortal knows
They are both pure hearted sphinx (s? es? sphunx?) beyond the ken of mortal man (or men)
It's the way the "of" and the "a" break up the alliteration of "swan" and "sphinx".
I'm not dissing Baudelaire, only the translator.

A sky-throned sphinx, unknown yet, I combine
The cygnet's whiteness with a heart of snow.
I loathe all movement that displaces line,
And neither tears nor laughter do I know.

Here is another translation I found (I expect some unpoetic person like the Ox will flood us with them now).

Found the original
Je trône dans l'azur comme un sphinx incompris;
J'unis un coeur de neige à la blancheur des cygnes;

My French is not wonderful but to me this says

I am enthroned in the Azure like a sphinx unknown
I unite a heart of snow with the whiteness of swans

To me the first line says "unreachable" the second "Cold and pure"

Have to try my own version

On azure framed throne a sphynx unknown
My frozen heart, swan white combines
Hate of movement with lines set in stone
Neither tears nor laughter shall be mine

Originally Posted by lin

In fact, calling a poem "Beauty" would get you laughed out of most seminars.

And we all know how important it is to attend seminars.