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{{header
{{TextQuality|75%}}{{poem
|title=[[The Flowers of Evil]]
|title= [[The Flowers of Evil]]
|author=Charles Baudelaire
|author= Charles Baudelaire
|section=The Albatross
|translator= Roy Campbell
|section= The Albatross
|previous=
|previous=
|next=
|next=
|notes=Translation [[A. S. Kline]]
|year= 1952
|notes= [[fr.ws:L’Albatros (Baudelaire)|L’Albatros]]. From ''Poems of Baudelaire'' (New York: Pantheon Books, 1952) as presented at http://fleursdumal.org
}}
}}


<div class="verse">
<div class="verse">
<poem>
Sometimes for sport the men of loafing crews
Snare the great albatrosses of the deep,
The indolent companions of their cruise
As through the bitter vastitudes they sweep.


Scarce have they fished aboard these airy kings
When helpless on such unaccustomed floors,
They piteously droop their huge white wings
And trail them at their sides like drifting oars.


:Often, for their amusement, bored sailors
How comical, how ugly, and how meek
:take albatrosses, vast sea-birds, that sleep
Appears this soarer of celestial snows!
:in the air, indolent fellow travellers,
One, with his pipe, teases the golden beak,
:following the ship skimming the deep.
One, limping, mocks the cripple as he goes.


The Poet, like this monarch of the clouds,
 
Despising archers, rides the storm elate.
:No sooner are they set down on the boards,
But, stranded on the earth to jeering crowds,
:than those kings of the azure, maladroit, shamefully
The great wings of the giant baulk his gait.
:let their vast white wings, like oars,
</poem>
:trail along their sides, piteously.
 
 
:Winged traveller, gauche, gross, useless, laughable,
:now, one of them, with a pipe stem, prods you,
:who, a moment ago, were beautiful:
:another, limping, mimics the cripple who flew.
 
 
:The Poet bears a likeness to that prince of the air,
:who mocks at slingshots, and haunts the winds:
:on earth, an exile among the scornful, where
:he is hampered, in walking, by his giant wings.
</div>
</div>


[[Category:English]]
{{DEFAULTSORT:Albatross}}
[[Category:Poetry by Charles Baudelaire]]
[[Category:Works originally in French]]
[[Category:Works originally in French]]
{{DEFAULTSORT:Albatross}}
 
{{PD-pma|1957}}

Latest revision as of 21:41, 13 September 2012

The Flowers of Evil ~ The Albatross
written by Charles Baudelaire
translated by Roy Campbell
L’Albatros. From Poems of Baudelaire (New York: Pantheon Books, 1952) as presented at http://fleursdumal.org Link to further information



Sometimes for sport the men of loafing crews
Snare the great albatrosses of the deep,
The indolent companions of their cruise
As through the bitter vastitudes they sweep.

Scarce have they fished aboard these airy kings
When helpless on such unaccustomed floors,
They piteously droop their huge white wings
And trail them at their sides like drifting oars.

How comical, how ugly, and how meek
Appears this soarer of celestial snows!
One, with his pipe, teases the golden beak,
One, limping, mocks the cripple as he goes.

The Poet, like this monarch of the clouds,
Despising archers, rides the storm elate.
But, stranded on the earth to jeering crowds,
The great wings of the giant baulk his gait.


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