Evening harmony

The Flowers of Evil ~ Evening harmony written by Charles Baudelaire translated by Roy Campbell

Harmonie du soir. Poems of Baudelaire (New York: Pantheon Books, 1952), as presented at http://fleursdumal.org

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Now comes the eve, when on its stem vibrates
Each flower, evaporating like a censer;
When sounds and scents in the dark air grow denser;
Drowsed swoon through which a mournful waltz pulsates!

Each flower evaporates as from a censer;
The fiddle like a hurt heart palpitates;
Drowsed swoon through which a mournful waltz pulsates;
The sad, grand sky grows, altar-like, immenser.

The fiddle, like a hurt heart, palpitates,
A heart that hates oblivion, ruthless censor.
The sad, grand sky grows, altar-like, immenser.
The sun in its own blood coagulates...

A heart that hates oblivion, ruthless censor,
The whole of the bright past resuscitates.
The sun in its own blood coagulates...
And, monstrance-like, your memory flames intenser!

— Roy Campbell, Poems of Baudelaire (New York: Pantheon Books, 1952)

Works by this author are in the public domain in countries where the copyright term is the author's life plus 68 years or less. cs | de | en | eo | es | fr | he | pl | ru | zh

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