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|title = [[The Flowers of Evil]]
|title = [[The Flowers of Evil]]
|author = Charles Baudelaire
|author = Charles Baudelaire
|translator= A. S. Kline
|translator= Roy Campbell
|section = Semper Eadem
|section = Semper Eadem
|previous =
|previous =
|next =
|next =
|notes = [[fr.ws:Semper eadem (1868)|Semper eadem]].
|notes = [[fr.ws:Semper eadem (1868)|Semper eadem]]. From ''Poems of Baudelaire'' (New York: Pantheon Books, 1952), as presented at http://fleursdumal.org
}}
}}


<div class="verse">
<div class="verse">
<poem>
<poem>
‘Where does it come from,’you ask, ‘this strange sadness,
"Whence," ask you, "does this strange new sadness flow
that climbs, like the sea, over black, bare stone ?’
Like rising tides on rocks, black, bare, and vast?"
— When our heart has once reaped the harvest,
For human hearts, when vintage-time is past,
life is an evil. That’s known,
To live is bad. That secret all men know —


as the simplest of miseries, and nothing mysterious,
An obvious sorrow, with no mystery, shown,
and seen by everyone, like your ecstasy.
Clear as your joy, to everyone around.
Stop searching, you, beauty, so curious !
O curious one, seek nothing more profound,
And, though your voice is sweet, sit, silently !
And speak not, though your voice be sweet in tone.


Be quiet, fool ! Ever-ravished soul !
Hush, ignorant! Hush, soul that's still enraptured,
Lips of childish laughter ! Often, more than the whole
And mouth of childish laughter! Neatly captured,
of Life, Death grips us, with subtle ties we have made.
Death pulls us, more than life, with subtle wile.


Let me, let my heart, then, be drunk on its lies,
Oh let my thought get drunk upon a lie,
plunge as into a beautiful dream, into your eyes,
And plunge, as in a dream, in either eye,
and, forever, sleep, in your eyelids’shade.
And in their lashes' shadow sleep awhile!
</poem>
</poem>
</div>
</div>
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[[Category:Works originally in French]]
[[Category:Works originally in French]]
[[Category:Poetry by Charles Baudelaire]]
[[Category:Poetry by Charles Baudelaire]]
{{CC-BY-NC}}
{{CC-pma|1957}}

Revision as of 21:43, 20 May 2012

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



"Whence," ask you, "does this strange new sadness flow
Like rising tides on rocks, black, bare, and vast?"
For human hearts, when vintage-time is past,
To live is bad. That secret all men know —

An obvious sorrow, with no mystery, shown,
Clear as your joy, to everyone around.
O curious one, seek nothing more profound,
And speak not, though your voice be sweet in tone.

Hush, ignorant! Hush, soul that's still enraptured,
And mouth of childish laughter! Neatly captured,
Death pulls us, more than life, with subtle wile.

Oh let my thought get drunk upon a lie,
And plunge, as in a dream, in either eye,
And in their lashes' shadow sleep awhile!

Template:CC-pma