What Can You Say, Poor Lonely Soul of Mine

The Flowers of Evil ~ What Can You Say, Poor Lonely Soul of Mine written by Charles Baudelaire translated by Roy Campbell

« Que diras-tu ce soir, pauvre âme solitaire ». From Poems of Baudelaire (New York: Pantheon Books, 1952), as presented at http://fleursdumal.org

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What can you say, poor lonely soul of mine,
Or you, poor heart, so long ago turned sour,
To the best, dearest, loveliest, whose divine
Regard has made you open like a flower?

We'll set our pride to sing her highest praise
Naught to her sweet authority compares:
Her psychic flesh is formed of fragrant airs.
Her glances clothe us in a suit of rays.

Be it in solitude at dead of night,
Or in the crowded streets of glaring light,
Her phantom like a torch before me streams.

It speaks: "I'm beautiful. These orders take.
Love naught but Beauty, always, for my sake,
Madonna, guardian Angel, Muse of dreams."

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