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Isn't it strange to call that Beaudelaire's? Edna St. Vincent Millay put these words on paper, Beaudelaire wrote only in French...

• deleted 12y ago
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• anon012012 12y ago
  Yes, I'm French and I agree. The message is well translated, but the original is made with much more precision, and it is more gracious. But English has some nice poetry, I like Whitman and e. e. cummings. When it comes to French, I'd recommend this classic from Victor Hugo, Tomorrow at dawn, it's simple but human, and the translation is fair, it's dedicated to his daughter: https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/972635-tomorrow-at-dawn-the-moment-the-countryside-is-washed-with https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/972635-tomorrow-at-dawn-the... There's also this poem of Baudelaire about female homosexuality, which I like, Damned women, also called Delphine and Hippolyta. His whole book "Les fleurs du mal" (The Flowers of Evil) was heresy at the time (1860), it was about the beauty of evil, well, in part. There are English versions there but it's not easy to translate: http://fleursdumal.org/poem/180 http://fleursdumal.org/poem/180
• r0naa 12y ago
  I don't find it strange to claim that this is Baudelaire's work. Of course the style and the rhymes makes it very different compared to the original version. I also think that translation has altered the poem's beauty but the message is still here, the story is the same and it leaves me with the same humbled feelings.
  • gbog 12y ago
    Story? There's no story in poetry! But yes, this is still Baudelaire's poem, I would have recognized it (I know well the French version).