Analysis of Alchimie de la douleur (The Alchemy of Sorrow)
Charles Baudelaire 1821 (Paris) – 1867 (Paris)
L'un t'éclaire avec son ardeur,
L'autre en toi met son deuil, Nature!
Ce qui dit à l'un: Sépulture!
Dit à l'autre: Vie et splendeur!
Hermès inconnu qui m'assistes
Et qui toujours m'intimidas,
Tu me rends l'égal de Midas,
Le plus triste des alchimistes;
Par toi je change l'or en fer
Et le paradis en enfer;
Dans le suaire des nuages
Je découvre un cadavre cher,
Et sur les célestes rivages
Je bâtis de grands sarcophages.
The Alchemy of Sorrow
One man lights you with his ardor,
Another puts you in mourning, Nature!
That which says to one: sepulcher!
Says to another: life! glory!
You have always frightened me,
Hermes the unknown, you who help me.
You make me the peer of Midas,
The saddest of all alchemists;
Through you I change gold to iron
And make of paradise a hell;
In the winding sheet of the clouds
I discover a beloved corpse,
And on the celestial shores
I build massive sarcophagi.
— Translated by William Aggeler
Alchemy of Sorrow
One puts all nature into mourning,
One lights her like a flaring sun —
What whispers 'Burial' to the one
Cries to the other, 'Life and Morning.'
The unknown Hermes who assists
The role of Midas to reverse,
And makes me by a subtle curse
The saddest of all alchemists —
By him, my paradise to hell,
And gold to slag, is changed too well.
The clouds are winding-sheets, and I,
Bidding some dear-loved corpse farewell,
Along the shore-line of the sky,
Erect my vast sarcophagi.
— Translated by Roy Campbell
Alchimie de la douleur
one lights thee with his flame, another
puts in thee — Nature! — all his gloom!
what says to this man: lo! the tomb!
cries: life and splendour! to his brother.
o mage unknown whose powers assist
my art, and whom I always fear,
thou makest me a Midas — peer
of that most piteous alchemist;
for 'tis through thee I turn my gold
to iron, and in heaven behold
my hell: beneath her cloud-palls I
uncover corpses loved of old;
and where the shores celestial die
I carve vast tombs against the sky.
— Translated by Lewis Piaget Shanks
Scheme | aaaa bbbb aab abb a aaaa ccbB xdb bbe a a fggf bbbB ddh dhe x a aiia jaaj kkh khh b |
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Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1111111 11111110 1111111 11111 11111 1111 11111110 01111 11111111 1001011 10111 111111 111111 111111 0100110 11111110 0101101010 111111 11010110 111101 100011111 11101110 010111 11111110 0111001 00101101 10100011 0100101 11101 0101101 100110 111100110 11010101 110100101 110101010 00110101 01110101 01110101 010111 1111011 01111111 01110101 1011111 01011101 01111 0101110 1111 111111010 10110111 11111101 11011110 110111001 1101111 1110101 1111100 11111111 110001001 11010111 01010111 01010101 11110101 010110011 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 2,177 |
Words | 371 |
Sentences | 21 |
Stanzas | 22 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 3, 3, 1, 4, 4, 3, 3, 1, 1, 4, 4, 3, 3, 1, 1, 4, 4, 3, 3, 1 |
Lines Amount | 62 |
Letters per line (avg) | 25 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 70 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 17 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:53 min read
- 99 Views
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"Alchimie de la douleur (The Alchemy of Sorrow)" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 11 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/4890/alchimie-de-la-douleur-%28the-alchemy-of-sorrow%29>.
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