Analysis of Je Te Donne Ces Vers Afin Que Si Mon Nom (I Give You These Verses So That If My Name)
Charles Baudelaire 1821 (Paris) – 1867 (Paris)
Je te donne ces vers afin que si mon nom
Aborde heureusement aux époques lointaines,
Et fait rêver un soir les cervelles humaines,
Vaisseau favorisé par un grand aquilon,
Ta mémoire, pareille aux fables incertaines,
Fatigue le lecteur ainsi qu'un tympanon,
Et par un fraternel et mystique chaînon
Reste comme pendue à mes rimes hautaines;
Être maudit à qui, de l'abîme profond
Jusqu'au plus haut du ciel, rien, hors moi, ne répond!
— Ô toi qui, comme une ombre à la trace éphémère,
Foules d'un pied léger et d'un regard serein
Les stupides mortels qui t'ont jugée amère,
Statue aux yeux de jais, grand ange au front d'airain!
I Give You These Verses So That If My Name
I give you these verses so that if my name,
A vessel favored by a strong north wind,
Fortunately reaches the distant future's shore,
And some night sets the minds of men to dreaming,
Your memory, like fables shrouded in the past,
Will weary the reader like a dulcimer,
And by a mystical, brotherly bond
Remain suspended from my haughty verse;
Accurst being to whom, from the deep abysm
To the highest heaven, nothing responds, save me!
— O you who, like an ephemeral ghost,
Trample lightly and with a serene look
Upon the dull mortals who found you repugnant,
Jet eyed statue, tall angel with a brow of bronze!
— Translated by William Aggeler
For You This Poem: If My Name Should Reach
For you this poem: if my name should reach
Favoured by mighty gales, to far-off times,
Like a proud vessel sailing to the beach,
To stir the brains of humans with my rhymes —
Your memory, uncertain as a myth,
Will tire the reader like an endless gong,
And be a mystic, kindred chain wherewith
He'll hang suspended to my towering song:
Curs'd soul to whom (from the supernal sky
To hell's abysm) none responds but I!
O you, who like a fleeting shadow pass,
Spurn with light foot and with serenest gaze
The stupid mortals who have grudged you praise,
O jade-eyed statue, angel browed with brass!
— Translated by Roy Campbell
Je te donne ces vers afin que si mon nom
these lines to thee, that if my name should come
to some far harbour, on a favouring main,
and ride the gale to Time's Elysium,
with all its freight of dreams to fret the brain,
that thy report, like legends vague and vain,
may tire my reader as a mighty drum,
and linked in mystic union, may become
a symbol married to my haughty strain;
— accursèd one, to whom, from deepest skies
down to the Pit, naught, save my heart, replies!
— o thou who like a ghost impalpable
tramplest upon, serenely as a bonze
the stupid mortals who denied thy spell
— cold jet-eyed statue, angel cast in bronze!
— Translated by Lewis Piaget Shanks
Scheme | Abbc bccb dde cec F Fdxx dxdb axd xdb e G Gbgb hihi jjb bbb k A lclc cllc bbk bxb b |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1111111111 11111 111111111 111111 11111101 01011111 111110111 111111 11111111 11111111111 11111111111 111111111011 111111111 1111111111 11111011111 11111011111 0101010111 100010010101 01110111110 110011010001 11001010100 0101001001 0101011101 110111011 101010100111 1111101001 1010010011 010110111010 11111010111 0101101 1111011111 1111011111 111011111 1011010101 1101110111 1100010101 11001011101 010101011 11010111001 11111011 11110111 111101011 11110111 0101011111 111110111 0101110 1111111111 1111111111 111101011 0101110100 1111111101 1101110101 11011010101 0101010101 0101011101 111111101 1101111101 1111011 1010100101 0101010111 111110101 010110011 |
Closest metre | Iambic hexameter |
Characters | 2,841 |
Words | 490 |
Sentences | 9 |
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) | 33 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 93 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 22 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 2:30 min read
- 137 Views
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"Je Te Donne Ces Vers Afin Que Si Mon Nom (I Give You These Verses So That If My Name)" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/4938/je-te-donne-ces-vers-afin-que-si-mon-nom--%28i-give-you-these-verses-so-that-if-my-name%29>.
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