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Une Idée, une Forme, un Être Parti de l'azur et tombé Dans un Styx bourbeux et plombé Où nul œil du Ciel ne pénètre ; Un Ange, imprudent voyageur Qu'a tenté l'amour du difforme, Au fond d'un cauchemar énorme Se débattant comme un nageur, Et luttant, angoisses funèbres ! Contre un gigantesque remous Qui va chantant comme les fous Et pirouettant dans les ténèbres ; Un malheureux ensorcelé Dans ses tâtonnements futiles, Pour fuir d'un lieu plein de reptiles, Cherchant la lumière et la clé ; Un damné descendant sans lampe, Au bord d'un gouffre dont l'odeur Trahit l'humide profondeur, D'éternels escaliers sans rampe, Où veillent des monstres visqueux Dont les larges yeux de phosphore Font une nuit plus noire encore Et ne rendent visibles qu'eux ; Un navire pris dans le pôle, Comme en un piège de cristal, Cherchant par quel détroit fatal Il est tombé dans cette geôle : - Emblèmes nets, tableau parfait D'une fortune irrémédiable, Qui donne à penser que le Diable Fait toujours bien tout ce qu'il fait ! Tête-à-tête sombre et limpide Qu'un cœur devenu son miroir ! Puits de Vérité, clair et noir, Où tremble une étoile livide, Un phare ironique, infernal, Flambeau des grâces sataniques, Soulagement et gloire uniques, - La conscience dans le Mal !
Confirmed with L'Artiste, Nouvelle Série - Tome X, Paris: L'Artiste, 1860, pages 106-107. Also confirmed with Charles Baudelaire, Les Fleurs du mal, Paris: Poulet-Malassis et de Broise, 1857, in Spleen et Idéal, pages 148-150. Punctuation and formatting follows first publication. Note: this poem is split into two sections in the 1861 and 1868 editions. The second section is comprised of the last two stanzas.
First published May 10, 1857 in L'Artiste as "L'Irrémédiable". Also appears as number 64 in the 1857 edition of Les Fleurs du mal and in subsequent editions as either number 84 or 106; the title in all editions of Les Fleurs du mal is "L'Irremédiable". The 1857 title is preferred as to follow modern French spelling conventions.
Note: The 1857 edition of Les Fleurs du mal uses the spelling variant "Emblêmes" instead of "Emblèmes" in line 31. The 1857 and 1861 editions of Les Fleurs du mal use the spelling variant "irremédiable" instead of "irrémédiable" in lines 31 and 32.
Authorship:
- by Charles Baudelaire (1821 - 1867), "L'Irrémédiable", appears in Les Fleurs du mal, in 1. Spleen et Idéal, no. 84, Paris, L'Artiste, first published 1857 [author's text checked 4 times against a primary source]
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
- by Kaikhosru Sorabji, born Leon Dudley Sorabji (1892 - 1988), "L'irrémédiable", KSS 44 (1927), published 1993, first performed 2002 [ high voice and piano ], Bath, The Sorabji Archive; critical edition [sung text checked 1 time]
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- CZE Czech (Čeština) (Jaroslav Haasz) , "Nenapravitelné"
- ENG English (Charles Hopkins) , "The Irremediable", written 2002, first published 2002, copyright ©, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- ENG English (Charles Hopkins) , "The Irremediable", written c2005, copyright ©, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
Research team for this page: Emily Ezust [Administrator] , Poom Andrew Pipatjarasgit [Guest Editor]
This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 40
Word count: 214
An Idea, a Form, a Being Parted from the azure and fallen Into a muddy, leaden Styx Where no eye of Heaven penetrates; An Angel, an unwary traveller Drawn by a fascination with the grotesque, Thrashing about like a swimmer In the deep throes of a vast nightmare, And struggling, in deathly anguish, Against the force of a gigantic mælstrom Which carries on hissing like a madman And swirling about in the gloom; A poor wretch under the evil eye Groping around in desperation To escape from a place crawling with serpents, Searching in vain for the light and the key; A condemned man without a lamp making his way down Along the edge of an abyss whose choking stench Betrays the dank depth, Of its unending banisterless stairways, Where slimy monsters keep watch[,] Their great phosphorescent eyes Making the night blacker still And making nothing but themselves visible; A ship held fast in the arctic ice, As if in a web of crystal, Trying to find by which fatal strait He came to be imprisoned in this gaol; Clear symbols, a complete picture Of an irremediable destiny, Which leads one to think that the Devil Always makes a good job of whatever he does! What a sombre and lucid exchange takes place In a heart that has become its own mirror! A well of Truth, clear yet black, Where trembles a pallid star, An ironic, infernal beacon, A torch of satanic favours, Unique deliverance and glory, - Consciousness in Evil!
Confirmed with an original Microsoft Word Document provided by Alistair Hinton. Note: a stanza break was missing in the source text after line 4 but was added above.
Authorship:
- by Charles Hopkins (1952 - 2007), "The Irremediable", written 2002, first published 2002, copyright ©, (re)printed on this website with kind permission [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]
Based on:
- a text in French (Français) by Charles Baudelaire (1821 - 1867), "L'Irrémédiable", appears in Les Fleurs du mal, in 1. Spleen et Idéal, no. 84, Paris, L'Artiste, first published 1857
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
- [ None yet in the database ]
Another version of this text exists in the database.
Researcher for this page: Poom Andrew Pipatjarasgit [Guest Editor]
This text was added to the website: 2018-08-04
Line count: 40
Word count: 252