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by Charles Baudelaire (1821 - 1867)
Translation by Cyril Meir Scott (1879 - 1970)

L'aube spirituelle
Language: French (Français) 
Quand chez les débauchés l'aube blanche et vermeille
Entre en société de l'Idéal rongeur,
Par l'opération d'un mystère vengeur
Dans la brute assoupie un ange se réveille. 

Des cieux spirituels l'inaccessible azur,
Pour l'homme terrassé qui rêve encore et souffre,
S'ouvre, et s'enfonce avec l'attirance du gouffre.
Ainsi, chère déesse, être lucide et pur, 

Sur les débris fumeux des stupides orgies,
Ton souvenir plus clair, plus rose, plus charmant,
À mes yeux agrandis voltige incessamment. 

-- Le soleil a noirci la flamme des bougies ;
-- Ainsi, toujours vainqueur, ton fantôme est pareil,
Ame resplendissante, à l'immortel soleil !

Confirmed with Revue des Deux Mondes, seconde série de la nouvelle période, tome dixième, Les Fleurs du mal, Paris: Bureau de la Revue des Deux Mondes, 1855, pages 1087-1088. Also confirmed with Les Fleurs du mal, Spleen et Idéal, Paris: Poulet-Malassis et de Broise, 1857, pages 99-100. Punctuation and formatting follows 1855 edition.

First published in Revue des Deux Mondes, seconde série de la nouvelle période, tome dixième, 1855. Also appears in Les Fleurs du mal as number 49 in the 1857 edition and 53 or 54 in subsequent editions.


Text Authorship:

  • by Charles Baudelaire (1821 - 1867), "L'Aube spirituelle", appears in Les Fleurs du mal, in 1. Spleen et Idéal, no. 46, Paris, Bureau de la Revue des Deux Mondes, first published 1855 [author's text checked 2 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 Hendrik Andriessen (1892 - 1981), "L'aube spirituelle" [sung text checked 1 time]

Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):

  • CZE Czech (Čeština) (Jaroslav Haasz) , "Zora v duši"
  • ENG English (Cyril Meir Scott) , "The Spiritual Dawn", appears in The Flowers of Evil, London, Elkin Mathews, first published 1909


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: 14
Word count: 95

The Spiritual Dawn
Language: English  after the French (Français) 
When the morning white and rosy breaks,
With the gnawing Ideal, upon the debauchee,
By the power of a strange decree,
Within the sotted beast an Angel wakes.

The mental Heaven's inaccessible blue,
For wearied mortals that still dream and mourn,
Expands and sinks; towards the chasm drawn.
Thus, cherished goddess, Being pure and true —

Upon the rests of foolish orgy-nights
Thine image, more sublime, more pink, more clear,
Before my staring eyes is ever there.

The sun has darkened all the candle lights;
And thus thy spectre like the immortal sun,
Is ever victorious — thou resplendent one!

Confirmed with Cyril Scott, The Flowers of Evil [by Charles Baudelaire; translated into English verse by Cyril Scott], London: Elkin Mathews, 1909, page 32.


Text Authorship:

  • by Cyril Meir Scott (1879 - 1970), "The Spiritual Dawn", appears in The Flowers of Evil, London, Elkin Mathews, first published 1909 [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]

Based on:

  • a text in French (Français) by Charles Baudelaire (1821 - 1867), "L'Aube spirituelle", appears in Les Fleurs du mal, in 1. Spleen et Idéal, no. 46, Paris, Bureau de la Revue des Deux Mondes, first published 1855
    • Go to the text page.

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 ]


Researcher for this page: Poom Andrew Pipatjarasgit [Guest Editor]

This text was added to the website: 2019-07-10
Line count: 14
Word count: 100

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This website began in 1995 as a personal project by Emily Ezust, who has been working on it full-time without a salary since 2008. Our research has never had any government or institutional funding, so if you found the information here useful, please consider making a donation. Your help is greatly appreciated!
–Emily Ezust, Founder

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