Ils me disent, tes yeux, clairs comme le cristal : « Pour toi, bizarre amant, quel est donc mon mérite ? » — Sois charmante et tais-toi ! — Mon cœur, que tout irrite, Excepté la candeur de l'antique animal, Ne veut pas te montrer son secret infernal, Berceuse dont la main aux longs sommeils m'invite, Ni sa noire légende avec la flamme écrite. Je hais la passion et l'esprit me fait mal ! — Aimons-nous doucement. — L'Amour dans sa guérite, [Embusqué, ténébreux]1, bande son arc fatal ; Je connais les engins de son vieil arsenal : Crime, horreur et folie ! — Ô pâle marguerite, Comme moi n'es-tu pas un soleil [hivernal]2, Ô ma si [pâle]3, ô ma si froide Marguerite ?
Confirmed with Revue contemporaine, huitième année, seconde série, tome douzième, Paris: Bureaux de la Revue contemporaine, 1859, page 357. Also confirmed with Les Fleurs du mal, Spleen et Idéal, Paris: Poulet-Malassis et de Broise, 1861, pages 148-149. Also confirmed with Œuvres complètes de Charles Baudelaire, vol. I : Les Fleurs du mal, Spleen et Idéal, Paris: Michel Lévy frères, 1868, page 187. Punctuation and formatting follows 1859 edition. Note: this appears in the 1861 edition of Les Fleurs du mal as number 64 but as number 66 in subsequent editions.
1 1861 and 1868 editions: "Ténébreux, embusqué"2 1861 and 1868 editions: "automnal"
3 1861 and 1868 editions: "blanche"
Authorship:
- by Charles Baudelaire (1821 - 1867), "Sonnet d'automne", appears in Les Fleurs du mal, in 1. Spleen et Idéal, no. 64, Paris, Bureaux de la Revue contemporaine, first published 1859 [author's text checked 3 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 Benjamin C. S. Boyle , "Sonnet d'automne", op. 11 no. 3, published 2001, first performed 2001 [ soprano and piano ], from Trois chansons de Charles Baudelaire, no. 3 [sung text not yet checked]
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- CZE Czech (Čeština) (Jaroslav Haasz) , "Podzimní sonet", Prague, J. Otto, first published 1919
- ENG English (Cyril Meir Scott) , "Autumn Song", 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: 2015-12-29
Line count: 14
Word count: 124
They ask me — thy crystalline eyes, so acute, "Odd lover — why am I to thee so dear?" — Be sweet and keep silent, my heart, which is sear, For all, save the rude and untutored brute, Is loth its infernal depths to reveal, And its dissolute motto engraven with fire, Oh charmer! whose arms endless slumber inspire! I abominate passion and wit makes me ill. So let us love gently. Within his retreat, Foreboding, Love seeks for his arrows a prey, I know all the arms of his battle array. Delirium and loathing — O pale Marguerite! Like me, art thou not an autumnal ray, Alas my so white, my so cold Marguerite!
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Confirmed with Cyril Scott, The Flowers of Evil [by Charles Baudelaire; translated into English verse by Cyril Scott], London: Elkin Mathews, 1909, page 44.
Authorship:
- by Cyril Meir Scott (1879 - 1970), "Autumn Song", 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), "Sonnet d'automne", appears in Les Fleurs du mal, in 1. Spleen et Idéal, no. 64, Paris, Bureaux de la Revue contemporaine, first published 1859
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 ]
Research team for this page: Emily Ezust [Administrator] , Poom Andrew Pipatjarasgit [Guest Editor]
This text was added to the website: 2019-08-27
Line count: 14
Word count: 115