Le regard singulier d'une femme galante
Qui se glisse vers nous comme le rayon blanc
Que la lune onduleuse envoie au lac tremblant,
Quand elle y veut baigner sa beauté nonchalante,
Le dernier sac d'écus dans les doigts d'un joueur,
Un baiser libertin de la maigre Adeline,
Les sons d'une musique énervante et câline,
Semblable au cri lointain de l'humaine douleur,
Tout cela ne vaut pas, ô bouteille profonde,
Les baumes pénétrants que ta panse féconde
Garde au cœur altéré du poète pieux ;
Tu lui verses l'espoir, la jeunesse et la vie,
— Et l'orgueil, ce trésor de toute gueuserie,
Qui nous rend triomphants et semblables aux Dieux !
Confirmed with Charles Baudelaire, Les Fleurs du mal, Paris: Poulet-Malassis et de Broise, 1857, in Le vin, pages 236-237. Also confirmed with Charles Baudelaire, Les Fleurs du mal, Paris: Poulet-Malassis et de Broise, 1861, in Le vin, pages 252-253. Also confirmed with Charles Baudelaire, Œuvres complètes de Charles Baudelaire, vol. I : Les Fleurs du mal, Paris: Michel Lévy frères, 1868, in Le vin, page 302. Punctuation and formatting follows 1857 edition. Note: this was number 96 in the 1857 edition of Les Fleurs du mal but number 107 or 131 in subsequent editions.
Note: 1861 and 1868 editions use alternate spelling "poëte" in the preantepenultimate line.
Text Authorship:
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 ]
Settings in other languages, adaptations, or excerpts:
- Also set in German (Deutsch), a translation by Stefan George (1868 - 1933) ; composed by Alban Maria Johannes Berg.
Other available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- CZE Czech (Čeština) (Jaroslav Haasz) , "Víno samotářovo"
- ENG English (Iain Sneddon) , "Wine for the lonely", copyright © 2019, (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: 2004-01-21
Line count: 14
Word count: 108
The particular look of a courtesan
Who glides towards us like the white beam
That the pulsating moon sends towards the trembling lake,
Where she wished to bathe her casual beauty;
The last bag of coins in the hands of a gambler;
A wild kiss from slender Adeline;
The sound of a tiring and enveloping music,
Like the distant cry of humanity’s sadness,
O deep bottle, all this is not worth
The penetrating balm that your fruitful belly
Contains for the pious poet’s yearning heart;
You give him hope, and youth, and life,
- And pride, the treasure of all worthless things,
Which makes us triumphant and like unto the Gods!
