Ma jeunesse ne fut qu'un ténébreux orage, Traversé çà et là par de [brillants]1 soleils ; Le tonnerre et la pluie ont fait un tel ravage, Qu'il reste en mon jardin bien peu de fruits vermeils. Voilà que j'ai touché l'automne des idées, Et qu'il faut employer la pelle et les râteaux Pour rassembler à neuf les terres inondées, Où l'eau creuse des trous grands comme des tombeaux. Et qui sait si les fleurs nouvelles que je rêve Trouveront dans ce sol lavé comme une grève Le mystique aliment qui ferait leur vigueur ? Ô douleur! ô douleur! le Temps mange la vie, Et l'obscur Ennemi qui nous ronge le cœur Du sang que nous perdons croît et se fortifie !
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 1089-1090. Also confirmed with Les Fleurs du mal, Spleen et Idéal, Paris: Poulet-Malassis et de Broise, 1857, pages 32-33. Also confirmed with Les Fleurs du mal, Spleen et Idéal, Paris: Poulet-Malassis et de Broise, 1861, pages 28-29. Punctuation and capitalization follows 1855 edition.
1 misspelled in 1855 edition as "brillans"Text Authorship:
- by Charles Baudelaire (1821 - 1867), "L'Ennemi", appears in Les Fleurs du mal, in 1. Spleen et Idéal, no. 10, Paris, Bureau de la Revue des Deux Mondes, first published 1855 [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 Georges Beck (1904 - c1996), "L'Ennemi", 1943 [ medium voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
- by Lodewijk Mortelmans (1868 - 1952), "L'ennemi", 1894 [ baritone and orchestra; or medium voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- CZE Czech (Čeština) (Jaroslav Haasz) , "Nepřítel"
- ENG English (Emily Wyatt) , "The enemy", copyright © 2012, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- ENG English (Cyril Meir Scott) , "The Enemy", appears in The Flowers of Evil, London, Elkin Mathews, first published 1909
- HUN Hungarian (Magyar) (Tamás Rédey) , "Lenne más!", copyright © 2015, (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: 2011-03-15
Line count: 14
Word count: 119
My childhood was nought but a ravaging storm, Enlivened at times by a brilliant sun; The rain and the winds wrought such havoc and harm That of buds on my plot there remains hardly one. Behold now the Fall of ideas I have reached, And the shovel and rake one must therefore resume, In collecting the turf, inundated and breached, Where the waters dug trenches as deep as a tomb. And yet these new blossoms, for which I craved, Will they find in this earth — like a shore that is laved — The mystical fuel which vigour imparts? Oh misery! — Time devours our lives, And the enemy black, which consumeth our hearts On the blood of our bodies, increases and thrives!
Confirmed with Cyril Scott, The Flowers of Evil [by Charles Baudelaire; translated into English verse by Cyril Scott], London: Elkin Mathews, 1909, page 14.
Text Authorship:
- by Cyril Meir Scott (1879 - 1970), "The Enemy", 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'Ennemi", appears in Les Fleurs du mal, in 1. Spleen et Idéal, no. 10, Paris, Bureau de la Revue des Deux Mondes, first published 1855
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: 2019-08-20
Line count: 14
Word count: 123