J'ai long-temps habité sous de vastes portiques
Que les soleils marins teignaient de mille feux,
Et que leurs grands piliers, droits et majestueux,
Rendaient pareils, le soir, aux grottes basaltiques.

Les houles, en roulant les images des cieux,
Mêlaient d'une façon solennelle et mystique
Les tout puissants accords de leur riche musique
Aux couleurs du couchant reflété par mes yeux.

C'est là que j'ai vécu dans les voluptés calmes,
Au milieu de l'azur, [des flots et des]1 splendeurs,
Et des esclaves nus, tout imprégnés d'odeurs,

Qui me rafraîchissaient le front avec des palmes,
Et dont l'unique soin était d'approfondir
Le secret douloureux qui me faisait languir.

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Confirmed with Charles Baudelaire, Les Fleurs du mal, Paris: Poulet-Malassis et de Broise, 1857, in Spleen et Idéal, pages 36-37. This poem was first published in 1855 as part of Revue des Deux Mondes; its first publication as part of Les Fleurs du mal was in 1857.

¹ H. Duparc: "des vagues, des"

Text Authorship:

• by Charles Baudelaire (1821 - 1867), "La vie antérieure", appears in Les Fleurs du mal, in 1. Spleen et Idéal, no. 12, Paris, Bureau de la Revue des Deux Mondes, first published 1855 [author's text checked 1 time 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 Rodolphe Théophile Cahen d'Anvers, marquis de Torre Alfina , as Armand Bolsène, "La Vie antérieure" [ mezzo-soprano or tenor and piano ], from Frissons d'au delà, no. 2, Éd. E. Fromont [sung text not yet checked]
• by Henri Duparc (1848 - 1933), "La Vie antérieure", 1874-1884, orchestrated 1911-1913 [ voice and piano or orchestra ] [sung text checked 1 time]
• by Léo Ferré (1916 - 1993), "La vie antérieure", published 1963 [ low voice and piano ], Éd. S.E.M.I. Méridian [sung text not yet checked]
• by Robert Montfort (d. 1941), "Vie antérieure", published [1911] [ high voice and piano ], from Trois poèmes de Baudelaire, no. 2 [sung text not yet checked]
• by Jean Neymarck (1889 - 1913), "La vie antérieure", op. 21 no. 1 (1912), published 1913 [ medium voice and piano ], from 4 Poèmes, poésies de Baudelaire, no. 1, Paris, Éd. L. Grus [sung text not yet checked]
• by Ricardo Viñes (1875 - 1943), "La Vie antérieure", c1896 [ high voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]

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

• CZE Czech (Čeština) (Jaroslav Haasz) , "Předchozí život"
• DUT Dutch (Nederlands) (Marike Lindhout) , "Het vroegere leven", copyright © 2007, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
• ENG English (Dann Mitton) , no title, copyright ©, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
• ENG English [singable] (Peter Low) , "In a former life", copyright © 2008, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
• ENG English (Cyril Meir Scott) , "Interior Life", appears in The Flowers of Evil, London, Elkin Mathews, first published 1909
• FIN Finnish (Suomi) (Erkki Pullinen) , "Edellinen elämä", copyright © 2009, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
• GER German (Deutsch) (Nele Gramß) , "Das frühere Leben", copyright ©, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
• ITA Italian (Italiano) (Ferdinando Albeggiani) , "La vita anteriore", copyright © 2010, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
• POR Portuguese (Português) (Delfim Guimarães) , "A Vida Anterior", appears in As Flores do Mal
• SPA Spanish (Español) (Juan Henríquez Concepción) , "La vida anterior", copyright © 2008, (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: 14
Word count: 106