Ô fins d'automne, hivers, printemps trempés de boue, Endormeuses saisons ! je vous aime et vous loue D'envelopper ainsi mon cœur et mon cerveau D'un linceul vaporeux et d'un [brumeux]1 tombeau. Dans cette grande plaine où l'autan froid se joue, Où par les longues nuits la girouette s'enroue, Mon âme mieux qu'au temps du tiède renouveau Ouvrira largement ses ailes de corbeau. Rien n'est plus doux au cœur plein de choses funèbres, Et sur qui dès long-temps descendent les frimas, Ô blafardes saisons, reines de nos climats ! Que l'aspect permanent de vos pâles ténèbres, — Si ce n'est par un soir sans lune, deux à deux, D'endormir la douleur sur un lit hasardeux.
Confirmed with Charles Baudelaire, Les Fleurs du mal, Paris: Poulet-Malassis et de Broise, 1857, in Spleen et Idéal, pages 146-147. Note: this was number 63 under Spleen et Idéal in the first edition of Les Fleurs du mal but number 101 or 125 under Tableaux parisiens in subsequent editions.
1 1861 and 1868 editions: "vague"Text Authorship:
- by Charles Baudelaire (1821 - 1867), "Brumes et pluies", appears in Les Fleurs du mal, in 2. Tableaux parisiens, no. 101, appears in Les Fleurs du mal, in 1. Spleen et Idéal, no. 63, Paris, Poulet-Malassis et de Broise, first published 1857 [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 Jean-Guy Bailly (1925 - 2009), "Brumes et pluies" [ high voice and piano ], from Trois Poèmes de Baudelaire 2, no. 3 [sung text not yet checked]
- by Léo Ferré (1916 - 1993), "Brumes et pluies", published 1960 [ voice and piano ], Éd. S.E.M.I. Méridian [sung text not yet checked]
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- CHI Chinese (中文) (Dr Huaixing Wang) , "雾和雨", copyright © 2024, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- CZE Czech (Čeština) (Jaroslav Haasz) , "Mlhy a deště"
- ENG English (Cyril Meir Scott) , "Mists and Rains", appears in The Flowers of Evil, London, Elkin Mathews, first published 1909
- GER German (Deutsch) (Stefan George) , "Nebel und Schlossen", appears in Die Blumen des Bösen, in Trübsinn und Vergeisterung, first published 1901
Research team for this page: Emily Ezust [Administrator] , Poom Andrew Pipatjarasgit [Guest Editor]
This text was added to the website: 2014-03-24
Line count: 14
Word count: 112
O last of Autumn and Winter — steeped in haze, O sleepy seasons! you I love and praise, Because around my heart and brain you twine A misty winding-sheet and a nebulous shrine. On that great plain, where frigid blasts abound, Where through the nights, so long, the vane whirls round, My soul, more free than in the springtime soft, Will stretch her raven wings and soar aloft, Unto an heart with gloomy things replete, On which remain the frosts of former Times, O pallid seasons, mistress of our climes As your pale shadows — nothing is so sweet, Unless it be, on a moonless night a-twain, On some chance couch to soothe to sleep our Pain.
Confirmed with Cyril Scott, The Flowers of Evil [by Charles Baudelaire; translated into English verse by Cyril Scott], London: Elkin Mathews, 1909, page 60.
Text Authorship:
- by Cyril Meir Scott (1879 - 1970), "Mists and Rains", 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), "Brumes et pluies", appears in Les Fleurs du mal, in 2. Tableaux parisiens, no. 101, appears in Les Fleurs du mal, in 1. Spleen et Idéal, no. 63, Paris, Poulet-Malassis et de Broise, first published 1857
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: 117