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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"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: 121
My youth was only a dark storm, Crossed here and there by shining suns; The thunder and the rain have caused such havoc, That there remain in my garden very few rosy fruits. That was where I reached the autumn of ideas, And I must use the spade and the rake To build anew the flooded lands, Where the water gouges out great pits like tombs. And who knows if the new flowers that I dream Will find in the soil washed like a bank The mystical food which would give them vigour? - O sorrow! O sorrow! Time consumes life, And the dark Enemy which gnaws at our hearts Grows and strengthens itself from the blood that we lose!
Authorship:
- Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2012 by Emily Wyatt, (re)printed on this website with kind permission. To reprint and distribute this author's work for concert programs, CD booklets, etc., you may ask the copyright-holder(s) directly or ask us; we are authorized to grant permission on their behalf. Please provide the translator's name when contacting us.
Contact: licenses@email.lieder.example.net
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
This text was added to the website: 2012-10-09
Line count: 14
Word count: 120