The deep cries of revolt and the despair that rise from these refined stanzas give them a blackness of a particular brilliance so fascinating and frightening. A secret solemnity swirls like curls of smoke throughout these pages simultaneously as the restrained animality scolds, shaking its chains. In the crucible of his soul, gravity and lightness intermingle in a subtle and skillful dosage. Painter of passions with underground vibrations and sublime disenchantment, Baudelaire is parred excellence the alchemist of despair. This poem will always make me shiver with indescribable and exhilarating ecstasy. Le soleil s'est noyé dans son sang qui se fige.» «Valse mélancolique et langoureux vertige ! Then, weeks later, still echo in my ears in deep echoes the dizzying verses of 'Harmonie du Soir': When I immerse myself in it, I feel the sensations of a descent into catacombs and those of a mystical elevation.

Featuring the poems in English and French, this deluxe dual-language edition allows readers to commune both with the original poems and with these electric, revelatory translations.It is the only book of poetry that has had such a lasting effect on me. An introduction by Dana Gioia offers a probing reassessment of the supreme artistry of Baudelaire's masterpiece, and an afterword by Daniel Handler explores its continued relevance and appeal. Poochigian's version captures the incantatory, almost magical, effect of the original-reanimating for today's reader Baudelaire's 'unfailing vision' that 'trumpeted the space and light of the future' (Patti Smith). Stallings)-and an intuitive feel for the work's dark and brooding mood. Acclaimed translator and poet Aaron Poochigian tackles this revolutionary text with an ear attuned to Baudelaire's lyrical innovations-rendering them in 'an assertive blend of full and slant rhymes and fluent iambs' (A. Subsequent editions expanded on the original, including new poems that have since been recognized as Baudelaire's masterpieces, producing a body of work that stands as the most consequential, controversial, and influential book of poetry from the nineteenth century. Only a year after Gustave Flaubert had endured his own public trial for published indecency (for Madame Bovary ), a French court declared Les Fleurs du mal an offense against public morals and six poems within it were immediately suppressed (a ruling that would not be reversed until 1949, nearly a century after Baudelaire's untimely death). First published in 1857, the book that collected these poems together, Les Fleurs du mal, was an instant sensation-earning Baudelaire plaudits and, simultaneously, disrepute. Known to his contemporaries primarily as an art critic, but ambitious to secure a more lasting literary legacy, Charles Baudelaire, a Parisian bohemian, spent much of the 1840s composing gritty, often perverse, poems that expressed his disgust with the banality of modern city life.

Les fleurs du mal the flowers of evil