La Nature est un temple où de vivants piliers
Comme de longs échos qui de loin se confondent
Il est des parfums frais comme des chairs d'enfants,
Ayant l'expansion des choses infinies, |
All nature is one temple, the living aisles whereof
Like voices echoing in his senses from beyond
Perfumes there are as sweet as the music of pipes and strings,
Corrupt proud all-pervasiveness of infinite things, |
Bibliography
Baudelaire, Charles. Flowers of Evil. Trans. George Dillon and Edna St. Vincent Millay. New York and London: Harper & Brothers, 1936. Millay entitled this second of the "Spleen" poems "The Sphinx." I have compared the French text in this bilinguial edition to that in Antoine Adam's 1959 Garnier edition [GPL].
Last modified 16 April 2008