Commentary on 33 Baudelaire Poems: Flores (1955)
[Version, 22 September 2019]
Baudelaire in Nuanced English Translations: 6 Brief Reviews
[version, 23 Sept 2019]
Lon Clay Hill, Jr.
Longer, slitely more precise title:
“Baudelaire in Nuanced English Translations: 6 Briefs (6 Brief Reviews including 5 very brief reviews).
“To say in a sentence what has not been said in a book — what cannot be said in a book”
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche
Abstract
We present 6 “Briefs” (6 fairly short and 5 very short review/previews of 6 books which contain Translated Versions of Baudelaire’s artistic corpus [Poems (mostly from Les Fleurs du Mal) & other esthetic œuvres] designed for an English audience &/or readership. The primary focus of these “Briefs” are to summarize the merits and limitations of these translations for ‘audiences’ with a wide range of competencies and perspectives in both their ‘French’ and in their knowledge of art-&-literature. While the reviewer (LCHj) cannot meet the standard set by Nietzsche for pithy and pregnant phrases or sentences, he will attempt to pose — in a few sentences or paragraphs— sufficient information to assist English readers in choosing one or more books to pursue their interest in understanding the man-&-his poetry. We state explicitly that our fundamental approach is to consider that all of these translations/renderings are properly understood as collections of English poems written by Baudelaire’s poetic “soul brothers &/or sisters.” We consider here both the intentions of the translator and the abilities of the targeted audience. We normally begin our description (“Brief”) of the six collections with a description of the translated or renderings into English with respect to the (1) meaning, (2) tonality, and (3) narrative of Baudelaire’s original work. However, our somewhat longer discussion of the Waldrop renderings also explicitly considers Waldrop’s “aesthetic” assumptions about (the totality of) Baudelaire’s œuvre. [In essence, with respects to Waldrop’s impressive and semantically accurate renderings, we consider here — in somewhat milder terms — issues more fully articulated by Jean-Paul Sartre (1952). Sartre detailed a number of inconsistencies and dissembling in Baudelaire’s self-described “aesthetic principles” as a validation of his descent into the “Dark Side.” [These issues are and will be discusses in more depth elsewhere.]
Definition: “Dual Language Format” — Facing French originals (LHS) & English rendering (RHS) with equal-sized letters
Caveat Lector.
The reader is advised that various peculiarities in punctuation and spelling — inspired in part by Baudelaire and, even more, by Nietzsche — are employed here. Several of these idiosyncrasies address various philosophical, psychological, and epistemological principles which were presciently articulated by Baudelaire himself. In plain English, the reviewer of the 6 books is as interested in what the translators have not said as well as what they have said. And — if the reader does not appreciate the unspoken and controversial implicit assumptions utilized by all such critics and translators, then — they have not really ‘read’ Baudelaire. [For those interested, in the Bookkeeping Section which follows the main essay and bibliography, the reviewer has spelled out in some detail why the author is in his own way as stubborn about spelling and punctuation as Baudelaire was about "punctuation". The author makes no claims to being a genius such as Baudelaire. However, one does not need to be a genius to realize that a long term approach is much more practical once we realize that partial fluency in several languages will be much more important than it has been in the past. [In my own United States — sometimes referred to as a "paradigm" of practicality — the stubborn insistence on "English" units long after the British Isles have converted to the metric system of measurements — has materially added to the USA population as a floundering ensemble of millions of people who are addicted to devices they do not understand as their material wealth & political health is being savaged by forces they do not understand. Even the Chinese — for thousands of understandable reasons — are being forced to move (against their will) into adopting more and more phonetically transparent utilization of their beloved characters.
Abstract and Caveats [above]
Table of Contents [Below— The List, 6 Briefs, Bookkeeping, Bibliography]
List of Reviewed Books (1955-2006)
The 6 Briefs — Translations and Renderings of Baudelaire’s poems into English poetry
Bookkeeping: Spelling, Punctuation, Quotations
Beyond our “Briefs” — Linguistics Reexamined
List of 6 Reviewed Books or Selections (1955—2006)
Charles Baudelaire (1955). The Flowers of Evil: A Selection. Marthiel Mathews & Jackson Mathews, Eds. New Directions: New York, New York. 186 pages, paper. [53 poems w. facing English translations]
Charles Baudelaire (1964). Flowers of Evil and Other Works/Les Fleurs du Mal et Oeuvres Choisies by Charles Baudelaire. Wallace Fowlie, Editor & Translator. A Bantam Dual-Language, Bantam Books: New York. pp. 299 paper. [52 poems, 14 prose poems, etc.]
Charles Baudelaire (1968). Baudelaire. Francis Scarfe, Editor & Translator. Penguin Books: Middlesex, England; Baltimore, MD, USA. 282 pages, paper. [143 poems w. smaller print plain English translations below.]
Charles Baudelaire (1991). The Flowers of Evil & Paris Spleen. William H. Crosby, Translator-&-Editor. BOA Editions, Ltd: Rochester, NY, USA. 510 pages, paper. [211 poems].
Charles Baudelaire (1998). Selected Poems from Les Fleurs du Mal [A Bilingual Edition]. Norman R. Shapiro, Translator-&-Editor. University of Chicago Press: Chicago & London. 246 pages. [73 poems].
Charles Baudelaire (2006). The Flowers of Evil. Keith Waldrop, Editor & Translator. Wesleyan University Press: Middletown, CT, USA. 225 pages.
The Six Briefs
Brief #1 — Baudelaire (1955)
The Book: Charles Baudelaire (1955). The Flowers of Evil: A Selection. Marthiel Mathews & Jackson Mathews, Editors. New Directions: New York, New York. 186 pages, paper. [53 poems w. facing English translations; brief biographical remarks; notes on translators.]
This book presents a modestly large selection of poems in a “poetic” format. The editors have chosen a format in which a translation was chosen which best represents — in the editors’ judgment — a combination of the meaning of the text and the poetic rhythm or tonality of the poem. They have quite consciously endeavored to utilize a number of different translators, because they believe that different translators are “better” at representing various aspects of the wide range of topics, tonality, and narrative presented in Baudelaire’s best known — and, when first published, unusually controversial — collection of poems.
This reviewer considers this effort — keeping in mind the difficulties — quite commendable.
Brief #2 — Baudelaire (1962)
Charles Baudelaire (1964). Flowers of Evil and Other Works/Les Fleurs du Mal et Oeuvres Choisies by Charles Baudelaire. Wallace Fowlie, Editor & Translator. A Bantam Dual-Language, Bantam Books: New York. 299 pages, paper.
[52 poems, 14 prose poems, prose, and letters w. facing English translations.]
As the title states or implies, this book provides a very useful selection of the Baudelaire’s entire artistic corpus. Of special interest, the “Critical Writings” from Curiosités Esthétiques plus the Musical, Art, and Music “Criticism” in the book provide a rare English source for Baudelaire’s unusually broad, and deep understanding of aesthetic realities. From the reviewer’s perspective, Fowlie does an excellent job of rendering Baudelaire’s prose into poetically suggestive and semantic equivalents.
I would, however, demur on one point that Fowlie sometimes misses. Baudelaire is not only focused on nuance — he normally is not seeking “idiomatic” expressions in any language, including English. Sometimes a literal translation of his French words into “awkward” English renders Baudelaire’s idiosyncratic meaning better than all efforts to use the ~99% effective standard “equivalent” rendering of French into English.
Noted:
The included Curiosités Esthétiques, 8 essays edited by Gautier (1868), are the focus of a more detailed discussion in the Deep Autumns Flowers Blog:
Brief #3 — Baudelaire (1968)
The Book: Charles Baudelaire (1968). Baudelaire. Francis Scarfe, Editor & Translator. Penguin Books: Middlesex, England; Baltimore, MD, USA. 282 pages, paper.
[143 “poems” w. smaller print plain English translations below; 53 page intro provides a ‘historical’ perspective for the man-&-his work]
The Product:
This book provides a very nice introduction to a medium-sized selection of Baudelaire’s entire poetic output (The 143 pieces include 135 poems and 8 prose poems). As stated by the translator, the translations stick close to the original text and translations depart from the customary ‘dictionary’ equivalents only when (he deems that) the deviations are required. Indeed, the small print translations at the bottom of the page are functional equivalents of “Dual Language Texts” that are intended for the English reader is semi-fluent in French. Too bad that the text was not actually prepared in a Formal-Dual Language text. [Such texts are a boon for many of us in the “good, but not always excellent” student category at ~ the 2nd/3rd year of college-level French.
A 53 page introductory section consists mostly of Scarfe’s discussion of Baudelaire’s life as a person as well as an artist. In addition, the introduction serves as a prelude to his division of Baudelaire’s work into 6 mildly ‘historical’ overlapping periods. These divisions have, in the main, stood the test of time. In addition, Scarfe presents pertinent details which support his contention that Baudelaire’s difficult life and self-contradictions could — in actual fact — diminish the aesthetic value of certain poems.
Brief #4 — Baudelaire (1991)
The Book: Charles Baudelaire (1991). The Flowers of Evil & Paris Spleen. William H. Crosby, Translator-&-Editor. BOA Editions, Ltd: Rochester, NY, USA. 510 [xxvii+489+4] pages, paper.
[211 poems and prose-poems; Woodcuts by David Crosby.]
The Ostensible Translator Intent
This book is an inspired effort to render the linguistic tonality [semantics] of Baudelaire’s two major poetic efforts [Flowers of Evil, Paris Spleen]. By semantics we mean the combined results of the text, tonality, and narrative of each individual poem. Stated slitely differently, Crosby’s text represents his best effort at combining both the denotations and the connotations of each poem into a single text of English poetry. The tributes on the book’s outer jacket by experts Paul Auster and Anna Balakian — who are utterly familiar with the French text and the many English language efforts at translation — tell us that: These renderings of Baudelaire’s poetry are English poems written by Baudelaire’s “blood brother”. The poems do not attempt to reproduce the tonality and rhythm of the French text. Rather, they create a verve and flow which reminds us of Baudelaire’s poetry. Interspersed Woodcuts by David Crosby provide background enhancement.
The Actual Translator Product
We note two instances of Crosby’s efforts in his rendering of the first stanza of Élévation/Elevation: (1) We find the then [~1850 CE] virtually unknown word “galaxy”; & (2) he drops Baudelaire’s “les confins des sphères étoilèes” [Sphere of the ‘Fixed’ Stars]. By the early 20th Century visages of this reigning scientific/astronomical paradigm of nearly 2 millennia were found only in historical studies and, even more infrequently, in rare literary allusions. Without losing a beat, the Crosby text for the stanza moves seamlessly before the contemporary reader — as in this and another ~200 poems. Whether Crosby uses Baudelaire’s nearly exact equivalent, a poetic near equivalent, or a word utterly unknown to Baudelaire — the poems usually move swiftly forward with a Baudelairian precision and ambience.
We would also note that while the original French is “right before us” if we care to look [e.g., “Dual Language Format”], it is actually of little immediate use for the normal “beginner”. To intellectually ‘collate’ the French and the English you must have both a keen eye-&-ear for precise literary English and an equally keen eye-&-ear for very precise French. It is a worthy project — but is also a commitment requiring some ill-defined combination of both talent and perseverance.
Brief #5 — Baudelaire (1998):
The Book: Charles Baudelaire (1998). Selected Poems from Les Fleurs du Mal [A Bilingual Edition]. Norman R. Shapiro, Translator-&-Editor. University of Chicago Press: Chicago & London. 246 [xxxvii+209] pages.
[73 oeuvres from Les Fleurs du Mal; The English texts attempt to render Baudelaire’s French words into a form that embodies both the literal semantics and the musical tonality of Baudelaire’s poetry.].16 sketches by David Schorr are also included.]
Author’s Book:
This selection of English rendering based upon 73 poems by Baudelaire might best be best described as English poems composed an American-USA “blood brother” or “soul brother” [~140 years after Baudelaire’s death]. There are, in fact, no exact terms to describe these poems, but — considering the various linguistic and semantic difficulties — the 73 English poems are quite suggestive in both sense and meaning of Baudelaire’s Les Fleurs du Mal as published in an 1861 version.
There are, in fact, no exact terms to describe these poems, but — considering the various linguistic and semantic difficulties — the 73 English poems are quite suggestive in both sense and meaning of Baudelaire’s Les Fleurs du Mal as published in an 1861 version. Indeed, while it contains a slitely larger selection of poems than the Mathews (1955) and Fowlie (1964) selections, this book may be the most suitable of our 6 book set for many readers to begin their first serious encounter with the enticements, niceties, and problematic of Baudelaire’s poetry. While he covers a range of topics and themes, he presently mostly those poems which he considers both interesting and beautiful. [That means, in fact, that Shapiro feels no requirement to give “equal” time and space to those poems which dive deep into the more maudlin and self-pitying proud pessimism of Baudelaire’s “dark side”. (I am fairly sure that Shapiro himself would have stated his concerns in a more neutral language than this.)]
An even smaller selection of 30 Poems in an Anthology edited by Flores is the subject of a detailed review which may be even more useful to those readers who have convenient access to library borrowing, etc.
A simpler option for beginning to appreciate Baudelaire:
Angel Flores, Editor (1958). Anthology of French Poetry from Nerval to Valéry in English translations. Anchor Books, Doubleday & Company, Inc.: Garden City, New York. 480 pages, paper [xviii+456+6]. (French originals found towards rear in French Texts texts, pp. 287-443). English Renderings of Baudelaire’s Poems are found on pages 15-59; French originals of the Baudelaire poems — in smaller print — are found on pages 294-323.
Brief #6 — Baudelaire (2006):
The Book:
Charles Baudelaire (2006). The Flowers of evil. Keith Waldrop, Editor & Translator. Wesleyan University Press: Middletown, CT, USA. 225 pages.
[126 poems + 6 originally banned poems.]
Technical Preliminaries/Translator Intentions .
This book provides 132 English Renderings of 132 Les Fleurs du mal templates. The titles and poems are entirely in English [No French titles or poems are provided]. More than 100 of the poems are short poems and printed on a single page of English text. This selection have been rendered into a “poetic” English text embodying a twofold purpose. As with the selections by the Mathews (1955), Fowlie (1964), and Shapiro (1998) the author’s declared intention is to create — with English words — a poetic suggestion of both the essential denotative meaning and (holistic) connotative suggestions associated, most especially, with the tonality of the French originals.
The Actual Product.
If we were able to reduce Baudelaire’s poems into words deriving their entire meaning from their dictionary meanings plus the semantic context of their surrounding phrases and stanzas, then this selection could be praised because renders many of the Baudelaire’s words and their more critical connotations into an enriched iambic pentameter-like prosody mildly suggestive of the original 132 poems translated here. Indeed, as a semantic translation these 132 rendering have much to commend themselves. They provide an excellent introduction to the semantics of Baudelaire’s poetry — as Les Fleurs du mal provides a capital introduction to Baudelaire’s poetic corpus.
However, Baudelaire’s poetry can be characterized by three intertwined, but distinguishable characteristics. First, Baudelaire is a premier wordsmith who combines descriptions and innovative metaphors from an unusually broad trove of multi-sensorial venues. Second, his poems provide a tonality or background of musicality which may enhance, hinder, or even counter the semantics of the text. Third, every poem is a unique whole which tells a story. These stories can be provided on an even keel or in either an ascending or a descending tone. Whether these poems are soaring, optimistic, becalmed, or deeply pessimistic, they can be good or excellent poems — even masterpieces [all readers and critics will naturally have their preferences]. However, some of the poems dive so deep into maudlin self-pity and masochistic fantasy that at times they become kitsch and aesthetic drivel (understating the case). It is, I believe, quite legitimate for anyone to provide, for example, a forensic examination of a mass murder from the perspective of the bottommost corpse. It the author is a poetic genius such as Baudelaire, well, then we have a poem — perhaps even a masterpiece. But some of Baudelaire’s poems descend into a darkness that reminds of the Nazis who “enjoyed” Wagner’s music while they were dispatching the skins and organs of their Jewish, albino, and gypsy prisoners…
END OF THE BRIEFS
Bookkeeping: Spelling, Punctuation, “Quotations”
Bookkeeping: Idiosyncratic words, spelling, & pronunciations. — Spelled out!
These remarks may be superfluous for some readers — including those who are acquainted with other writings or postings by this reviewer (LCHj). However, here we are dealing explicitly with two very nuanced subjects [Baudelaire’s French text and their English renderings (“translations”)] and implicitly with other equally complex issues that touch upon the uncertain boundaries between our selves/souls and our work [including, of course, the relationship between Baudelaire’s troubled life and his touted poetry]. When I wish to state something in as precise a manner as is as practically achievable at the moment, I expect from all readers as much respect for my efforts as they give to Baudelaire’s words, tonality, or his narrative dives into “The Dark Side” [&/or, whatever other feature engages them. [I do not expect or agreement — indeed both honest and disingenuous criticism is often quite helpful. (Strongly “biased” criticism is, however, usually harder for me to parse.) Vide Infra!
Favorite Phrase: Vide Infra! — This Latin Phrase (“Look Below” e.g., in the text) is most often found in legal and other (“high brow”) documents for the cognoscenti. However, I normally use the phrase at point when — some some readers and, certainly, I sense that there are disparate implications which I must forgo immediate discussion in order to pursue the topic which I deem to be most important [for the moment, at least].
Note on the Title: Expanded Remarks w. respect to “Briefs”
“Brief”: Before the reader, the judge, the writer, the critic or the poet reads any book, views any painting or touches-&-views any sculpture an unenumerated host of events have brought him/her to the moment when the book (or other object) is opened or otherwise engaged. For our summary reviews-and-previews [usually ~ 1-3 short paragraphs] we have adapted the word “Brief” to emphasize the role of the reader’s judgment in utilizing this communication. Our term “brief” could easily be replaced by the longer “Annotated Bibliography”. However, we have adopted “brief” by way of contrast to our other — and longer — book reviews of Baudelaire and his poetry [“Breviers”]. The reviewer’s [LCHj] broader term “Brevier” refers to reviews consisting usually of at least a few paragraphs. The “Breviers” posted in our series about Baudelaire and his work address or allude to a number of issues in addition to the linguistic issues highlited in these 10 “briefs”.
Caveat Lector. Amplifications — Punctuation, Spelling, “Quotations”
Punctuation
You will encounter “anomalous” idiosyncratic punctuation in these briefs which are often (1) extensions of the conscious use of novel punctuation by Baudelaire to provide ‘auditory’ emphasis and/or (2) continuations of similar punctuation devices employed by Friedrich Nietzsche. Baudelaire states somewhere that his editor can remove a section of a text at his discretion, but he cannot remove his commas. Part of my efforts along these lines is to enclose my long dashes within spaces: “word1 — word2”. This neutralizes many aggressive computer algorithms that “read” “word1—word2” as a single semantic unit (word).
Spelling
In the reviewer’s work for a master’s degree [U.T. Austin, 1982] and his Ph.D. [Univ. Iowa, 1989] the author has — when no serious ambiguities are involved — largely avoided use of ungodly Germanic Gutturals [i.e., “gh” & “ght”] when spelling a number of common English words [thru, altho, nite, lite]. Those guttural consonants have not been used in most English-speaking dialects since the days of Alfred the Great (~848-899 CE).
“Quotations”
The preferred practice for using quotation marks at the end of a sentence or phrase is to place a comma or period before the ending quotation mark. This convention is certainly useful as an indicator that the quoted phrase is part of a continuing conversation. However, in this discussion of Baudelaire and his translators, we frequently encounter 1-2 word terms which are essentially single semantic units [in common parlance “words”]. These semantic units are not per se quotations within a continuing conversations. Rather they are the linguistic objects of our discussion. Thus, when citing Baudelaire’s exact words and in quoting a featured translator’s rendering of these terms into English — it has become my common practice to enclose these citations with double quotation marks which are free of intervening (extraneous) periods and commas.
A Foolish Consistency: A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds and, for example, try as we will, it is impossible for any of us to “properly” delimit the range of terms such as aesthetics, beauty, and religion as used in almost all serious discussions of Baudelaire’s poetry. Indeed, some of Baudelaire’s favorite terms (ennui, spleen, douleur, guignon…) appear impossible to describe definitively [I don’t even try.]. Mistakes, however, occur and I will appreciate any corrections .
End of Bookkeeping Section
Beyond our “Briefs” — Linguistics Reexamined
Beyond our “Briefs” — Topics for another day: Linguistics Reexamined (Uncertain boundaries between psychology-&-philosophy, selfhood-&-work pertinent to understanding Baudelaire’s underlying perspectives.)
Ernst Nagel & James R. Newman (1956). “Goedel’s Proof” in: The World of Mathematics, vol. 3, James R. Newman, editor. pp. 1668-1695. Simon and Schuster: New York.
Noam Chomsky (1957). Syntactic Structures. Mouton & Co.: Gravenhage.
Walter Kaufmann, Editor & Translator (1975). Twenty-five German Poets: A Bilingual Collection. Norton & Company Inc.: New York. pp. 345.
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