Stanza One
Quand le ciel bas et lourd pèse comme un couvercle (Charles Baudelaire)
When the low, heavy sky weighs like a lid (William Aggeler, 1954)
When the cold heavy sky weighs like a lid (Roy Campbell, 1952)
When the low, heavy sky weighs like the giant lid (Edna St. Vincent Millay, 1936)
when low skies weightier than a coffin-lid (Lewis Piaget Shanks, 1931)
When the low heavy sky weighs like a lid (Jack Collings Squire, 1909)
When the low and heavy sky presses like a lid (Geoffrey Wagner, 1974)
When, like a lid, the low and heavy sky (Joanna Richardson, 1994)
Sur l’esprit gémissant en proie aux longs ennuis, (Baudelaire)
On the groaning spirit, victim of long ennui, (Aggeler)
On spirits whom eternal boredom grips, (Campbell)
Of a great pot upon the spirit crushed by care, (St. Vincent Millay)
cast on the moaning soul their weary blight, (Shanks)
Upon the spirit aching for the light, (Squire)
On the groaning heart a prey to slow cares, (Wagner)
Weights on the spirit burdened with long care, (Richardson)
Et que de l’horizon embrassant tout le cercle (Baudelaire)
And from the all-encircling horizon (Aggeler)
And the wide ring of the horizon’s hid (Campbell)
And from the whole horizon encircling us is shed (St. Vincent Millay)
and from the whole horizon’s murky grid (Shanks)
And all the wide horizon’s line is hid (Squire)
And when from a horizon holding the whole orb (Wagner)
And when, as far as mortal eye can see, (Richardson)
II nous verse un jour noir plus triste que les nuits; (Baudelaire)
Spreads over us a day gloomier than the night; (Aggeler)
In daytime darker than the night’s eclipse: (Campbell)
A day blacker than night, and thicker with despair; (St. Vincent Millay)
its grey light drips more dismal than the night; (Shanks)
By a black day sadder than any night; (Squire)
There is cast at us a dark sky more sad than night; (Wagner)
It sheds a darkness sadder than nights are; (Richardson)
Stanza Two
Quand la terre est changée en un cachot humide, (Baudelaire)
When the earth is changed into a humid dungeon, (Aggeler)
When the world seems a dungeon, damp and small, (Campbell)
When Earth becomes a dungeon, where the timid bat (St. Vincent Millay)
when earth’s a dungeon damp whose chill appals, (Shanks)
When the changed earth is but a dungeon dank (Squire)
When earth is changed to a damp dungeon, (Wagner)
When earth is changed into a prison cell, (Richardson)
Où l’Espérance, comme une chauve-souris, (Baudelaire)
In which Hope like a bat (Aggeler)
Where hope flies like a bat, in circles reeling, (Campbell)
Called Confidence, against the damp and slippery walls (St. Vincent Millay)
in which — a fluttering bat — my Hope, alone (Shanks)
Where batlike Hope goes blindly fluttering (Squire)
Where Hope, like a bat, (Wagner)
Where, in the damp and dark, with timid wing (Richardson)
S’en va battant les murs de son aile timide (Baudelaire)
Goes beating the walls with her timid wings (Aggeler)
Beating his timid wings against the wall (Campbell)
Goes beating his blind wings, goes feebly bumping at (St. Vincent Millay)
buffets with timid wing the mouldering walls (Shanks)
And, striking wall and roof and mouldered plank, (Squire)
Flees beating the walls with its timorous wings, (Wagner)
Hope, like a bat, goes beating at the wall, (Richardson)
Et se cognant la tête à des plafonds pourris; (Baudelaire)
And knocking her head against the rotten ceiling; (Aggeler)
And dashing out his brains against the ceiling: (Campbell)
The rotted, moldy ceiling, and the plaster falls; (St. Vincent Millay)
and beats her head against the dome of stone; (Shanks)
Bruises his tender head and timid wing; (Squire)
And knocking its head on the rotting ceilings; (Wagner)
Striking its head on ceilings mouldering; (Richardson)
Stanza Three
Quand la pluie étalant ses immenses traînées (Baudelaire)
When the rain stretching out its endless train (Aggeler)
When trawling rains have made their steel-grey fibres (Campbell)
When, dark and dropping straight, the long lines of the rain (St. Vincent Millay)
when close as prison-bars, from overhead, (Shanks)
When like grim prison-bars stretch down the thin, (Squire)
When the rain spreads out vast trails (Wagner)
When rain spreads out its never-ending trails (Richardson)
D’une vaste prison imite les barreaux, (Baudelaire)
Imitates the bars of a vast prison (Aggeler)
Look like the grilles of some tremendous jail, (Campbell)
Like prison-bars outside the window cage us in; (St. Vincent Millay)
the clouds let fall the curtain of the rains, (Shanks)
Straight, rigid pillars of the endless rain, (Squire)
Like the bars of a huge prison, (Wagner)
And imitates the bars of prisons vast, (Richardson)
Et qu’un peuple muet d’infâmes araignées (Baudelaire)
And a silent horde of loathsome spiders (Aggeler)
And a whole nation of disgusting spiders (Campbell)
And silently, about the caught and helpless brain, (St. Vincent Millay)
and voiceless hordes of spiders come, to spread (Shanks)
And the dumb throngs of infamous spiders spin (Squire)
And when, like sordid spiders, silent people stretch (Wagner)
And spiders, silent and detestable, (Richardson)
Vient tendre ses filets au fond de nos cerveaux, (Baudelaire)
Comes to spin their webs in the depths of our brains, (Aggeler)
Over our brains their dusty cobwebs trail: (Campbell)
We feel the spider walk, and test the web, and spin; (St. Vincent Millay)
their infamous cobwebs through our darkened brains, (Shanks)
Their meshes in the caverns of the brain; — (Squire)
Threads to the depths of our brains, (Wagner)
Crowd in, our minds with webs to overcast, (Richardson)
Stanza Four
Des cloches tout à coup sautent avec furie (Baudelaire)
All at once the bells leap with rage (Aggeler)
Suddenly bells are fiercely clanged about (Campbell)
Then all the bells at once ring out in furious clang, (St. Vincent Millay)
explosively the bells begin to ring, (Shanks)
Suddenly, bells leap forth into the air, (Squire)
Suddenly the bells jump furiously (Wagner)
Some bells burst out in fury, suddenly, (Richardson)
Et lancent vers le ciel un affreux hurlement, (Baudelaire)
And hurl a frightful roar at heaven, (Aggeler)
And hurl a fearsome howl into the sky (Campbell)
Bombarding heaven with howling, horrible to hear, (St. Vincent Millay)
hurling their frightful clangour toward the sky, (Shanks)
Hurling a hideous uproar to the sky (Squire)
And hurl to the sky a horrible shriek, (Wagner)
And hurl a roar most terrible to heaven, (Richardson)
Ainsi que des esprits errants et sans patrie (Baudelaire)
Even as wandering spirits with no country (Aggeler)
Like spirits from their country hunted out (Campbell)
Like lost and wandering souls, that whine in shrill harangue (St. Vincent Millay)
as homeless spirits lost and wandering (Shanks)
As ’twere a band of homeless spirits who fare (Squire)
Like some wandering landless spirits (Wagner)
Like spirits lost for all eternity (Richardson)
Qui se mettent à geindre opiniâtrement. (Baudelaire)
Burst into a stubborn, whimpering cry. (Aggeler)
Who’ve nothing else to do but shriek and cry — (Campbell)
Their obstinate complaints to an unlistening ear. (St. Vincent Millay)
might raise their indefatigable cry; (Shanks)
Through the strange heavens, wailing stubbornly. (Squire)
Starting an obstinate complaint. (Wagner)
Who start, most obstinately, to complain. (Richardson)
Stanza Five
— Et de longs corbillards, sans tambours ni musique, (Baudelaire)
— And without drums or music, long hearses (Aggeler)
Then long processions without fifes or drums (Campbell)
— And a long line of hearses, with neither dirge nor drums, (St. Vincent Millay)
and ancient hearses through my soul advance (Shanks)
And hearses, without drum or instrument, (Squire)
— And long hearses, with no drums, no music, (Wagner)
And, without drums or music, funerals (Richardson)
Défilent lentement dans mon âme; l’Espoir, (Baudelaire)
Pass by slowly in my soul; Hope, vanquished, (Aggeler)
Wind slowly through my soul. Hope, weeping, bows (Campbell)
Begins to cross my soul. Weeping, with steps that lag, (St. Vincent Millay)
muffled and slow; my Hope, now pitiful, (Shanks)
File slowly through my soul; crushed, sorrowful, (Squire)
File slowly through my soul: Hope, (Wagner)
File past, in slow procession, in my soul; (Richardson)
Vaincu, pleure, et l’Angoisse atroce, despotique, (Baudelaire)
Weeps, and atrocious, despotic Anguish (Aggeler)
To conquest. And atrocious Anguish comes (Campbell)
Hope walks in chains; and Anguish, after long wars, becomes (St. Vincent Millay)
weeps her defeat, and conquering Anguish plants (Shanks)
Weeps Hope, and Grief, fierce and omnipotent, (Squire)
Conquered, cries, and despotic atrocious Agony (Wagner)
Hope weeps, defeated; Pain, tyrannical, (Richardson)
Sur mon crâne incliné plante son drapeau noir. (Baudelaire)
On my bowed skull plants her black flag. (Aggeler)
To plant his black flag on my drooping brows. (Campbell)
Tyrant at last, and plants on me his inky flag. (St. Vincent Millay)
his great black banner on my cowering skull. (Shanks)
Plants his black banner on my drooping skull. (Squire)
Plants on my bent skull its flag of black. (Wagner)
Atrocious, plants its black flag on my skull. (Richardson)