Two editions of Fleurs du mal were published in Baudelaire's lifetime one in 1857 and an expand

1857 Fleurs du mal

First edition with 100 poems
1861 Fleurs du mal
Second edition missing censored poems but including new ones
1866 Les paves
Twenty-three "scraps" including the poems censored from the first edition
1868 Fleurs du mal
Definitive edition published after Baudelaire's death
All Poems (Alphabetical)
Every poem from each edition
Audio
Readings of Baudelaire mostly in French

Supervert - Necrophilia VariationsFleursdumal.org is a labor of love produced and maintained by Su

External Links

Horizon Noir
French resource
Baudelaire Microhistory
The life of Baudelaire day by day
W.T. Bandy Center for Baudelaire studies
Extensive resource
31 Translations of Spleen
by Nicholas Moore
Le Balcon
Translated into English by 20 different translators
Mag4.net
Excellent Arthur Rimbaud site, in French
L'Albatros

Souvent, pour s'amuser, les hommes d'quipage

Prennent des albatros, vastes oiseaux des mers,
Qui suivent, indolents compagnons de voyage,
Le navire glissant sur les gouffres amers.

peine les ont-ils dposs sur les planches,

Que ces rois de l'azur, maladroits et honteux,
Laissent piteusement leurs grandes ailes blanches
Comme des avirons traner ct d'eux.

Ce voyageur ail, comme il est gauche et veule!

Lui, nagure si beau, qu'il est comique et laid!
L'un agace son bec avec un brle-gueule,
L'autre mime, en boitant, l'infirme qui volait!

Le Pote est semblable au prince des nues

Qui hante la tempte et se rit de l'archer;
Exil sur le sol au milieu des hues,
Ses ailes de gant l'empchent de marcher.

Charles Baudelaire

The Albatross

Often, to amuse themselves, the men of a crew

Catch albatrosses, those vast sea birds
That indolently follow a ship
As it glides over the deep, briny sea.

Scarcely have they placed them on the deck

Than these kings of the sky, clumsy, ashamed,
Pathetically let their great white wings
Drag beside them like oars.

That winged voyager, how weak and gauche he is,

So beautiful before, now comic and ugly!
One man worries his beak with a stubby clay pipe;
Another limps, mimics the cripple who once flew!

The poet resembles this prince of cloud and sky

Who frequents the tempest and laughs at the bowman;
When exiled on the earth, the butt of hoots and jeers,
His giant wings prevent him from walking.

William Aggeler, The Flowers of Evil (Fresno, CA: Academy Library Guild, 1954)

The Albatross

Sometimes for sport the men of loafing crews

Snare the great albatrosses of the deep,
The indolent companions of their cruise
As through the bitter vastitudes they sweep.

Scarce have they fished aboard these airy kings

When helpless on such unaccustomed floors,
They piteously droop their huge white wings
And trail them at their sides like drifting oars.

How comical, how ugly, and how meek

Appears this soarer of celestial snows!
One, with his pipe, teases the golden beak,
One, limping, mocks the cripple as he goes.

The Poet, like this monarch of the clouds,

Despising archers, rides the storm elate.
But, stranded on the earth to jeering crowds,
The great wings of the giant baulk his gait.

Roy Campbell, Poems of Baudelaire (New York: Pantheon Books, 1952)

The Albatross

Sometimes, to entertain themselves, the men of the crew

Lure upon deck an unlucky albatross, one of those vast
Birds of the sea that follow unwearied the voyage through,
Flying in slow and elegant circles above the mast.

No sooner have they disentangled him from their nets

Than this aerial colossus, shorn of his pride,
Goes hobbling pitiably across the planks and lets
His great wings hang like heavy, useless oars at his side.
How droll is the poor floundering creature, how limp and weak
He, but a moment past so lordly, flying in state!
They tease him: One of them tries to stick a pipe in his beak;
Another mimics with laughter his odd lurching gait.

The Poet is like that wild inheritor of the cloud,

A rider of storms, above the range of arrows and slings;
Exiled on earth, at bay amid the jeering crowd,
He cannot walk for his unmanageable wings.

George Dillon, Flowers of Evil (NY: Harper and Brothers, 1936)

Albatrosses

Often our sailors, for an hour of fun,

Catch albatrosses on the after breeze
Through which these trail the ship from sun to sun
As it skims down the deep and briny seas.

Scarce have these birds been set upon the poop,

Than, awkward now, they, the sky's emperors,
Piteous and shamed, let their great white wings droop
Beside them like a pair of idle oars.

These wingd voyagers, how gauche their gait!

Once noble, now how ludicrous to view!
One sailor bums them with his pipe, his mate
Limps, mimicking these cripples who once flew.

Poets are like these lords of sky and cloud,

Who ride the storm and mock the bow's taut strings,
Exiled on earth amid a jeering crowd,
Prisoned and palsied by their giant wings.
 Jacques LeClercq, Flowers of Evil (Mt Vernon, NY: Peter Pauper Press, 1958)

The Albatross

Often, to amuse themselves, the men of the crew

Catch those great birds of the seas, the albatrosses,
lazy companions of the voyage, who follow
The ship that slips through bitter gulfs.

Hardly have they put them on the deck,

Than these kings of the skies, awkward and ashamed,
Piteously let their great white wings
Draggle like oars beside them.

This winged traveler, how weak he becomes and slack!

He who of late was so beautiful, how comical and ugly!
Someone teases his beak with a branding iron,
Another mimics, limping, the crippled flyer!

The Poet is like the prince of the clouds,

Haunting the tempest and laughing at the archer;
Exiled on earth amongst the shouting people,
His giant's wings hinder him from walking.

Geoffrey Wagner, Selected Poems of Charles Baudelaire (NY: Grove Press, 1974)