Quote:
Autumn Song
Soon we will sink in the frigid darkness
Good-bye, brightness of our too short summers!
I already hear the fall in distress
Of the wood falling in the paved courtyard.
Winter will invade my being: anger,
Hatred, chills, horror, hard and forced labor,
And, like the sun in its iced inferno,
My heart is but a red and frozen floe.
I hear with shudders each weak limb that falls.
The scaffold will have no louder echo.
My spirit is like a tower that yields
Under the tireless and heavy ram blow.
It seems, lulled by this monotonous sound,
Somewhere a coffin is hastily nailed,
For whom? Summer yesterday, autumn now!
This mysterious noise sounds like a farewell.
I love the greenish light of your long eyes,
Sweet beauty, but all is bitter today.
Nothing, not love, the boudoir or the hearth
Is dearer than the sunshine on the sea.
Still love me, tender heart! Be a mother
Even to the ingrate, to the wicked,
Lover, sister, ephemeral sweetness
Of fall's glory or of the setting sun.
Short-lived task! The tomb awaits, merciless.
Ah! Let me, my head resting on your knees,
Savor, regretting the white hot summer,
The autumn's last rays yellow and tender.
That’s a Hall of Fame write if I’ve ever seen one. Seriously. The colors and the imagery in this pop off of the page brilliantly. Take a look at the words like ‘scaffold’, ‘tower’. Baudelaire lived in during some serious industrialization and growing city life in Paris. While summer is beautiful with green and vibrant light, and autumn is gorgeous as well with its reds, yellows, and other colors… That beauty is bittersweet. A sad reminder that winter will come. And think about what cities like Paris would look like in the winter. Cold, covered in snow, grey skies, dark smoke billowing in the air… Forced labor of the times. It’s a miserable sight, and Baudelaire is expressing this darkness of himself, this darkness of man and the fleeting happiness of city life. “Somewhere a coffin is hastily nailed,” God, damn, that might seem like some random line. But in the context, the nail of the coffin sounds like a farewell. The death of happiness and joy, and the incoming of pain and hatred and anger. He asks questions at the right time, throws in exclamations at the right points… The pacing is simply fantastic. For real, take the time to enjoy that work. It’s so reflected of him and his own life it adds layers upon layers of genuine emotion.