Les Fleurs du Mal

The Flowers of Evil

The first edition of Les Fleurs du mal with author's notes.
Author	Charles Baudelaire
Original title	Les Fleurs du mal
Translator	George Dillion, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Jacques Leclercq, Stefan George, William F. Aggeler
Illustrator	Carlos Schwabe
Country	France
Language	French
Genre	Lyric poetry
Published	1857
Publisher	Auguste Poulet-Malassis
Media type	Print
Original text	at French
Translation

Les Fleurs du mal (French pronunciation: ​[le flœʁ dy mal]; English: The Flowers of Evil) is a volume of French poetry by Charles Baudelaire. First published in 1857 (see 1857 in poetry), it was important in the symbolist and modernist movements. The poems deal with themes relating to decadence and eroticism.

The initial publication of the book was arranged in six thematically segregated sections:

Baudelaire dedicated the book to the poet Théophile Gautier, describing him as a parfait magicien des lettres françaises ("a perfect magician of French letters").

The foreword to the volume, identifying Satan with the pseudonymous alchemist Hermes Trismegistus and calling boredom the worst of miseries, sets the general tone of what is to follow:

Si le viol, le poison, le poignard, l'incendie,
N'ont pas encore brodé de leurs plaisants dessins
Le canevas banal de nos piteux destins,
C'est que notre âme, hélas ! n'est pas assez hardie.

If rape, poison, dagger and fire,
Have still not embroidered their pleasant designs
On the banal canvas of our pitiable destinies,
It's because our soul, alas, is not bold enough!

The preface concludes with the following malediction:

C'est l'Ennui!—l'œil chargé d'un pleur involontaire,
Il rêve d'échafauds en fumant son houka.
Tu le connais, lecteur, ce monstre délicat,
Hypocrite lecteur, — mon semblable, — mon frère !

It's Boredom!—eye brimming with involuntary tears
He dreams of gallows while smoking his hookah.
You know him, reader, this delicate monster,
Hypocritical reader, my likeness, my brother!