Talk:Les Fleurs du mal

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I have felt emboldened to make my own translation, while preserving the original here. If anyone thinks the old one is better, feel free to switch back or try your own. -- Someone else 02:59 Mar 26, 2003 (UTC)

"If rape and vitriol, the dagger and the art of arson,
Have not as yet etched out their pretty patterns,
Upon the stretched canvas of our miserable destinies,
It's a matter of the lack of reach within our souls!"
(freely translated).

"It's a bore! ...the involuntarily tearful eye,
Enraptured in a hashish dream of gallows.
You know this consumptive monster, reader,
You hypocrite - my doppelganger - my sibling!"

---

Having looked once again at the preface, I've rewritten a sentence in the article that seems to have been written merely to provide links, which I've eliminated, to angel and Seven Deadly Sins, which have little to do with Les Fleurs du Mal. "Satan" is characterized as "Trismégiste" rather than an angel (clearly the word is meant both as an intentional blasphemy and as a reference to Hermes Trismagistus): and though many miseries are listed in the preface, there does not seem to be any intention of enumerating any particular number, such as "Seven". -- Someone else 23:50 Mar 26, 2003 (UTC)

I took the liberty of linking thrice-great to Hermes Trismegistus, where the title is explained. If you think this should be elaborated, elaborate it. Now on to fix the dodgy Greek at that entry. -- IHCOYC 02:16 Mar 27, 2003 (UTC)

Six poems banned: Why?

"Six poems from the work were suppressed and the ban on their publication was not lifted in France until 1949." -- Some amplification of this, please. Just why were these six particular poems considered so reprehensible? -- 201.19.15.178 05:30, 6 September 2007 (UTC)

...and wich ones? (Thanks) --192.33.238.6 14:24, 24 September 2007 (UTC)

What are the flowers of evil . . . Copyedit (minor)

to which Baudelaire refers???? I often assumed them to be poppies which are the source of heroin. The flower on the cover of the book appears to be a venus flytrap.User:JCHeverly 23:39, 25 January 2014 (UTC)

Another reference in pop culture

https://blacklistdeclassified.net/surveillance-2/%E2%99%A4%E2%99%A4%F0%9F%94%B4-all-scripts-pending/#s1 [ Liz arrives at Red’s place. He reads aloud from a volume of poetry ]

Red: “To creep softly like a coward toward the treasures of your body, to whip your joyous flesh and bruise your pardoned breast, to make in your astonished flank a wide and gaping wound.”

Red: As a general rule, I believe the sword is mightier than the pen. But in the hands of a free-spirited, syphilis-ridden French dandy, I’d say the odds shift considerably. Liz: How’s my grandfather? Red: We saw him this morning. He’s still critical. Liz: And the woman who tried to kill him? Red: You know Baudelaire was prosecuted for offenses against public morality? Liz: The woman. Red: His words were so provocative that six of his poems were banned for nearly a century. Liz: You said you had a lead. Red: I do. A secret society named after Baudelaire’s “Les Fleurs du Mal.” Liz: Poetry lovers? Red: Thrill seekers. People who go to extreme lengths to offend public morality. A society of decadent misanthropes. People who have everything, so nothing is special. Liz: And this connects to the woman who abducted you in Paris? Red: It does.

73.207.50.144 (talk) 05:21, 20 October 2019 (UTC) Disc Mantis

Over-long Legacy section

I've trimmed the Legacy section down a little but I was pretty conservative about it and it is still massively overblown. If we are to have this section at all, it needs well referenced content detailing the overall legacy of the work in terms of its influence on subsequent culture not just an indiscriminate, unreferenced and unedifying list of every obscure/pretentious band that has ever named a non-notable song after it in order to assert their own literacy and coolness. The French and German versions of the article do without this section completely and maybe we could too? --DanielRigal (talk) 15:08, 28 October 2021 (UTC)

Translations

The history of translations into English is quite interesting and deserves some space, as it includes several famous poets and translators. I'd like to tackle that sometime this year. 184.146.129.138 (talk) 19:58, 14 September 2023 (UTC)