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Translation Trashbin - 37. Sonnet d’automne
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Translation of
Sonnet d’automne
by Charles Baudelaire
Sonnet d’automne
Ils me disent, tes yeux, clairs comme le cristal:
«Pour toi, bizarre amant, quel est donc mon mérite?»
—Sois charmante et tais-toi! Mon coeur, que tout irrite,
Excepté la candeur de l'antique animal,
Ne veut pas te montrer son secret infernal,
Berceuse dont la main aux longs sommeils m'invite,
Ni sa noire légende avec la flamme écrite.
Je hais la passion et l'esprit me fait mal!
Aimons-nous doucement. L'Amour dans sa guérite,
Ténébreux, embusqué, bande son arc fatal.
Je connais les engins de son vieil arsenal:
Crime, horreur et folie! — Ô pâle marguerite!
Comme moi n'es-tu pas un soleil automnal,
O ma si blanche, ô ma si froide Marguerite? [i]
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Autumn Sonnet
Your eyes on me speak as crystal as leaded glass:
“What do you, strange lover, see in me that appeals?”
—Aloof and charming, my heart thinks best it conceals
All but my animal truth from his ancient class.
I don’t want to show a secret some think quite crass,
But is a cradle song whose long-sleeping hand reveals
One legend enough to withstand black-flame ordeals.
Hating forceful flares, when will this hurt feeling pass?
Let’s love gently. Love in his deep guardhouse sentry,
Bend me like a bow, hidden away, darkly strung,
For I know the weapons in his arsenal of fun.
Illicit, raunchy, crazy! — O pale margery!
Are we not alike, attuned to the autumn sun?
O mine so white, o mine so cool a machine gun. [ii]
[i] “Sonnet d’automne” Charles Baudelaire Les fleurs du mal (Paris 1868), p. 187
https://archive.org/details/lesfleursdumalpr00bauduoft/page/186/mode/2up
[ii] “margery” 19th century slang for a man available for casual sex with other men. As 19th century outsiders considered all such interactions calculating, they applied the Gay-insiders’ term to men on the make for money, of which men in uniform were the best-known “safe” option to be had in major metropolitan areas.
Margery relates well to the term in popular use for female sex-workers, daisy, and naturally both words have the same origin in the flower name.
In terms of Baudelaire’s French slang, marguerite can be applied to people on the make for sexual pleasure of either gender. However, in a not-very-subtle bid to make his readers understand exactly who is “on top” during this guardhouse tryst, Baudelaire repeats the word for daisy in a military context. And “Marguerite” – with a capital M – is slang for an early form of machine gun.
For period-use of the term margery, there is a rare survivor from Britain’s notorious culling, burning and ruthless censorship of all printed matter deemed to be of an “objectionable nature,” which began in 1880 and lasted until 1970. This circa 1855 book is known in only one surviving print: that locked away for a hundred years in the British Museum. It is now scanned and available for study.
Curiously, the book purports to be a stern lesson in avoiding the “vices” of London, but organizes itself as a handy guide for all of its pleasures, even bothering to name the most celebrated prostitutes of the day and detail at which brothel they were to be found.
In a similar light of “warning,” the author merrily lays out where one may go to meet up with men on the make. As soon as page 5, the visitor is directed to the stomping grounds of the “margeries” and “poofs,” and the how-to etiquette of each cruising area is carefully explained for the reader’s convenience.
See “A Few Words About Margeries – The Way to Know the Beasts – Their Haunts, &c.” in the Yokel’s Preceptor: or, More Sprees in London! (London c. 1855), ps. 5-7
– As a side note, I’d encourage the reader to glance at the titlepage. This book must surely have one of the longest titles of any volume in the English language: 322 words by my casual count!
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Note: While authors are asked to place warnings on their stories for some moderated content, everyone has different thresholds, and it is your responsibility as a reader to avoid stories or stop reading if something bothers you.
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