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fandomhigh2006-01-19 11:49 am
game-of-you.livejournal.com) wrote in fandomhigh2006-01-19 11:49 am
Entry tags:
Foreign Lit, 1/19, Period 2
"Good morning. There is juice and tea at the front of the classroom, should any of you want them. Coffee gives children bad dreams."
"In any event, we will discuss Les Fleurs du Mal by Charles Baudelaire in class today. This volume is important in the symbolist and modernist movements, dealing as the poems do with themes relating to decadence and eroticism.
The initial publication of the book was arranged in five thematically segregated sections: Spleen et Idéal (Spleen and Ideal); Fleurs du Mal (Flowers of Evil); Révolte (Revolt); Le Vin (Wine); and La Mort (Death)
The foreword to the volume, blasphemously defining Satan as "thrice-great", and calling boredom the worst of miseries, neatly 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 and poison, dagger and burning,
Have still not embroidered their pleasant designs
On the banal canvas of our pitiable destinies,
It's because our souls, alas, are not bold enough!
The preface concludes with the following malediction:
C'est l'Ennui! —l'oeil 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! — his eye brimming with spontaneous tear
He dreams of the gallows in the haze of his hookah.
You know him, reader, this delicate monster,
Hypocritical reader, my likeness, my brother!
The author and the publisher were prosecuted under the regime of the Second Empire as an "insult to public decency." As a consequence of this prosecution, Baudelaire was fined 300 francs. Six poems from the work were suppressed, and the ban on their publication was not lifted in France until 1949. On the other hand, upon reading Les Fleurs du Mal, Victor Hugo announced that Baudelaire had created "un nouveau frisson" -- meaning a new shudder or a new thrill -- in literature.
In the wake of the prosecution a second edition was issued in 1861 which added 32 new poems, removed the six suppressed poems and added a new section entitled Tableaux Parisiens.
Now, in the volume I gave you to work from, each poem is printed alongside several modern translations. I would like for you to pick one poem and discuss the differences among the translations, as well as which you feel is most accurate, should you read French.
On Tuesday, we will have a quiz to end our section on French literature."
[Lecture stolen from here.]
"In any event, we will discuss Les Fleurs du Mal by Charles Baudelaire in class today. This volume is important in the symbolist and modernist movements, dealing as the poems do with themes relating to decadence and eroticism.
The initial publication of the book was arranged in five thematically segregated sections: Spleen et Idéal (Spleen and Ideal); Fleurs du Mal (Flowers of Evil); Révolte (Revolt); Le Vin (Wine); and La Mort (Death)
The foreword to the volume, blasphemously defining Satan as "thrice-great", and calling boredom the worst of miseries, neatly 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 and poison, dagger and burning,
Have still not embroidered their pleasant designs
On the banal canvas of our pitiable destinies,
It's because our souls, alas, are not bold enough!
The preface concludes with the following malediction:
C'est l'Ennui! —l'oeil 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! — his eye brimming with spontaneous tear
He dreams of the gallows in the haze of his hookah.
You know him, reader, this delicate monster,
Hypocritical reader, my likeness, my brother!
The author and the publisher were prosecuted under the regime of the Second Empire as an "insult to public decency." As a consequence of this prosecution, Baudelaire was fined 300 francs. Six poems from the work were suppressed, and the ban on their publication was not lifted in France until 1949. On the other hand, upon reading Les Fleurs du Mal, Victor Hugo announced that Baudelaire had created "un nouveau frisson" -- meaning a new shudder or a new thrill -- in literature.
In the wake of the prosecution a second edition was issued in 1861 which added 32 new poems, removed the six suppressed poems and added a new section entitled Tableaux Parisiens.
Now, in the volume I gave you to work from, each poem is printed alongside several modern translations. I would like for you to pick one poem and discuss the differences among the translations, as well as which you feel is most accurate, should you read French.
On Tuesday, we will have a quiz to end our section on French literature."
[Lecture stolen from here.]