To Theodore de Banville

To Theodore de Banville / À Theodore de Banville by Charles Baudelaire, translated by John Squire

NOTE: Baudelaire sent this poem in a letter to Banville in 1842. After Baudelaire's death, in 1868, Banville edited a new version of the Flowers of Evil and included this old bit of friendly flattery. Translated by Sir John Squire (1884 - 1958), published 1908. Source: The Flowers of Evil, ed. Marthiel and Jackson Mathews, New Directions edition, 1989.

To Theodore de Banville


So proud your port, your arm so powerful,
With such a grip you grip the goddess’ hair,
That one might take you, from your casual air,
For a young ruffian flinging down his trull.

Your clear eye flashing with precocity,
You have displayed yourself proud architect
Of fabrics so audaciously correct
That we may guess what your ripe prime may be.

Poet, our blood ebbs out through every pore;
Is it, perchance, the robe the Centaur bore,
Which made a sullen streamlet of each vein,

Was three times dipped within the venom fell
Of those old reptiles fierce and terrible
Whom, in his cradle, Hercules had slain?

The note on the translation:

This is a translation and has a separate copyright status from the original text. The license for the translation applies to this edition only.
Original:	This work published before January 1, 1923 is in the public domain worldwide because the author died at least 100 years ago.
Translation:	This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published before January 1, 1923. The author died in 1958, so this work is also in the public domain in countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 50 years or less. This work may also be in the public domain in countries and areas with longer native copyright terms that apply the rule of the shorter term to foreign works.