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Baudelaire, Charles: Don Juan in Hell (Don Juan aux enfers in English)

Portre of Baudelaire, Charles

Don Juan aux enfers (French)

Quand Don Juan descendit vers l'onde souterraine
Et lorsqu'il eut donné son obole à Charon,
Un sombre mendiant, l'oeil fier comme Antisthène,
D'un bras vengeur et fort saisit chaque aviron.

Montrant leurs seins pendants et leurs robes ouvertes,
Des femmes se tordaient sous le noir firmament,
Et, comme un grand troupeau de victimes offertes,
Derrière lui traînaient un long mugissement.

Sganarelle en riant lui réclamait ses gages,
Tandis que Don Luis avec un doigt tremblant
Montrait à tous les morts errant sur les rivages
Le fils audacieux qui railla son front blanc.

Frissonnant sous son deuil, la chaste et maigre Elvire,
Près de l'époux perfide et qui fut son amant,
Semblait lui réclamer un suprême sourire
Où brillât la douceur de son premier serment.

Tout droit dans son armure, un grand homme de pierre
Se tenait à la barre et coupait le flot noir;
Mais le calme héros, courbé sur sa rapière,
Regardait le sillage et ne daignait rien voir.



Source of the quotationhttp://nyontime.blogspot.com/search?q=baudelaire

Don Juan in Hell (English)

 

When Don Juan had descended to the waves
Of Hell, and given coin for Charon's chores,
A beggar with Antisthenes' proud gaze
Took an avenger's grip around the oars.

Showing their hanging breasts through open gowns,
Sad women writhed beneath that blackened sky;
Like victims chosen for the killing ground
They trailed behind him, lowing moumfully.

Sganarelle badgered him to get his pay,
While Don Luis, with trembling gesture there,
Showed all the dead who lined the waterway
That shameless son, who'd mocked his old grey hair.

Quivering with grief, Elvira, chaste and thin,
Near to her lover and unfaithful spouse,
Seemed to be begging one last smile of him,
In which would shine the grace of his first vows.

A great stone man, stiff in his uniform,
Was the stem helmsman on that gloomy run,
But our calm hero, bent upon his sword,
Stared at the wake, and gave his glance to none.

 



Source of the quotationhttp://www.baudelaire.cz

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