The Sword and Laser discussion

So I don't know much of anything about Baudelaire (or French poetry generally), but after googling he and Duval a bit I came across this neat website that has a bunch of his poems in multiple translations, which are really neat to compare. I thought I'd link the ones about Duval here, and if anyone has more experience with the subject they can chime in! I do wonder how the historical figures compare with their depiction in this novel.

Anyway, The Balcony: http://fleursdumal.org/poem/133

Parfum exotique: http://fleursdumal.org/poem/120

La chevelure: http://fleursdumal.org/poem/203

Sed non satiata: http://fleursdumal.org/poem/123

Le serpent qui danse: http://fleursdumal.org/poem/125

Une charogne: http://fleursdumal.org/poem/126

Comparing the translations is really interesting; for example, from The Balcony:

a boring line like

"I know the art of evoking happy moments, "

becomes

"I know how to resuscitate dead minutes."

"I can relive the ecstasy that Time has slain; "

or my favorite:
"my magic art evoked a rapture perished"

And the last stanza pretty much always sounds rad:

Those vows, those perfumes, those infinite kisses,
Will they be reborn from a gulf we may not sound,
As rejuvenated suns rise in the heavens
After being bathed in the depths of deep seas?
— O vows! O perfumes! O infinite kisses!

vs

These vows, these perfumes, and these countless kisses,
Reborn from gulfs that we could never sound,
Will they, like suns, once bathed in those abysses,
Rejuvenated from the deep, rebound —
These vows, these perfumes, and these countless kisses?

vs.

Those cries, those long embraces, that remembered scent:
Can they be lost for ever? Will they not come round
Like stars, like suns, to blaze upon the firmament
Of future worlds, from the abyss we cannot sound?
— O cries! O long embraces! O remembered scent!

vs.

These vows, these fragrant scents, these kisses without end,
Shall they be born again out of infinity?
As suns rejuvenated in the skies ascend,
Having been laved in the unfathomable sea?
— O vows! O fragrant scents! — O kisses without end!

vs.

Those perfumes, those infinite kisses and sighs,
Are they born in some gulf to our plummets denied?
Like rejuvenate suns that mount up to the skies,
That first have been cleansed in the depths of the tide;
Oh, perfumes! oh, infinite kisses and sighs!

vs.

but — vows and fragrance, infinite desire —
shall they arise from gulfs too deep to plumb,
as morn by morn new suns of rosier fire
mount, laved in some dark sea Elysium?
o vows! o fragrance! infinite desire!

What a pair they were. Not sure I liked either of them very much, especially when she (view spoiler)[ threw the cat outside in a pique (this is the same reason why I think "Breakfast at Tiffany's" is a terrible movie). (hide spoiler)]