h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

What follows is a (not right, yet) translation of one of the six poems banned on publication of Baudelaire's Les Fleurs du Mal. Although the ban was lifted in 1948, none of them appears in more recent translations.

I spent the night with an awful jew
Like one corpse stretched out against another
I started to dream about this hired body
The sad beauty of my secret fantasy

I visualised her natural dignity
Her look of vivacity and evocative elegance
Her hair creating a scented mantle
Which revived in me erotic thoughts

For I have passionately kissed your precious body
From your cold feet to your black braids
Unravelling the treasure of intense embraces

If some night, a tear accidentally escapes,
Your sole means, oh brutal queen,
Of dimming the glint in your icey eyes


Is it a problem that the prostitute is identified as jewish? I do not understand why she is, but then, I know nothing of 1850s Parisian society.

Amongst the others which were banned are a brutal rape fantasy and a description of a lesbian affair, followed by the poet's condemnation. Hoewever, because they are without reference to ethnicity, race or religion, is that less bad? What about their attack on women? And does it matter anyway? No-one is forced to read them.

No work of art, no matter how disarming, should be banned. It is our choice to read it, or not, as our taste and curiosity dictates. Even the most disturbing literature, or painting, or sculpture, should see the light of day. Because by nature of its being disturbing, it means it touches on something in us that we can relate to, even if we don't want to admit it.

The darker parts of human nature are only dangerous when they are kept covert. Put them out in the plain light of day, for all to see, and they lose their power. Secrecy lends things a power greater than that which is theirs by nature.

Look for the following translation:
The Flowers of Evil, edited by Marthiel and Jackson Matthews, Copyright 1955, 1962, 1989 by New Directions Publishing Corporation. ISBN:0-8112-1117-7

I am fairly sure it contains all the poems from Les Fleurs du Mal. Including the one you mention. It also contains the French.

I agree, however, that it shouldn't be banned. I also agree Baudelaire was a master. It's a shame he became obsessed with Poe and spent so much of his time translating him into French...one wonders what else he could have written.

Thank you for the info. But not sure that the Poe work was an obsession ... he moved on so far ... left Mallarme to pick up the reigns