This French poem is written in Alexandrians, so the rhythm is very important, and you have to respect it, to pronounce letters which are generally silent. Itâs a very good French pronunciation exercise
1 â Famous French Poem âSpleenâ de Charles Baudelaire â Audio Recording
2 â Famous French Poem âSpleenâ de Charles Baudelaire
Spleen
Je suis comme le roi dâun pays pluvieux,
Riche, mais impuissant, jeune et pourtant trĂšs vieux,
Qui, de ses précepteurs méprisant les courbettes,
Sâennuie avec ses chiens comme avec dâautres bĂȘtes.
Rien ne peut lâĂ©gayer, ni gibier, ni faucon,
Ni son peuple mourant en face du balcon.
Du bouffon favori la grotesque ballade
Ne distrait plus le front de ce cruel malade;
Son lit fleurdelisé se transforme en tombeau,
Et les dames dâatour, pour qui tout prince est beau,
Ne savent plus trouver dâimpudique toilette
Pour tirer un souris de ce jeune squelette.
Le savant qui lui fait de lâor nâa jamais pu
De son ĂȘtre extirper lâĂ©lĂ©ment corrompu,
Et dans ces bains de sang qui des Romains nous viennent,
Et dont sur leurs vieux jours les puissants se souviennent,
II nâa su rĂ©chauffer ce cadavre hĂ©bĂ©tĂ©
OĂč coule au lieu de sang lâeau verte du LĂ©thĂ©
Most famous and classic French poems read and analysed in everyday French.
English Translation of the classical French poem â âSpleenâ de Charles Baudelaire
Spleen
I am like the king of a rainy land,
Wealthy but powerless, young and yet very old,
Who contemns the fawning manners of his tutors
And is bored with his dogs and other animals.
Nothing can cheer him, neither the chase nor falcons,
Nor his people dying before his balcony.
The ludicrous ballads of his favorite clown
No longer smooth the brow of this cruel invalid;
His bed, adorned with fleurs-de-lis, becomes a grave;
The ladies of the court, to whom every prince is handsome,
No longer can find gowns shameless enough
To wring a smile from this young skeleton.
The alchemist who makes his gold was never able
To extract from him the tainted element,
And in those baths of blood coming from Roman times,
And which in their old age the powerful recall,
He failed to warm this dazed cadaver in whose veins
Flows the green water of Lethe in place of blood.
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