Le Masque (the Mask) Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: A AAAAAAA AABABCDCD EE BADADFAFA DGD GBABA G A DDDEDAA DDDDB DDD DDB DDDDDHDDD DDD DDDFD B G E BCCBCBB CCGCG DDDGDG DDDDDDDDD DDG DDGCC E G E CDCDIDI DDBDB DDDGBG BDDDDBDBD DDDDGDGD GStatue all gorique dans le go t de la Renaissance | A |
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Contemplons ce tr sor de gr ces florentines | A |
Dans l'ondulation de ce corps musculeux | A |
L'El gance et la Force abondent soeurs divines | A |
Cette femme morceau vraiment miraculeux | A |
Divinement robuste adorablement mince | A |
Est faite pour tr ner sur des lits somptueux | A |
Et charmer les loisirs d'un pontife ou d'un prince | A |
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Aussi vois ce souris fin et voluptueux | A |
O la Fatuit prom ne son extase | A |
Ce long regard sournois langoureux et moqueur | B |
Ce visage mignard tout encadr de gaze | A |
Dont chaque trait nous dit avec un air vainqueur | B |
La Volupt m'appelle et l'Amour me couronne | C |
cet tre dou de tant de majest | D |
Vois quel charme excitant la gentillesse donne | C |
Approchons et tournons autour de sa beaut | D |
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blasph me de l'art surprise fatale | E |
La femme au corps divin promettant le bonheur Par le haut se termine en monstre bic phale | E |
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Mais non ce n'est qu'un masque un d cor suborneur | B |
Ce visage clair d'une exquise grimace | A |
Et regarde voici crisp e atrocement | D |
La v ritable t te et la sinc re face | A |
Renvers e l'abri de la face qui ment | D |
Pauvre grande beaut le magnifique fleuve | F |
De tes pleurs aboutit dans mon coeur soucieux | A |
Ton mensonge m'enivre et mon me s'abreuve | F |
Aux flots que la Douleur fait jaillir de tes yeux | A |
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Mais pourquoi pleure t elle Elle beaut parfaite | D |
Qui mettrait ses pieds le genre humain vaincu | G |
Quel mal myst rieux ronge son flanc d'athl te | D |
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Elle pleure insens parce qu'elle a v cu | G |
Et parce qu'elle vit Mais ce qu'elle d plore | B |
Surtout ce qui la fait fr mir jusqu'aux genoux | A |
C'est que demain h las il faudra vivre encore | B |
Demain apr s demain et toujours comme nous | A |
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The Mask | G |
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Allegorical Statue in the Style of the Renaissance | A |
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Let us gaze at this gem of Florentine beauty | D |
In the undulation of this brawny body | D |
Those divine sisters Gracefulness and Strength abound | D |
This woman a truly miraculous marble | E |
Adorably slender divinely robust | D |
Is made to be enthroned upon sumptuous beds | A |
And to charm the leisure of a Pope or a Prince | A |
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And see that smile voluptuous and delicate | D |
Where self conceit displays its ecstasy | D |
That sly lingering look mocking and languorous | D |
That dainty face framed in a veil of gauze | D |
Whose every feature says with a triumphant air | B |
'Pleasure calls me and Love gives me a crown ' | - |
To that being endowed with so much majesty | D |
See what exciting charm is lent by prettiness | D |
Let us draw near and walk around its loveliness | D |
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O blasphemy of art Fatal surprise | D |
That exquisite body that promise of delight | D |
At the top turns into a two headed monster | B |
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Why no it's but a mask a lying ornament | D |
That visage enlivened by a dainty grimace | D |
And look here is atrociously shriveled | D |
The real true head the sincere countenance | D |
Reversed and hidden by the lying face | D |
Poor glamorous beauty the magnificent stream | H |
Of your tears flows into my anguished heart | D |
Your falsehood makes me drunk and my soul slakes its thirst | D |
At the flood from your eyes which Suffering causes | D |
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But why is she weeping She the perfect beauty | D |
Who could put at her feet the conquered human race | D |
What secret malady gnaws at those sturdy flanks | D |
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She is weeping fool because she has lived | D |
And because she lives But what she deplores | D |
Most what makes her shudder down to her knees | D |
Is that tomorrow alas she will still have to live | F |
Tomorrow after tomorrow always like us | D |
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Translated by William Aggeler | B |
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The Mask | G |
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An allegoric statue in Renaissance style | E |
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vStudy with me this Florentinian treasure | B |
Whose undulous and muscular design | C |
Welds Grace with Strength in sisterhood divine | C |
A marvel only wonderment can measure | B |
Divinely strong superbly slim and fine | C |
She's formed to reign upon a bed of pleasure | B |
And charm some prince or pontiff in his leisure | B |
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See too her smile voluptuously shine | C |
Where sheer frivolity displays its sign | C |
That lingering look of languor guile and cheek | G |
The dainty face which veils of gauze enshrine | C |
That seems in conquering accents thus to speak | G |
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'Pleasure commands me Love my brow has crowned ' | - |
Enamouring our thoughts in humble duty | D |
True majesty with merriment is found | D |
Approach let's take a turn about her beauty | D |
O blasphemy Dread shock Our hopes to pique | G |
This lovely body promising delight | D |
Ends at the top in a two headed freak | G |
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But no it's just a mask that tricked our sight | D |
Fooling us with that exquisite grimace | D |
On the reverse you see her proper face | D |
Fiercely convulsed in its true self revealed | D |
Which from our sight that lying mask concealed | D |
O sad great beauty The grand river fed | D |
By your rich tears debouches in my heart | D |
Though I am rapt with your deceptive art | D |
My soul is slaked upon the tears you shed | D |
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And yet why does she weep Such peerless grace | D |
Could trample down the conquered human race | D |
What evil gnaws her flank so strong and sleek | G |
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She weeps because she's lived and that she lives | D |
Madly she weeps for that But more she grieves | D |
And at the knees she trembles and goes weak | G |
Because tomorrow she must live and then | C |
The next day and forever like us men | C |
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Translated by Roy Campbell | E |
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The Mask | G |
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An Allegorical Statue in Renaissance Style | E |
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Behold this prize of beauties wholly Florentine | C |
See in this muscled body lithe and sinuous | D |
Divine concinnity married to strength divine | C |
This woman sculpted by hands that wrought miraculous | D |
So strangely strong and so strangely slim in scope | I |
She was born to throne on beds made rich and sumptuous | D |
To charm the happy leisure of a Prince or Pope | I |
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Behold these smiling lips suave and voluptuous | D |
Whose ecstasies of arrant self love give us pause | D |
The mocking pawkishness of that long languid stare | B |
Those dainty features framed in luminous light gauze | D |
Whose every facet says with an all conquering air | B |
'Lo Pleasure calls and Love crowns my triumphant head ' | - |
On this proud creature vested with such stateliness | D |
See what exciting charms her daintiness has shed | D |
Let us draw close and walk around her O excess | D |
O blasphemy of Art O treachery unique | G |
That body filled with promise rapturous and rare | B |
Turns at the top into a double headed freak | G |
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No this is but a mask a decorative snare | B |
Poor visage lighted by a delicate grimace | D |
And look contracted here in raw and hideous troubles | D |
The genuine head and the authentic candid face | D |
Are overturned and darkened by their lying doubles | D |
Poor noble beauty the magnificent broad river | B |
Of your sad tears flows through my heart your lie of lies | D |
Intoxicates me and my thirsty soul aquiver | B |
Is slaked by the salt flood Pain dredges from your eyes | D |
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But why is it she weeps whose loveliness outranks | D |
All others and who binds all humans by her laws | D |
What hushed mysterious ill gnaws at her athlete flanks | D |
She weeps because O madman she has lived because | D |
She must live on But her most pitiful misgiving | G |
What chills her very knees and turns her tremulous | D |
Is that alas tomorrow she must go on living | G |
Tomorrow and tomorrow evermore like us | D |
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Translated by Jacques LeClercq | G |
Charles Baudelaire
(1)
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