The Solitary’s Wine

Poem by Charles Baudelaire Collection The Flowers of EvilThemes FoodPeriod 19th century

The singular glance of a courtesan woman
Who slips toward us like the white ray
That the undulant moon sends to the trembling lake,
When she wishes to bathe her nonchalant beauty there;

The last bag of coins in a gambler’s fingers;
A libertine kiss from skinny Adeline;
The sounds of a music unnerving and cajoling,
Like the distant cry of human sorrow,

All that is not worth, O deep bottle,
The penetrating balms that your fecund belly
Keeps for the thirsting heart of the pious poet;

You pour him hope, youth and life,
– And pride, that treasure of all beggary,
Which makes us triumphant and similar to the Gods!

Charles Baudelaire

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