The Offended Moon, Poem by Charles Baudelaire

Poem by Charles Baudelaire Collection The Flowers of EvilPeriod 19th century

O Moon, whom our fathers discreetly adored,
From the blue realms where, a radiant seraglio,
The stars follow one another in a spruce array,
My old Cynthia, lamp of our haunts,

Do you see the lovers, on their prosperous pallets,
Showing, as they sleep, their mouths’ fresh enamel?
The poet butting his forehead against his work?
Or under the dry grass the vipers coupling?

Under your yellow domino, and with a clandestine foot,
Do you go, as of old, from evening until morning,
To kiss Endymion’s outmoded graces?

— “I see your mother, child of this impoverished century,
Who bends toward her mirror a heavy mass of years,
And artfully plasters the breast that nursed you!”

Charles Baudelaire

Translation generated by Poésies 123 with assistance from the deepseek-chat artificial-intelligence model.

Text published on Poésies 123: https://www.poesies123.com/en/poem-the-offended-moon-charles-baudelaire/