Welcome to Litsy!

#CoverLove #Pink I have multiple translations of this book, someday I need to compare poems side by side .

🥰

Feeling very Spleen II tonight.Richard Howard‘s translation of Charles Baudelaire. (Chuck‘s Greatest Hits! )

#OnThisDay in 1857 Charles Baudelaire's Les Fleurs du Mal was published in France. The volume included almost all of Baudelaire's poetry, and ignited controversy due to its themes of decadence and eroticism. Six of the poems were censored, and were not allowed to be published again until 1949, and Baudelaire was fined 300 francs. Victor Hugo described the work as a "new thrill in literature." #HistoryGetsLIT

Every time a book is featured on one of the Turkish Dizis that I watch, I feel compelled to purchase and read said book. This one made a brief appearance on Monday‘s episode of Çukur so naturally I had to buy it right away. ??

#abyss #poetrymatters @TheSpineView

1.) Les Fleurs du Mal

2.) Y: The Last Man; Vol. 1: Unmanned

3.) The Glamourist

#Goodbye2020 @ShyBookOwl

So now this is not everyone's cup of tea, but for me personally I enjoyed this. Someone once described this as an insult that it sounded like an edgy brooding teenage boy and honestly I don't mind it and maybe that's what made me like it, I don't know 😂. 3.5/5🌟

I'm going to put this as my B for Author's last name (Baudelaire) #LitsyAtoZ #ReadingChallenge @BookishMarginalia

Baudelaire‘s unknown extra verse to erotic poem revealed:

"The lines, which come after a verse in which Baudelaire‘s naked lover is seen only in the light of the hearth, translate as:
And I was full then of this Truth:
That the greatest treasure reserved by God for the Genius
Is to know profoundly earthly Beauty
So that from there can spring forth Rhythm and harmony.”

Baudelaire wrote the extra verse to The Jewels in the margin of a 1st edition

Oh myyy Charles Baudelaire...

If you want to read French poetry, Baudelaire's Flowers of Evil is a classic that is quite easy to read, but still will leave you in awe; Baudelaire's poems are beautiful even when he's describing the most disgusting scenes. Some of his poems made me smile, some made me sad, some were so beautiful that no words would do them justice. Reading tip: you'll need to be alone in a cosy and quiet environment. Please read them out loud.

Que nous veulent les lois du juste et de l'injuste?
Vierges au cœur sublime, honneur de l'archipel,
Votre religion comme une autre est auguste,
Et l'amour se rira de l'Enfer et du Ciel!
Que nous veulent les lois du juste et de l'injuste?

#lgbt #sappho #sapphic #lesbian #wlw #gay #loveislove #pride #love #poem

This wasn't the pit of debauchery I'd half expected from its reputation. Which isn't to say there aren't some shocking images ("The Carcass" comes to mind), but times have moved on. It's an interesting reflection that poems explicitly about necrophilia weren't banned upon publication, but those about, or even hinting at, lesbianism were. A man's pleasures were seemingly more acceptable, however depraved. A slightly unsettling 5/5 ?

Who in the face of love dares speak to me of Hell!

- "Condemned Women: Delphine and Hippolyta"

I've finished "Spleen and the Ideal", moved into "Parisian Scenes", and while I'm loving Baudelaire, I think I need a little break before proceeding. So - To the library!! ???‍♂️

As for your other charms,
Let your resistant arms
Frustrate with blows
The groping rogues

- "To a Red-Haired Beggar Girl"

Or poking through a house, in closets shut for years,
Full of the scent of time - acrid, musky, dank,
One comes, perhaps, upon a flask of memories
In whose escaping scent a soul returns to life.

- "The Flask"

Angel of beauty, do you know of wrinkles,
Fear of growing old, the great torment
To read the horror of self-sacrifice
In eyes our avid eyes had drunk for years?
Angel of beauty, do you know these lines?

- "Reversability"

Late night, and like a medal in the sky
The harvest moon was beaming down,
And, like a river, the solemnity
Of night arranged on the sleeping town.

- "Confession”

Beauty, you walk on corpses, mocking them;
Horror is as charming as your other gems,
And Murder is a trinket dancing there
Lovingly on your naked belly's skin.

-"Hymn to Beauty"

Original Photo Caption: "Shoes Real Rabbit Fur"

When I was young I lived a constant storm,
Though now and then the brilliant suns shot through,
So in my garden few red fruits were born,
The rain and thunder had so much to do.

- "The Enemy"

Baudelaire gives composer Carl Maria von Weber as one of his Beacons:
"Under a gloomy sky, strange fanfares pass away
And disappear, like one of Weber's smothered sighs;"

So, I've download a Weber playlist to see how his work fits - possibly not very well, as Baudelaire is holding him up as an example of artistic purity, while the concern of the poems is, perhaps, with mundane degradation. Maybe a hint of discovering gold dust in the filth?

While reading, I often like to listen to music that is relevant to the book, or evocative of its content and themes. The obvious choice for me for this book is the Dead Can Dance album "Spleen and Ideal", which takes its title from Baudelaire. If anybody has other musical suggestions for this book, I'd be interested to receive recommendations ☺ ?+? #booksandmusic

A #twobookmark book - main text and notes 🔖🔖
Another solution is to fold a single bookmark around the top of the book, but it's a jury-rigged system at best.

I can‘t even believe how gorgeous this book is, I‘m so excited #poetry

This is a series of poems that beautifully describe smoke from a fire, lovingly recount finding a bloated corpse and make a prayer to Satan.

A truly odd masterpiece.

We got it hung! It looks uneven on the bottom, but it‘s because it‘s still hanging out the wrinkles. The smaller Cluny reproduction is on the wall opposite our bed.

We went antiquing today and found this (giant!) tapestry with the entire poem Correspondances from Les Fleurs du Mal embroidered on it. It matches the colors on the Cluny reproduction on our other wall, so I had to bring it home. #Baudelaire #frenchlittens

Misery. Woe. Graves. Shining eyes. Tears. Trembling. Sunsets. Quivering. Death. More death. Even more death. Snails.

Yes, snails. 🐌

I can understand why this is an iconic collection of poetry. It is unlike anything I‘ve ever read. Waves of emotional turmoil and unhealthy obsessions crash into as you read it. I can understand why some people would LOVE it.

But was it a Pick for me?

Non, sil vous plais.

But I DID like the snails. 💚🐌💚

#winter #QuotsyDec17 @TK-421

Painting: Winter Landscape by Louis Douzette (1869)

The original in French and a few variations of the translation of the poem "Paysage" ("Landscape") available here https://fleursdumal.org/poem/219

A view of my #poetry shelf. 🙂
#Riotgrams

Starting off my birthday by reading poetry ❤️ #currentlyreading

Afternoon tea 📖☕️#baudelaire #lesfleursdumal #flowersofevil #charlesbaudelaire #booklover #bibliophile #bookgram #bookworm #bookish #books #bookphotography #goodreads #litsy #reco #whattoread #booknerd #bookporn #bookstagram #bookmarket #amreading #bookbuzz #bookographic #literature #lovebooks #pageturner #bookgram #WhatAreYouReading #bookaholics #readingchallenge

❤️🌹#riotgrams #favoritequote 🌹❤

Baudelaire knows what's important 🍷 #wine #poetry

#poetry #Baudelaire #FlowersofEvil

#seasonsreadings2016 #poetry so I haven't had any books from the last few days of seasonsreadings but here are the 4 poetry books I own. I'm not into poetry but these ones have touched me in someway. Shel Silverstein was one who stayed with me since childhood and The Flowers of Evil is one I am still reading (have been for well over a year) but I only go to it for one or two at a time and read them slow so as to let them absorb. ❤️

👌🏻😊

This is the only book with text #notinenglish that I own. It presents a selection of Baudelaire's poems in French alongside their English translations.
#seasonsreadings2016 @RealLifeReading