A Passer-by (translated by Roy Campbell, 1952)

The deafening street roared on. Full, slim, and grand
In mourning and majestic grief, passed down
A woman, lifting with a stately hand
And swaying the black borders of her gown;
Noble and swift, her leg with statues matching;
I drank, convulsed, out of her pensive eye,
A livid sky where hurricanes were hatching,
Sweetness that charms, and joy that makes one die.
A lighting-flash — then darkness! Fleeting chance
Whose look was my rebirth — a single glance!
Through endless time shall I not meet with you?
Far off! too late! or never! — I not knowing
Who you may be, nor you where I am going —
You, whom I might have loved, who know it too!

Here's another entry that I read through the lens of Clellan Coe's essay Woman in a Red Raincoat and its reference to Meeting in Middle Age. Not sure whether it's the most conventional reading or not, but what's striking here is that the poet might indeed form a connection and even find love with any of the people passing him by in the street. This being Baudelaire, the depersonalization of city life is a particular obstacle, but for all of us the main stumbling block is simply not making the effort.

(Reviewed:28-Oct-24)

Grade: (B+) Orrin C. Judd

Tweet

Charles Baudelaire Links:

    -WIKIPEDIA: Charles Baudelaire
    -TRIBUTE SITE: Charles Baudelaire :: the world of the accursed poet
    -The Baudelaire Song Project
    -ENTRY: Charles Baudelaire (The Art Story)
    -ENTRY: Charles Baudelaire French author (Encyclopaedia Britannica)
    -ENTRY: Charles Baudelaire 1821—1867 (Poetry Foundation)
    -ENTRY: Charles Baudelaire (New World Encyclopedia)

Baudelaire's works were rooted in his Catholic background and his conception of humanity doomed by original sin, yet without salvation. His poetry is an elegiac expression of spiritual despair, a vision in which "evil is done without effort, naturally, it is the working of fate, [while] good is always the product of an art." Love particularly, in Baudelaire's poetry, is depicted as dark and purely sensuous; in "The Journey," man is "a gluttonous, lewd tyrant," a "slave of a slave," while his imagery of women is often carnal and cruel.

    -ENTRY: Charles Baudelaire (Encyclopedia.com)
    -ENTRY: Charles Baudelaire (What Paris?: Online Travel Guide)
    -ENTRY: Charles Baudelaire (1821—1867) French poet and critic (Oxford Reference)
    -ENTRY: Charles Baudelaire (Adrian Brinkerhoff Poetry Foundation)
    -ENTRY: Charles Baudelaire: Charles Baudelaire was a French poet best known for his controversial volume of poems, Les Fleurs du mal (The Flowers of Evil). (Biography, Apr 12, 2019)
    -POEM INDEX: Poems by Charles Baudelaire (Poetry Archive)
    -POEM INDEX: Charles Baudelaire (Poets.org)
    -POEM INDEX: Charles Baudelaire (Poem Hunter)
    -POEM INDEX: Charles Baudelaire (All Poetry)
    -INDEX: baudelaire (New Criterion)
    -INDEX: baudelaire (Voegelin View)
    -INDEX: Charles Baudelaire (Georgetown University Library: French Visual Poetry)
    -INDEX: Charles Baudelaire (Poetry at Harvard)
    -INDEX: baudelaire (NY Review of Books)
    -INDEX: Charles Baudelaire (Project Gutenberg)
    -INDEX: Charles Baudelaire (Internet Archive)
    -AUDIO INDEX: Charles Baudelaire (LibriVox)
    -INDEX: "charles baudelaire" (Internet Archive)
    -INDEX: Baudelaire (LitHub)
    -INDEX: Charles Baudelaire (The Guardian)


    -VIDEO POEM: To a Passerby (Charles Baudelaire)
    -POEM: To a Passer-by (Charles Baudelaire)
    -POEMS: Charles Baudelaire's Fleurs du mal / Flowers of Evil (FleursDuMal.org)
    -POEM: “The Cat” by Charles Baudelaire (Translated by Roy Campbell) [PDF]
    -ETEXT: Poems of Baudelaire (Les Fleurs du Mal) translated by Roy Campbell


    -ETEXT: The Cambridge Companion to Baudelaire (Edited by Rosemary Lloyd, Cambridge University Press, August 2006)
    -VIDEO ESSAY: Charles Baudelaire (Part 1): The Poet's Life (Dana Gioia)
    -VIDEO ESSAY: Charles Baudelaire (Part 2): The Poetics of Evil (Dana Gioia)
    -VIDEO ESSAY: Charles Baudelaire (Part 3): The Flowers of Evil (Dana Gioia)
    -VIDEO: "Baudelaire on Original Sin," Françoise Meltzer (A lecture given by Françoise Meltzer (University of Chicago) on May 22, 2014, at the University of Chicago, Lumen Christi Institute)
    -PODCAST: Dana Gioia on Charles Baudelaire's Flowers of Evil (Sacred and Profane Love)
    -PODCAST: “The King of Poets.” On Baudelaire’s Les Fleurs du Mal: From the History of Literature Podcast with Jacke Wilson (History of Literature, November 1, 2021)


    -ESSAY: Charles Baudelaire — To a Passerby (Feb 14, 2023, Reader's Utopia)
    -ESSAY: Reading & Analysis of the French Poem “À Une Passante” by Charles Baudelaire (Camille Chevalier-Karfis, Jun 21, 2021, French Today)
    -ESSAY: To a passer-by | Charles Baudelaire’s lost opportunity (Sofia Fiorini, 04 May, 2021, Hypercritic)
    -ESSAY: The Sonnet as Snapshot: Seizing the Instant in Baudelaire's "A une passante" (SUSAN BLOOD, 2008, Nineteenth-Century French Studies)
    -EXCERPT: Baudelaire's Other Passer-by (Kevin Newmark, Spring 2018, L'Esprit Créateur)
    -ESSAY: À une passante (1857): Charles Baudelaire: A man and a woman pass each other by at the street. Their eyes meet - with an overwhelming effect. (Muur Gedichten)
    -ESSAY: Baudelaire, Rudel and the Impossibility of the Ideal (An Enduring Romantic, 12/22/12)
    -ESSAY: The Medieval and the Modern in Baudelaire’s “À une passante” (JULIA CATERINA HARTLEY, Winter 19-20, Nineteenth-Century French Studies)
    -ESSAY: Sniffing around Paris: To A Passerby (Perfumed Letters, May 27, 2013)
    -ESSAY: To a passer-by | Charles Baudelaire’s lost opportunity (Sofia Fiorini & Filippo Barra, 04 May, 2021, Hypercritic)


    -ESSAY: Baudelaire’s Modernism: On the poet of Les Fleurs du mal. (Dana Gioia, September 2021, New Criterion)
    -ESSAY: Baudelaire, Maistre, and Original Sin (Françoise Meltzer, April 09, 2019, Church Life Journal)
    -ESSAY: The Poet Who Died for Our Sins: On Charles Baudelaire (Stephen Akey, April 11, 2013, The Millions)
    -ESSAY: Baudelaire grappling with God: Baudelaire's poetry, both verse and prose, is at once an attempt to look the Creator in the eye as an equal, and also a means of throwing himself at His feet. (Marie Daouda, November 5, 2021, Englesberg Ideas)
    -ESSAY: My hero: Charles Baudelaire by Roberto Calasso: 'Even when he is most harrowing, he gives pleasure' (Roberto Calasso, 7 Dec 2012, The Guardian)
    -
    -ESSAY: Walking in the Crowd: Edgar Allan Poe, Charles Baudelaire, Walter Benjamin (Ian Fong)
    -ESSAY: The Challenge of Baudelaire at 200: Aaron Poochigian confronts the political and technical challenges of translating “The Flowers of Evil” by Charles Baudelaire. (Aaron Poochigian, December 7, 2021, LA Review of Books)
    -ESSAY: Wednesday’s Classic-Book Report: Les Fleurs du mal by Charles Baudelaire (The New Renaissance Mindset, September 4, 2024)
    -ESSAY: Political and Artistic Divides in Baudelaire: An Aesthetic of Evil Baudelaire and Benjamin: Persons or Monads? (Beibei Guan and Wayne Cristaudo, 5/07/20, Voegelin View)
    -ESSAY: Introduction to Two poems by Charles Baudelaire: On Baudelaire’s poetry. (Louis Simpson, September 1997, New Criterion)
    -ESSAY: Baudelaire’s dark mirror: On the affinity between Baudelaire & Delacroix. (Kelsey Bennett, January 2011, New Criterion)
    -ESSAY: Sonorous jewels: 200 years of Charles Baudelaire (Beverley Bie Brahic, 4/16/21, TLS)
    -ESSAY: Walter Benjamin's Baudelaire and the Flâneur's Passion: "À une passante" (Benjamin Passante)
    -ESSAY: Benjamin on Baudelaire (Amy King, March 30, 2008)
    -ESSAY: Walter Benjamin on Charles Baudelaire: Guilt, Modernity, and The Crowd: Walter Benjamin’s aesthetic theory and conception of modernity lead him to interpret Baudelaire’s poetry in an innovative and compelling way. (Luke Dunne, 9/04/24, The Collector)
    -ETEXT: On Some Motifs in Baudelaire (Walter Benjamin) [pdf]
    -ESSAY: Walking in the Crowd: Edgar Allan Poe, Charles Baudelaire, Walter Benjamin (Ian Fong)
    -ESSAY: “Fevers of Curiosity”: Charles Baudelaire and the Convalescent Flâneur (Matthew Beaumont, Public Domain Review)
    -ESSAY: Walter Benjamin on the Flâneur (Brian LePort, December 29, 2021)
    -ESSAY: On the flaneuse, and women walking in the city. (Madeleine Watts, Jan 18, 2021, Search Party)
    -ESSAY: Reflections on Walter Benjamin 7: Baudelaire, Allegory and the Aura. (ALAN WALL, Fortnightly Review)
    -ETEXT: Charles Baudelaire: A Lyric Poet in the Era of High Capitalism (Walter Benjamin)
    -ESSAY: Benjamin’s Interruptions: Baudelaire, Angels, and the Cessation of Time (Tyrus, October 9, 2013, Cross Pollen Blog)
    -ESSAY: Charles Baudelaire (in the alleyway)
    -ESSAY: Baudelaire and Feminine Singularity (Ronjaunee Chatterjee, January 2016, French Studies)
    -ESSAY: Why French poet Charles Baudelaire was the godfather of Goths (Nick Freeman, 10/30/19, The Conversation)
    -ESSAY: Charles Baudelaire: the debauchee’s debauchee: A privileged, arrogant poet who produced only one collection, Baudelaire has had huge influence in many spheres – and it continues 150 years after his death (John Dugdale, 1 Sep 2017, The Guardian)
    -ESSAY: Symbolism, Aestheticism and Charles Baudelaire (NASRULLAH MAMBROL, November 13, 2017, Literary Theory and Criticism)
    -ESSAY: On Charles Baudelaire’s Les Fleurs del Mal (Banned Books, October 24, 2012, PEN International)
    -ESSAY: Charles Baudelaire, Poet of the Malign (Eugene Benson, February 1869, The Atlantic)
    -ESSAY: From Proust to Baudelaire (Book Around the Corner, May 20, 2010)
    -ESSAY: Charles Baudelaire: L’Étranger (Mad Beppo)
    -ESSAY: Analyzing the differences between Charles Baudelaire and Fyodor Dostoevsky in literature (Sumaiya Tasnim, 2022)
    -ESSAY: How Charles Baudelaire became France’s first rock star: The poet, who died 150 years ago this week, retains significant influence and allure (Lara Marlowe, 8/30/17, Irish Times)
    -ESSAY: Baudelaire, Rimbaud, and Art (Byron‘s Muse)
    -ESSAY: Behind the Lit: Baudelaire the Conservative (Benjamin Welton, The Airship)
    -ESSAY: The Lesson of Baudelaire (T.S. Eliot)
    -ESSAY: Charles Baudelaire, To the Bourgeois and The Heroism of Modern Life, from the Salons of 1845 and 1846 (CSUS.edu)
    -ESSAY: Baudelaire on the Genius of Childhood (Maria Popova, The Marginalian)
    -ESSAY: Charles Baudelaire’s Falling Man: Theorizing Trauma as Permanent Parabasis (Joshua N. Waggoner, Fall 2014, Journal of Literature and Trauma Studies)
    -ESSAY: Baudelaire and Revolution: Some Notes (Richard J. Klein, 1967, Yale French Studies)
    -ESSAY: Ransom! Baudelaire and Distributive Injustice (Emily Apter, Crisis Critique)[PDF]
    -ETEXT: Introduction: Conservatism and the Experience of Decadence (Alex Murray)
    -ESSAY: Decadent Experience: Conservatism and Modernity (Alex Murray, 2021, Decadent Experience: Conservatism and Modernity. Victorian Literature and Culture) [PDF]
    -ESSAY: An Poetic Critique: Charles Baudelaire on the Parisian Cityscape (France in the Age of Les Misérables)
    -ESSAY: Baudelaire on the Political and Humanitarian Power of Art: An Open Letter to Those in Power and of Privilege (Maria Popova, The Marginalian)
    -ETEXT: The Cambridge Compation to Baudelaire
    -ESSAY: Why French poet Charles Baudelaire was the godfather of Goths (Nick Freeman, 30 October 2019, The Conversation)
    -ESSAY: Baudelaire and Feminine Singularity (Ronjaunee Chatterjee, January 2016, French Studies)
    -ESSAY: Walter Benjamin on Charles Baudelaire: Guilt, Modernity, and The Crowd: Walter Benjamin’s aesthetic theory and conception of modernity lead him to interpret Baudelaire’s poetry in an innovative and compelling way. (Luke Dunne, 11/16/2023, The Collector)
    -ESSAY: Sonorous jewels: 200 years of Charles Baudelaire (Beverley Bie Brahic, 4/16/21, TLS)
    -ESSAY: Charles Baudelaire (1821–1867) Master Of Poetry And Prose (John Muresianu, Aug 13, 2024, Liberal Arts Blog)
    -ESSAY: Essay on French Poet Charles Baudelaire (Gabrielle Alexandra Smith, Apr 03, 2017, The Odyssey)
    -ESSAY: Charles Baudelaire — Sonnet XXVIII (Reader's Utopia, Mar 25, 2023)
    -ESSAY: Twilight to Dawn: Charles Baudelaire (Jan Owen | 1 September 2013, Cordite Poetry Review)
    -ETEXT: The Writer of Modern Life: Essays on Charles Baudelaire by Walter Benjamin, Edited by Michael W. Jennings [pdf]
    -ESSAY: Les Fleurs du Mal (The Flowers of Evil) (Pericles Lewis, Modernism Lab)
    -INTERVIEW: Why Baudelaire Continues to Fascinate: On the 150th anniversary of the death of Baudelaire, André Guyaux, literary historian at the Sorbonne, explains why the poet’s work is more topical than ever. (Francis Lecompte, 11/14/17, CNRS News)
    -REVIEW ESSAY: Invitation to the Voyage (Joshua Clover, Dec. 31st, 2006, NY Times Book Review)
    -REVIEW ESSAY: His Nemesis Was Stupidity (Ange Mlinko, 4/07/22, NY Review of Books)
    -POEM: “In Memory of Charles Baudelaire” (Andrew Thornton-Norris, September 20th, 2014, Imaginative Conservative)
    -ESSAY: Terminology in the Salon Reviews of Charles Pierre Baudelaire (Richard Webb, Summer 1993, The Journal of Aesthetic Education)
    -ESSAY: Charles Baudelaire – An Art Criticism (Amanda Grafe, 5/19/20, Fictional Cafe)
    -REVIEW ESSAY: ‘Belgium Stripped Bare and My Heart Laid Bare & other texts’ by Charles Baudelaire (Thomas Sanfilip, 3/01/24, Literary Yard)
    -ESSAY: A Bizarre Pattern of Bridges: How—and Why—Baudelaire Showed Up Throughout My Fiction: Gunnhild Øyehaug on Paying Homage to Literary Legends (Gunnhild Øyehaug, February 15, 2023, LitHub)


    -STUDY GUIDE: Flowers of Evil by Charles Baudelaire (SparkNotes)
    -STUDY GUIDE: Flowers of Evil (Ivy Panda)
    -STUDY GUIDE: To the Reader by Charles Baudelaire (Greg Jackson, M.A., eNotes)
    -STUDY GUIDE: Charles Baudelaire (eNotes)
    -STUDY GUIDE: The Flowers of Evil | Study Guide (Course Hero)
    -STUDY GUIDE: The Turbulent Life of Charles Baudelaire: Charles Baudelaire was a 19th century French poet who challenged societal norms, delving into themes of beauty, decay, and the depths of human emotions. (poem Analysis)
    -STUDY GUIDE: Charles Baudelaire (UVM)
    -STUDY GUIDE: Charles Baudelaire (The Art Story)


    -VIDEO ARCHIVES: "charles baudelaire" (YouTube)


    -REVIEW: of ŒUVRES COMPLÈTES Two volumes, by Charles Baudelaire (Seth Whidden, TLS)
    -REVIEW: of The Flowers of Evil Charles Baudelaire, translated by Keith Waldrop (Karen Volkman, Boston Review)
    -REVIEW: of The Flowers of Evil by Charles Baudelaire, translated by Anthony Mortimer (Nicholas Lezard, The Guardian)
    -REVIEW: of Fanfarlo by Charles Baudelaire (Natasha Tripney, The Guardian)
    -REVIEW: Mirror-Man: On Aaron Poochigian’s Translation of Baudelaire: Patrick Kurp finds a “stylized, vigorous, clear” Baudelaire in Aaron Poochigian’s translation of “The Flowers of Evil.” (Patrick Kurp, LA Review of Books)
    -REVIEW: of FLOWERS OF EVIL, by Charles Baudelaire, trans. by Aaron Poochigian (Bruce Whiteman, Hudson Review)
    -REVIEW: of
    -REVIEW: BAUDELAIRE AND THE SIN OF THE WORLD: Selected Letters of Charles Baudelaire: The Conquest of Solitude Rosemary Lloyd (FREDERICK GLAYSHER, SUMMER/FALL 1987, CrossCurrents)
    -REVIEW: of LATE FRAGMENTS: Flares, My Heart Laid Bare, Prose Poems, Belgium Disrobed by Charles Baudelaire, Translated by Richard Sieburth (Aaron Peck, TLS)
    -REVIEW: of Late Fragments (michael Yost, Dappled Things)
    -REVIEW ESSAY: Baudelaire as Critic: a review of Baudelaire as a Literary Critic translated and edited by Lois Boe Hyslop and Francis E. Hyslop Jr. & The Painter of Modern Life and Other Essays by Charles Baudelaire, translated and edited by Jonathan Mayne (Roger Shattuck, February 11, 1965, NY Review of Books)
    -REVIEW: of The Writer of Modern Life. Essays on Charles Baudelaire, by Walter Benjamin Michael W. Jennings (Ann Smock, Nineteenth-Century French Studies)
    -REVIEW: of Maya Hadeh, La Mythologie dans l’œuvre poétique de Charles Baudelaire (Caroline Ardrey,H-France Review)
    -REVIEW: of Baudelaire By Claude Pichois (Teresa Waugh, Literary Review)
    -REVIEW: of La Folie Baudelaire by Roberto Calasso (Lucy Sante, NY Review of Books)
    -REVIEW: of La Folie Baudelaire by Roberto Calasso, translated by Alastair McEwen (Alex Danchev, The Guardian)
    -REVIEW: of La Folie Baudelaire by Roberto Calasso (lucian Robinson, The Guardian)
    -REVIEW: of La Folie Baudelaire (Jefferey Myers, New Criterion)
    -REVIEW: of La Folie Baudelaire (Publishers Weekly)
    -REVIEW: of La Folie Baudelaire (Kirkus)
    -REVIEW: of La Folie Baudelaire (John Simon, NY Times)
    -REVIEW: of La Folie Baudelaire (Vulpes Libris)
    -REVIEW: of La Folie Baudelaire (Daniel Céspedes Góngora, Palabra Nueva)

Book-related and General Links: