The flow of all passions known

I've got quite an old copy of (Charles) Baudelaire's famous 'Les Fleurs du mal' (Flowers of Evil) - it was published (as pictured) in 1958, the year after the centenary of the original volume ...

... famous for many other poems, my volume-favourite has always been 'Music'.

The translation below isn't the exact one from the pictured volume that I have - but more true to the original text I feel.


MUSIC

Music doth uplift me like a sea
Towards my planet pale,
Then through dark fogs or heaven's infinity
I lift my wandering sail.

With breast advanced, drinking the winds that flee,
And through the cordage wail,
I mount the hurrying waves night hides from me
Beneath her sombre veil.

I feel the tremblings of all passions known
To ships before the breeze;
Cradled by gentle winds, or tempest-blown

I pass the abysmal seas
That are, when calm, the mirror level and fair
Of my despair!


Just a wonderful encapsulation of every passion that music can enliven.