Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Baudelaire Addresses Hair and Lovers



















Charles Baudelaire (1821-1867)

Some of us write actual letters to powerful people, hoping against hope to convince them to do the right thing. The formal terms of address are sources for irony: "Your Honor" for the dishonorable; "Your Majesty" for the non-majestic nebbish; "Your Holiness" for the unholy; "Your Eminence" for the fallen; "Your Grace" for the klutz.

I prefer Baudelaire's address to hair: "Ecstatic fleece"; "Take me, tousled current"; "vault of shadows." ("Head of Hair," translated by Richard Howard, Everyman Pocket Library.) Baudelaire's 'terms' are authentic. Outdoing himself, he addresses his lovers: "salutary leech"; "My Queen of Sins"; "Sublime disgrace"; "slattern deity;" "lazy beast"; "Dear Demon."

Nothing twittering here. His poems have what Elizabeth Bishop valued in writing: Accuracy, Spontaneity, Mystery. (Capital letters and Italics hers.) She was a fan of this wicked poet.

10 comments:

  1. Ah, the sweet strains of the blunt utterance. Can't beat it. 'Wicked poet'. Nah.

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  2. Isn't M. Baudelaire blunt and elegant, Penal-Colony!

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  3. He was, is and probably will be able to express many times what is and will be felt. Like him alot.

    Please have a good Friday.

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  4. addressing one's lover as "salutory leech" could set the stage for a evening of surprises, indeed.
    yours, in slatternly expectation,

    susan

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  5. --"salutory leech" is marvelous, isn't it? Susan: Did you notice the buttons on his overcoat?

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  6. Accuracy, Spontaneity, Mystery - such clear guidelines. Wickedly inventive. I leave inspired.

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  8. Marylinn--Yes, cuts thru unnecessary complication--Bishop's statement.

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  9. I like 'My Queen of Sins'. It carries the undertone of complicity in it. Many thanks.

    Greetings from London.

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