baudelaire_in_google_translate epitome of incomprehensibility ...lends itself to black comedy more than the original. Also I want to hear Kanye West rap this. "To Player" is "Au Lecteur," which really should be "To the Reader." See real people's translations at http://fleursdumal.org/poem/099, and some silly stuff of mine at http://blather.newdream.net/red/f/fun_with_google_translate.html To Player Folly, error, sin, skimp, Occupy our minds and our bodies work, And we feed our friendly remorse As beggars nourish their vermin. Our sins are obstinate, our repentance are loose; We do pay handsomely our confession, And we gaily in muddy path, Believing base tears wash our stains. On the pillow of evil is Satan Trismegistus Lulls our minds enchanted, And the rich metal of our will Is vaporized by this learned chemist. It is the Devil who holds the son that move us! In repugnant objects we find charms; Every day we descend to Hell one step, Without horror, through darkness stink. And a rake that poor fuck and eat The martyred in an ancient whore, We fly pass a clandestine pleasure We squeeze hard as an old orange. Tight, swarming, like a million helminths, In our brains a tipsy people Demons And when we breathe, Death in our lungs Down, invisible river with deaf complaints. If rape, poison, dagger, fire, Have not yet embroidered with their pleasing designs The banal canvas of our pitiable destinies, It is our soul, alas! is not bold enough. But among the jackals, panthers, lists, Monkeys, scorpions, vultures, snakes, The monsters yelping, howling, growling, crawling, In the infamous menagerie of our vices, It is an uglier, more wicked, more filthy! Although he makes no grand gestures or shouting, He would gladly Earth debris And a yawn swallow the world; It is Boredom! Eye charged with involuntary crying, He dreams of scaffolds while smoking his hookah. You know him, reader, this delicate monster, - Hypocrite reader - my fellow, - my brother! 140611 ... e_o_i Some of the weirdness comes from unwitting puns: "fils" means both son and strings; "baiser" as a noun means a kiss, but if you use it as a verb these days it means to fuck - if the double meaning was around in Baudelaire's day, I suspect it was deliberate. Actually, for a machine translation, the last stanza is pretty damn good. It makes sense and rhymes, sort of. 140611 ... e_o_i ...except "crying" should be "tear" 140611 what's it to you? who go blather from