The Mind
Evening Harmony
Translated by Cyril Scott (1909) · From Les Fleurs du Mal (1857)
The hour approacheth, when, as their stems incline,
The flowers evaporate like an incense urn,
And sounds and scents in the vesper breezes turn;
A melancholy waltz--and a drowsiness divine.
The flowers evaporate like an incense urn,
The viol vibrates like the wailing of souls that repine.
A melancholy waltz--and a drowsiness divine,
The skies like a mosque are beautiful and stern.
The viol vibrates like the wailing of souls that repine;
Sweet souls that shrink from chaos vast and etern,
The skies like a mosque are beautiful and stern,
The sunset drowns within its blood-red brine.
Sweet souls that shrink from chaos vast and etern,
Essay the wreaths of their faded Past to entwine,
The sunset drowns within its blood-red brine,
Thy thought within me glows like an incense urn.
Cite this poem
MLA
Baudelaire, Charles. “Evening Harmony.” Translated by Cyril Scott. Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/baudelaire/24/.
Chicago
Baudelaire, Charles. “Evening Harmony.” Translated by Cyril Scott. Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/baudelaire/24/.
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