Le Serpent Qui Danse , Charles Baudelaire/ Gainsbourg

[Jean Pierre]

Le Serpent qui danse is a lyrical poem by Charles Baudelaire that appeared in the collection of poems Les Fleurs du mal in 1857. It is a poem in cross-rhymed quatrains, divided into nine stanzas.

In it, Charles Baudelaire talks about his mistress Jeanne Duval.

Several singer-songwriters have set this poem to music:

Léo Ferré in 1957, in the album Les Fleurs du mal ;
Serge Gainsbourg in 1962, in the album Serge Gainsbourg N° 4

before 1970, this is my favourite Gainsbourg period
So for the Gainsbourg fans (I know there are a few)

here is this poem by Baudelaire set to music and performed by Serge Gainsbourg

just a guitar and a maracas clav soupson

here the lyrics

Le serpent qui danse
Que j'aime voir, chère indolente,
De ton corps si beau,
Comme une étoffe vacillante,
Miroiter la peau!

Sur ta chevelure profonde
Aux âcres parfums,
Mer odorante et vagabonde
Aux flots bleus et bruns,

Comme un navire qui s'éveille
Au vent du matin,
Mon âme rêveuse appareille
Pour un ciel lointain.

Tes yeux où rien ne se révèle
De doux ni d'amer,
Sont deux bijoux froids où se mêlent
L'or avec le fer.

A te voir marcher en cadence,
Belle d'abandon,
On dirait un serpent qui danse
Au bout d'un bâton.

Sous le fardeau de ta paresse
Ta tête d'enfant
Se balance avec la mollesse
D'un jeune éléphant,

Et ton corps se penche et s'allonge
Comme un fin vaisseau
Qui roule bord sur bord et plonge
Ses vergues dans l'eau.

Comme un flot grossi par la fonte
Des glaciers grondants,
Quand l'eau de ta bouche remonte
Au bord de tes dents,

Je crois boire un vin de bohême,
Amer et vainqueur,
Un ciel liquide qui parsème
D'étoiles mon coeur!

Charles Baudelaire, Les Fleurs du mal
1

[Rene Asologuitar]

Le Serpent qui danse is a lyrical poem by Charles Baudelaire that appeared in the collection of poems Les Fleurs du mal in 1857. It is a poem in cross-rhymed quatrains, divided into nine stanzas.
++++++++++++++

I always love this vibe of music, the Bossa is so cool.
Your vocals is so nice, and very mwarm!!!
Thanks for sharing this lovely song!!!
Warm regards,
Rene

[cuthbert]

At first, I didn't recognize the song - until you got to the musical part. Very faithful to the SG version! And I didn't know the backstory of this song - very interesting.

Nice one, JP!

[Zoltan]

Yes! The more Gainsbourg songs the better So stylishly done. A great cover JP!

It looks like you're doing all the Gainsbourg songs while i'm going full on Gainsbarre

[Greeny (No longer active)]

Beautifully done. I'm a fan of Baudelaire and SG, so it's a winner in my book. Your performance and arrangement is so damn cool. Take a bow! Magnifique.

[Bluesberry]

Spectacular and lovely

[Jean Pierre]

merci les gars
Zoltan

It looks like you're doing all the Gainsbourg songs while i'm going full on Gainsbarre

double dare you !

Pour info pour la musique je me suis inspiré d'une grille pour Uke que j'ai trouvé sur YT
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0JV4RJ6DWI

[Zoltan]

Ah mes yeux ! Tous ces accords complexes. J'irais juste pour les notes de base et simulerais le reste

[Jean Pierre]

Baudelaire and Gainsbourg deserve a small photograph on SC
I put in scroll the translation of the poem of baudelalire and an explanation of the text

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUMHlk3II9k

How I love to see, dear indolent one,
Of your beautiful body,
Like a flickering cloth,
The skin shimmering!
On your deep hair
With pungent perfumes,
A fragrant and wandering sea
With blue and brown waves,
Like a ship that awakens
In the morning wind,
My dreamy soul sets sail
For a distant sky.
Your eyes where nothing is revealed
Of sweetness or bitterness,
Are two cold jewels where gold
Gold with iron.
To see you walk in cadence,
Beautiful with abandon,
You look like a snake dancing
At the end of a stick.
Under the burden of your laziness
Your childlike head
Swings with the softness
Of a young elephant,
And your body bends and stretches
Like a fine vessel
That rolls from side to side and plunges
Its yards in the water.
Like a flood swollen by the melting
From the melting glaciers,
When the water from your mouth rises
At the edge of your teeth,
I think I drink a Bohemian wine,
Bitter and victorious,
A liquid sky that sprinkles
With stars in my heart!
Charles Baudelaire, The Flowers of Evil


I. Praise for a beloved woman who invites reverie
A. A declaration of love
1. Enunciation (who is speaking to whom) In the poem, the "I" addresses
a "you". The "I" is the poet and the "you" is Jeanne Duval, Charles
Baudelaire is therefore addressing her directly and the use of the familiar indicates
intimacy. There is therefore a proximity in experience but also a
spatial proximity.
2. The lyrical register The poem has an important affective lexicon:
"dear indolent"... which shows a loving intensity.
The poet's amazement, which is reinforced by intensives: "so
beautiful". The feelings are expressed through expressive punctuation
expressive punctuation, stanzas 1 and 9 end with exclamation marks.
exclamation marks. The lyricism is very clear, it is a true declaration of
declaration of love.
B. The praise of the beloved body
1. The importance of the lexical field of the body
Strophe 1: global vision of the body
Strophe 2: hair, symbol of femininity
Strophe 3: return on the poetStrophe 4: the eyes
Strophe 5: gesture, central strophe echoing the title
Strophe 6: head
Strophe 7: global vision again
Strophe 8: the mouth
Strophe 9: back to the poet. The poet's gaze moves to Jeanne's body
body of Jeanne with a shift from the general to the particular and then back
back to the general. This poem can be compared to the technique of the
blason, but here Baudelaire praises several parts of the body.
2. The poet seems to be fascinated by Jeanne's poses and gait
of Jeanne: verse 1 'chère indolente' where one gets the impression of a
of a lascivious pause and stanza 5 "to see you walk in cadence" where
where we can perceive Jeanne's undulations. This approach is
reinforced by the heterometry of the poem, there is an alternation
octosyllables and pentasyllables (8-5). The poem thus undulates like
2
Jeanne and the image of the snake also metaphorically reinforces the image of the undulating
the image of undulation.
C. The poet's reverie
1. An exotic dreamJeanne invites dreams because she embodies
elsewhere, for Baudelaire the absolute ideal. She is of mixed race and to speak of her
of her Baudelaire uses exotic references: "acrid perfume", "the snake", "the
"the snake" "the elephant". All these elements give the impression
that she is an elsewhere, she invites the poet to a journey of the senses, all his
senses are solicited: "that I like to see" "acrid perfume" "Bohemian wine
Bohemian wine" "deep hair" "rumbling glacier".
2. The poet's journeyThe poem is traversed by a threaded metaphor
of the sea and liquids that connotes escape, travel. Thanks to
Jeanne, the poet escapes: "Like a ship awakening in the morning wind".
morning wind". The destination is undefined. In this lyrical poem, the poet
a hymn to the woman he loves, one can detect a troubled eroticism.
II. An erotic poem that shows the power of the
woman
A. The erotic progression of the poem
1. The physical closeness between Jeanne and the poet
There is a progression between the beginning and the end of the poem. In stanza
stanza 1, there is a physical distance. The first sign of eroticism
is in Jeanne's nudity, in other words, in her "shimmering skin".
Stanza 5: there is a shift from Jeanne to the poet, the walk seems very sensual
seems very sensual "To see you walk in cadence". Strophe 7:
Change of position, Jeanne lies down, the pose becomes lascivious. She
seems to be offering herself to the poet's desires Stanzas 8 and 9: the two lovers get closer
between the 2 lovers through a kiss or more. Union of the I
with the you. The beginning and the end of the poem come together.
2. Numerous sexual innuendos There is another possible reading
possible, thanks to the deciphering of the innuendo: the expression
"hair" can refer to female intimacy, the stick in its verticality can
stick in its verticality can refer to the poet's desires, it is not impossible that the
It is not impossible that stanza 6 contains a sexual reference with
with "the head that swings", "its yards in the water", proximity
with the word 'rod'. As for the last stanza, it consecrates
the union of the lovers, there is an orgasm marked by
the exclamation and the expression "liquid sky", and the word star shows that the poet has
the poet has reached the seventh heaven.
B. Jeanne, a woman marked by ambivalence
1. An unattainable woman Jeanne is dual, she is both
passive and active. Passive when she lies down and active when she
3
She is a woman and a child. She is a woman and a child: a woman because she is
She is woman and child: woman because she is at ease in her sensuality, provocative, and child in verse 24 ("child's head").
It is this dual character that charms the poet, since she is the
It is this dual character that charms the poet, since she is the meeting of opposites.
2. A woman difficult to understand Jeanne gives herself without giving herself
Her eyes where nothing is revealed". She keeps all her mystery.
Strophe 4, the antitheses bittersweet, gold/iron again underline Jeanne's ambivalence.
It is often said that the eyes are the mirror of the soul, but here there is nothing
It is often said that the eyes are the mirror of the soul, but here nothing is revealed. The poet cannot reach the soul ofJeanne's soul. He can have her body but not her soul.C. The situation of the poet
1. The intoxicated poet We can speak of drunkenness in love. The poet is
under the spell of this ambivalent woman but he becomes dependent
on her. Her saliva is likened to "bohemian wine". There is thus the idea
of a drug transmitted by Jeanne's kiss
2. The hypnotised poet Jeanne's dance hypnotises the poet. Jeanne
is likened by metaphor to a dancing snake, this animalisation
is very symbolic: the snake is associated in religion with the tempting and
tempting and evil animal. It symbolises evil, and it is not innocent to associate Jeanne with it.
It is not innocent to associate Jeanne with it, as it incites to sin. Here we find pleasure associated
with danger.
Conclusion In Le Serpent qui danse, a lyrical and erotic poem,
Charles Baudelaire gives a very ambivalent image of Jeanne: she is
She is a woman who gives and refuses herself, she is a sensual woman and a
child, she brings pleasure and danger. In the end, Jeanne Duval is
a true flower of evil.
C. The situation of the poet
1. The intoxicated poet We can speak of drunkenness in love. The poet is
under the spell of this ambivalent woman but he becomes dependent
on her. Her saliva is likened to "bohemian wine". There is thus the idea
of a drug transmitted by Jeanne's kiss
2. The hypnotised poet Jeanne's dance hypnotises the poet. Jeanne
is likened by metaphor to a dancing snake, this animalisation
is very symbolic: the snake is associated in religion with the tempting and
tempting and evil animal. It symbolises evil, and it is not innocent to associate Jeanne with it.
It is not innocent to associate Jeanne with it, as it incites to sin. Here we find pleasure associated
with danger.
Conclusion In Le Serpent qui danse, a lyrical and erotic poem,
Charles Baudelaire gives a very ambivalent image of Jeanne: she is
She is a woman who gives and refuses herself, she is a sensual woman and a
child, she brings pleasure and danger. In the end, Jeanne Duval is
a true flower of evil.

[The Gobi Desert Canoe Club]

Top class as always, I always enjoy your guitar work and this is no exception.    Willie