Before April Slips Away

A friend who lives deep in the French countryside was listening to the radio the other day when she heard a poem by Baudelaire, called “Avril.” She spent the entire day trying to trace it and finally emailed Radio France to ask where she could read it. The answer came—”page 155 of the Oeuvres complètes (éditions Laffont, collection Bouquin, 1980)”—and she forwarded it. So for all you French-speaking Baudelaireans, here ‘tiz:

AVRIL
Charles Baudelaire

La muse est de retour! La campagne s’allume. 
Partez, ma fantaisie; errez parmi les près; 
Voici le soleil d’or et les cieux sidérés, 
La nature s’éveille et le bois se parfume. 

Le printemps, jeune oiseau, vêt sa première plume. 
Avril vient en chantant dans les champs diaprés, 
Ouvrir sous un baiser les bourgeons empourprés, 
Et la terre en moiteur s’enveloppe de brume. 

Le printemps engloutit la neige et les chagrins 
Et dispense à chacun des jours purs et sereins 
Vous dont les rigueurs font que sur ma tête il neige, 

N'êtes-vous pas d'avis, belle qui dès longtemps 
De me faire mourir avec le privilège, 
Qu'il serait sage et bon d'imiter le printemps? 

Now for the kicker: According to the most deeply invested Baudelaire purist I know, “It’s an open question whether Baudelaire wrote that. Usually it’s included in an appendix to his poetry, ‘Attributed to Baudelaire.’ It was published several times during Baudelaire’s lifetime under the name of his friend Privat d’Anglemont. However, another friend of theirs claimed that Baudelaire wrote it and published it under Privat’s name as a joke. Personally I think it’s too crappy a poem to be by Baudelaire. It has a pastiche feel to it and lacks the mineral quality of Baudelaire’s tone. If Baudelaire published it under Privat’s name, it was because he knew it was inferior and needed the money.” Well!

Meanwhile yet another friend found a poem on the same theme by Gérard de Nerval with the same title. It was “a busy day well worth it,” he writes, and sent the poem along like so: