Baudelaire's La Musique (Music) 波德萊爾的『音樂』

To Baudelaire, music is something remarkably like a powerful agent for movement of his emotions. Music treats him the way the wind treats the seas and oceans. It pushes him towards his own star. But it is not a bright star, just a weak and pale star. It is the star of his destiny. And he sets sail in that sea and sail into thick mist and fog where he cannnot really see where he is going and he finds above him, a vast and limitless sky. Yet he moves ahead bravely in the dark. He rides on the back of waves of the night, all covered up by a murkiness which prevents him from seeing clearly where he is going yet he moves ahead like a reckless fool, as he says, his chest braving the risks and uncertainty in front of him, with his lungs full of air, like a wind-filled full sail. 

Music fills his suffering body, his vessel or container of his emotions, with all kind of passions. Music makes him experience the full range of human emotions, sometimes gentle, sometimes in form of the most violent storms and tempests. But sometimes, he may feel calm. But it is not the calm of a satisfied soul. It is the stillness of death. It is the calm of a heart filled with despair, an exhausted heart without hopes!

 

La Musique                                                       Music                                                 音樂

La musique souvent me prend comme une mer!     Music often takes me as the sea!       音樂常把我看成海洋

   Vers ma pâle étoile,                                         Towards my pale star,                     朝向我那蒼星。

Sous un plafond de brume ou dans un vaste éther, Beneath a platform of fog or within a vast ether在滿佈霞霧的台下或在滄茫的上空中

   Je mets à la voile;                                          I set sail.                                           我揚帆。

 

La poitrine en avant et les poumons gonflés        Chest in front and lungs blown up         挺起胸膛而肺部猶似

   Comme de la toile,                                          as if a sail,                                      風帆般脹卜卜

J'éscalade le dos des flots amoncelés                  I scale the back of the piled up waves     我爬上那些黑夜向我掩蔽的

   Que la nuit me voile;                                      which the night hides from me               疊浪之背部     ，           

 

Je sens vibrer en moi toutes les passions             I feel every passion shaking in me             我感受所有受苦

   D'un vaisseau qui souffre;                                from a suffering vessel;                        載體的激情

Le bon vent, la tempête et ses convulsions            Gentle wind, tempest and its convulsions    柔風，暴風及其震撼

  

   Sur l'ímmense gouffre                                       are rocking me above the huge gulf        在那巨淵上搖擺着我。

Me bercent. D'áutres fois, calme plat, grand miroir.At other times, calm, plain, great mirror 多時， 我失望巨鏡                       

     De mon désespoir!                                          of my despair!                                   紋風不動地平和。