11 nov 2021 ano - 103/ Mad about Baudelaire and his Venus statue 1864

Descrição:

“… Mais l’implacable Vénus regarde au loin je ne sais quoi avec ses yeux de marbre.”

(… But the implacable Venus looks into the distance I don't know what with her marble eyes)

Charles Baudelaire: ‘Le Fou et la Vénus’ (1)

This post celebrates the bicentenary of the birth of the great/greatest French poet: Charles Baudelaire (1821-1867), with a few illustrations of ‘Le Fou et la Vénus’, the short story nr 7 out of 50 from his famous collection known as ‘Le Spleen de Paris - Petits Poèmes en Prose’ (1).

Fig.1 is a collage with the photograph of Baudelaire by Étienne Carjat (c.1862) and the picture of an unidentified statue of Venus, representing properly the thoughts of Baudelaire (2). Fig.2 presents the story on a YouTube video (3). The full French text and its translation in English are shown in Fig.3 (4).