Charles Baudelaire

Charles Baudelaire – Al lettore / To the reader

Bernardino Parentino (1437-1531), The Temptation of St. Anthony Folly, error, sin, avarice occupy our minds and labor our bodies, and we feed our pleasant remorse as beggars nourish their vermin.Our sins are obstinate, our repentance is faint; we exact a high price for our confessions, and we gaily return to the miry path, believing that base tears wash away all our …

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Charles Baudelaire – La Vita Anteriore / My Former Life

Giorgio De Chirico, Bathers on the beach, 1934 For a long time I dwelt under vast porticos which the ocean suns lit with a thousand colors, the pillars of which, tall, straight, and majestic, made them, in the evening, like basaltic grottos.The billows which cradled the image of the sky mingled, in a solemn, mystical way, the omnipotent chords of …

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Charles Baudelaire – Lamenti di un Icaro / Complaint of an Icarus

Herbert James Draper, The Lament for Icarus, 1898 Those who love whores are well-endowed, spry, and well-fed, and cheerful-spoken. But, as for me, my arms are broken from trying to embrace a cloud.To what two peerless stars have done that kindle in the farthest skies, I owe it that my burnt-out eyes know only memories of the sun.In vain I’ve tried …

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