Baudelaire's Parfum Essay

Baudelaire’s Parfum exotique, written in 1857 and published in Les Fleurs du Mal in 1868, is a sonnet that seeks to provide a transition from sensuality to spirituality, a theme typical of Baudelaire. Through using idealistic language and a vocabulary that appeals to the senses, this is achieved in the original text. However, does James N. McGowan provide an effective translation of Baudelaire? An effective poetic translation can be defined, in the words of Francis Jones , as ‘creating a poem in the target language which is readable and enjoyable as an independent, literary text.’ It is convincing to argue that McGowan’s translation is an effective one to greater extent; however, there are some decisions that are instrumental in nature which affects its overall effectiveness in delivering

McGowan largely takes an analogical approach to structuring his translation of Baudelaire, seeking to recreate the form of the poem in such a way that English-speaking audiences experience a poem similar to the way in which francophone audiences experienced the original. For example, Baudelaire’s use of alexandrines (a syllabic poetic metre of twelve syllables with a caesura dividing the line into two half-lines of six syllables each) is far less common among English texts and would therefore seem more foreign to anglophone audiences. McGowan therefore uses iambic pentameter, a poetic metre far more common of English sonnets such as those of Shakespeare, enabling anglophone audiences to better understand the sentiment of the poem by using a style often associated with imagery and deep emotion. Another example of McGowan translating in an analogical manner is through his decision to omit perfect rhymes in favour of half rhymes. Baudelaire’s sonnet uses employs two quatrains, both using a rhyming pattern of A-B-B-A and two tercets of C-C-D-E-D-E. McGowan also uses a pair of