L'Amour est assis sur le crâne
	De l'Humanité,
Et sur ce trône, le profane,
	Au rire effronté,

Souffle [gaîment]1 des bulles rondes
	Qui montent dans l'air,
Comme pour rejoindre les mondes
	Au fond de l'éther.

Le globe [miroitant]2 et frêle
	Prend un grand essor,
Crève et crache son âme grêle
	Comme un songe d'or.

J'entends le crâne à chaque bulle
	Prier et gémir :
- " Ce jeu féroce et ridicule,
	Quand doit-il finir ?

Car ce que ta bouche cruelle
	Éparpille en l'air,
Monstre assassin, c'est ma cervelle,
	Mon sang et ma chair ! "

View original text (without footnotes)

Confirmed with Revue des Deux Mondes, seconde série de la nouvelle période, tome dixième, Les Fleurs du mal, Paris: Bureau de la Revue des Deux Mondes, 1855, page 1093. Also confirmed with Les Fleurs du mal, Spleen et Idéal, Paris: Poulet-Malassis et de Broise, 1857, pages 212-213. Also confirmed with Les Fleurs du mal, Spleen et Idéal, Paris: Poulet-Malassis et de Broise, 1861, pages 279-280. Punctuation and capitalization follows 1855 edition. Note: this was number 89 in the 1857 edition of Les Fleurs du mal but number 117 or 142 in subsequent editions.

Note: The 1855 edition uses the subtitle "(D'après une vieille gravure.)" while the 1857, 1861, and 1868 editions of Les Fleurs du mal use the subtitle "Vieux cul-de-lampe".

¹ spelling variant used in 1861 edition and by V. d'Indy: "gaiement"
² 1857 edition, 1861 edition, 1868 edition, and V. d'Indy: "lumineux"

Text Authorship:

• by Charles Baudelaire (1821 - 1867), "L'Amour et le Crâne", appears in Les Fleurs du mal, in 4. Fleurs du mal, no. 117, Paris, Bureau de la Revue des Deux Mondes, first published 1855 [author's text checked 4 times against a primary source]

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):

• by Vincent d'Indy (1851 - 1931), "L'amour et le crâne", alternate title: "L'amour et le crâne", op. 20 (1884) [ high voice and piano ], Édition Loret et Freytag [sung text checked 1 time]
• by René Lenormand (1846 - 1932), "L'amour et le crâne", op. 33 no. 6 [ medium voice and piano ], from Les fleurs du mal, no. 6, Édition Maurice Senart [sung text not yet checked]

Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):

• CZE Czech (Čeština) (Jaroslav Goll) , "Láska a lebka"
• ENG English (Faith J. Cormier) , "Love and the Skull", copyright © 2004, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Research team for this page: Emily Ezust [Administrator] , Poom Andrew Pipatjarasgit [Guest Editor]

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 20
Word count: 94

Love sits 
on Humanity's skull. 
From this throne 
the profane one laughs,

insolently and gaily blows 
round bubbles that soar 
as if to worlds hidden 
in the ether. 

The frail, luminous globe
leaps ahead, 
breaks, and spits out its spindly soul
like a golden dream. 

With each bubble, I hear the skull 
prey and whine, 
"When will this fierce, ridiculous 
game end? 

Killer monster, your cruel mouth 
is scattering my brain, 
my blood and my flesh
in the air!"