"Upon the mat she lies and leers, and on the tawny throat of her
Flutters the soft and silky fur, or ripples to her pointed ears."
and--
"Et, des pieds jusque à la tête,
Un air subtil, un dangereux parfum,
Nagent autour de son corps brun."
This should be sufficient proof in itself, but there is evidence which
is absolutely conclusive. In all the criticism of Wilde's work, I do
not think that any one has taken the trouble to trace these origins.
I am as certain as I am certain of anything that Wilde's poem "The
Sphinx" was primarily inspired by the poem of Baudelaire in that
section of "Les Fleurs du Mal" entitled "Spleen et Idéal," called "Les
Chats." I have already pointed out how certain images were taken from
another poem of Baudelaire, but now we are coming to the original
fountain.
In the few translations I offer of Baudelaire's poems I have chosen
representative verses which seem to me to express Baudelaire at his
best. The poem "Les Chats" has been translated by Mr. Cyril Scott in
a little volume of selections published by Mr. Elkin Mathews. Here is
"Les Chats" of Baudelaire:
"Les amoureux fervents et les savants austères
Aiment également, dans leur mûre saison,
Les chats puissants et doux, orgueil de la maison,
Qui comme eux sont frileux et comme eux sédentaires.
"Amis de la science et de la volupté,
Ils cherchent le silence et l'horreur des ténèbres;
L'Érèbe les eût pris pour ses coursiers funèbres,
S'ils pouvaient au servage incliner leur fierté.
"Ils prennent en songeant les nobles attitudes
Des grands sphinx allongés au fond des solitudes,
Qui semblent s'endormir dans un rêve sans fin;
"Leurs reins féconds sont pleins d'étincelles magiques,
Et des parcelles d'or, ainsi qu'un sable fin,
Étoilent vaguement leurs prunelles mystiques."
And here is Mr. Scott's rendering:
"All ardent lovers and all sages prize,
As ripening years incline upon their brows--
The mild and mighty cats--pride of the house--
That like unto them are indolent, stern, and wise.
"The friends of Learning and of Ecstasy,
They search for silence and the horrors of gloom;
The devil had used them for his steeds of Doom,
Could he alone have bent their pride to slavery.
"When musing, they display those outlines chaste,
Of the great sphinxes--stretched o'er the sandy waste,
That seem to slumber deep in a dream without end:
"From out their loins a fountainous furnace flies,
And grains of sparkling gold, as fine as sand,
Bestar the mystic pupils of their eyes."
I don't in the least like this translation, but the reader has only to
turn to the poems of Oscar Wilde in the collected edition, issued by
Messrs. Methuen--and he will find an æsthetic perspective of which the
words of Baudelaire form the foreground.
Let him open the page where the reverberating words of the Sphinx
begin, and it will be enough.
I shall only write a very few words about the last name on my
list--that of Ernest Dowson.
This true poet, king of the minor poets as he has been called, was
influenced by Baudelaire through Verlaine. As all students of modern
poetry know, Ernest Dowson died a few years ago and left very little
to the world--though what he left was almost perfect within its scope
and purpose. I knew Dowson well, and he has often told me the debt he
owed to Baudelaire. One can see it in such poems as "Cynara," which
Mr. Arthur Symons says (and I thoroughly agree with him) is one of the
imperishable lyrics of our literature.