For thee, O now a silent soul, my brother,
Take at my hands this garland, and farewell.
Thin is the leaf, and chill the wintry smell,
And chill the solemn earth, a fatal mother,
With sadder than the Niobean womb,
And in the hollow of her breasts a tomb.
Content thee, howsoe'er, whose days are done:
There lies not any troublous thing before,
Nor sight nor sound to war against thee more,
For whom all winds are quiet as the sun,
All waters as the shore.
[From inside-leaf: Charles Pierre Baudelaire was born in Paris, France,
on April 9,1821, and died there on August 31, 1867. Flowers of Evil was
published in 1857 by Baudelaire's friend Auguste Poulet Malassis, who
had inherited a printing business at Alençon. Some of them had already
appeared in the Revue des Deux Mondes. The poet, the publisher, and the
printer were found guilty of having offended against public morals.]