le cygne

Last year in french class, I had to read a book in french and present a book report on it. I decided to read "Les Fleurs du Mal" by Charles Baudelaire which is a collection of poetry witch six thematically different sections. Reading the poem in french was very difficult for me, especially since my french wasn't the best (I had to spend a lot of time flipping through french to English dictionaries) and it was hard for me to pick up on metaphors. However, I still think that, for poetry, a bit of the poem is a loss in translation and there's a beauty to reading a poem in its original language. I did not have enough time to finish reading "Les Fleurs du Mal" so I focus on reading a section of the book called Tableaux Parisiens which described the Paris of Baudelaire's time and also gave some insight on critiques Baudelaire had with France. One of my favorite poems in this section was "le Cygne" (https://fleursdumal.org/poem/220). In this poem, the author wanders around Paris and sees a swan. Suddenly the speaker is struck with grief and nostalgia over how much Paris has changed and begins to compare his experience with that of other exiled figures in literature/mythology such as Andromanche (Hector's wife in greek mythology who mourned the death of her husband and loss of Troy in the Trojan war).

Here is my favorite stanza from the poem:

"Paris changes! but naught in my melancholy
Has stirred! New palaces, scaffolding, blocks of stone,
Old quarters, all become for me an allegory,
And my dear memories are heavier than rocks."

I got a deep sense of nostalgic yearning for the "old" Paris in this line as well a sense of regret for how fast time passes. Considering that Baudelaire wrote "Le Cygne" during the rebuilding of Paris after the revolution of 1848, many aspects of the city that he was once familiar with have drastically changed. In addition, I get the impression that the speaker seems to feel like he's "in exile" even though he is still in Paris, a city he should be familiar with. The speaker wanders through Paris but is constantly weighed down by his past memories of the old Paris. He feels a strong sense of disconnect in a familiar place. I've always thought of Paris as "the city of love" and a tourist destination, so it was interesting, and a little sad, to see Baudelaire's perspective. I haven't experience the exact feelings of Baudelaire yet, but I wonder if I will experience this feeling when I get older and visit places I frequent during my childhood.