There are two lines in this poem, Danse Macabre by Baudelaire, that I can't wrap my head around.
"Truly, your coquetry will not voke
Any award that does not do it wrong;"
Would you call this a litote? If it is, I think that is what is so confusing to me. The "not's" are confusing to me and I cannot understand what this sentence is saying...
Here is the full poem in case you need the context:
Proud, like one living, of her noble height,
With handkerchief and gloves, her great bouquet,
She has the graceful nonchalance that might
Befit a gaunt coquette with lavish ways.
At any ball does one see waist so slim?
In all their regal amplitude, her clothes
Unfurl down to a dry foot, pinched within
A pomponned shoe as lovely as a rose.
The frill that plays along her clavicles,
As a lewd streamlet rubs its stony shores,
Modestly shields from jeering ridicule
Enticements her revealing gown obscures.
Her eyes, made of void, are deep and black;
Her skull, coiffured in flowers down her neck,
Sways slackly on the column of her back,
O charm of nothingness so madly decked!
You will be called by some, ‘caricature,’
Who do not know, lovers obsessed with flesh,
The grandeur of human armature.
You please me, skeleton, above the rest!
Do you display your grimace to upset
Our festival of life? Some ancient fire,
Does it ignite your living carcass yet,
And push you to the Sabbath of Desire?
Can you dismiss the nightmare mocking you,
With candle glow and songs of violins,
And will you try what floods of lust can do
To cool the hell that brands the heart within?
Eternal well of folly and of fault!
Alembic of the old and constant grief’s!
I notice how, along the latticed vault
Of ribs, the all-consuming serpent creeps.
Truly, your coquetry will not voke
Any award that does not do it wrong;
Who of these mortal hearts can grasp the joke?
The charms of horror only suit the strong!
Full of atrocious thoughts, your eyes’ abyss
Breathes vertigo – no dancer could begin
Without a bitter nausea to kiss
Two rows of teeth locked in a steady grin.
But who has not embraced a skeleton?
Who has not fed himself on carrion meat?
What matter clothes, or how you put them on?
The priggish dandy shows his self-deceit.
Noseless hetaera, captivating quean,
Tell all those hypocrites what you know best:
‘Proud darlings though you powder and you preen,
O perfumed skeletons, you reek of death!
Favourites faded, withered – in the mob
Antinous, and many a lovelace –
The ceaseless swirling of the danse macabre
Sweeps you along to some unheard-of place!
From steamy Ganges to the freezing Seine
The troop of mortals leaps and swoons, and does
Not the Angel’s trumpet aimed at them
Dawn through the ceiling that black blunderbuss.
In every climate Death admires you
In your contortions, o Humanitym
And perfuming herself as you would do,
Into your madness blends her irony!’
You have a point, the translation sounds very much like a litote. However, looking at the original verse in French, it is almost evident that it is just a clumsy translation, nor is there any reason for a litote.
Here's the original verse:
"Pour dire vrai, je crains que ta coquetterie
Ne trouve pas un prix digne de ses efforts
Qui, de ces coeurs mortels, entend la raillerie?
Les charmes de l'horreur n'enivrent que les forts!"
The following link has three more English translation for your comparison pleasure:
http://fleursdumal.org/poem/226
Extracts of the translations are shown below:
To tell the truth, I fear your coquetry
Will not find a reward worthy of its efforts;
Which of these mortal hearts understands raillery?
The charms of horror enrapture only the strong!
I fear your coquetry's not worth the strain,
The prize not worth the effort you prolong.
Could mortal hearts your railleries explain?
The joys of horror only charm the strong.
but, truth to tell, I fear thy coquetry
may find no guerdon for its labours long;
which of these death-doomed hearts can laugh with thee?
nay, horror's wine is only for the strong!
Thank you for the three other translations! So in a dumbed down summary of that stanza, my understanding is that the speaker is basically saying the woman's flirtatious behavior will be in vain. Her behavior will not rightfully find a reward because only those as "strong" as she will understand these "charms of horror." Am I in the ballpark?
Definitely in the ball park... having a good translation helps.
In the lines you're asking about from the poem "Danse Macabre" by Baudelaire, the speaker is addressing a skeleton or a personification of death.
To address your first question, a "litote" is a figure of speech that uses deliberate understatement to emphasize a point or make a statement. In this case, the lines in question do contain an example of litote. The phrase "will not voke any award that does not do it wrong" is a way of saying that the skeleton's coquetry or flirtation will not receive any recognition or reward that isn't completely inappropriate or undeserved. So, by using the negation of "not" and the emphasis on doing it wrong, the speaker is employing litote to emphasize the absence of any deserving or fitting reward.
However, I can understand why the syntax of these lines might be confusing. The use of multiple negations, such as "will not voke" and "does not do it wrong," can be somewhat convoluted. Let's break it down step by step to understand the meaning more clearly.
First, let's look at the phrase "will not voke." It may seem unfamiliar because "voke" is not a commonly used word in modern English. However, in the context of this poem, it is likely a variation of the word "evoke" or "provoke." So, the speaker is saying that the skeleton's coquetry will not provoke or elicit any response.
Next, let's focus on the phrase "Any award that does not do it wrong." Here, the speaker is suggesting that any recognition or reward given to the skeleton's coquetry would be inappropriate or unjust. By saying "does not do it wrong," the speaker means that the award would not be fitting or suitable for the nature of the coquetry being displayed.
To summarize, the lines are expressing that the skeleton's flirtatious behavior will not result in any recognition or reward that is properly deserving, and any awards given would be inappropriate. The use of litote adds to the emphasis of this point.