Exploring The Waste Land
An allusion page linked from The Waste Land, Part I, line 60

Les Fleurs du Mal
Les Sept Viellards
Charles Baudelaire

Eliot's note to line 60 indicated that Part I, line 60

60)  Unreal City,

refers to Charles Baudelaire's poem Les Sept Viellards (The Seven Old Men). One of the poems in the collection Les Fleurs du Mal (The Flowers of Evil).

The lines quoted by Eliot

Fourmillante cité, cité pleine de rêves,
Où le spectre en plein jour raccroche le passant.

can be translated as:

Swarming city, city full of dreams
Where the spector in full daylight accosts the passerby.


Exploring The Waste Land
File name: aq060.html
File date: Sunday, September 29, 2002
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