The Flowers of Evil

Name: The Flowers of Evil
ISBN: 9787532797417

Charles Baudelaire / 杜国清Shanghai Translation Publishing House · ChinaSep 2025

4.6

Word count: 105K words
Chapters: 190
ISBN: 9787532797417

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Summary

This new edition of Les Fleurs du mal is, in the truest sense, a complete translation of all the poetry Baudelaire produced in his lifetime. Baudelaire lived forty-six years and published Les Fleurs du mal in 1857, at the age of thirty-six. The 1861 second edition contained 126 poems; the 1866 publication of Le Spleen de Paris added 23 poems, including the 6 that had been banned from the first edition; and with a further 14 poems appended in the third edition of 1868, his lifetime output came to 163 poems in all. On the strength of these hundred-odd poems, Baudelaire stands at the "glorious summit" of world poetry. Baudelaire was a seer of uncommon insight: by intuition, contemplation, or sudden illumination, he perceived the correspondences among all things and the hidden affinities within the natural world, fusing the outward appearance of phenomena with the poet's inner spirit to achieve a symbolic realm in which feeling and scene are one and the abstract and the concrete coincide. Les Fleurs du mal is the "sickly flowers" the poet Baudelaire offered up—"sickly" carrying the double sense of "evil" and "disease." From the Christian doctrine of original sin, a way of life apart from God is evil; Les Fleurs du mal records the wanderings, remorse, and struggles of conscience of a prodigal son in rebellion against God, adrift in a lost paradise. On the other hand, the sickness of the soul is ennui—spiritual weariness, fatigue, slackness, dejection, gloom, boredom, emptiness, and the steady erosion of the will. Les Fleurs du mal is the record of the poet's various quests and flights in his attempt to find release from ennui.

Editor's review

Charles Baudelaire's Les Fleurs du mal is a landmark in the history of modern poetry. This complete simplified Chinese translation, published by Shanghai Translation Publishing House, includes detailed annotations by the scholar Du Guoqing. This is no conventionally "beautiful" collection: it boldly rejects the Romantic pastoral and confronts instead the ugliness of the city, human depravity, the entanglements of desire, and the morbid beauty that grows from them. With astonishing strokes Baudelaire depicts the dark side of Paris, distilling "evil" into an entirely new aesthetic category and pioneering Symbolist poetry. In reading this book, readers accompany the poet on an expedition into the dark recesses of the soul; its profound insight into the predicaments of modern existence retains a powerful impact today. While Du Guoqing's translation faithfully conveys the imagery and musicality of the original poems, his annotations clear away a great many cultural and historical obstacles for Chinese readers, making this difficult classic approachable and comprehensible. For readers seeking spiritual depth and aesthetic breakthrough, Les Fleurs du mal offers not consolation but a cold mirror and a shrill alarm.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Deep readers with a strong interest in modern poetry and Symbolist literature
Readers hoping to break through traditional aesthetic frameworks and explore the "beauty of evil" or the aesthetics of ugliness in literature
Philosophy enthusiasts with a serious attitude toward thinking about the dark sides of society and human nature
Students and scholars of French literature, comparative literature, or modernist currents

Not a good fit for

Readers seeking light reading, pure entertainment, or chicken-soup-style consolation
Readers who are sensitive to or put off by themes of decadence, death, and erotic desire

Reading tips

Read the translator's preface and annotations first to understand Baudelaire's life and times; this is essential for grasping the dense imagery of the poems.
There is no need to finish the book in one sitting; read it poem by poem, savoring repeatedly the impact of the imagery and the tension of the language in individual pieces (such as "To the Reader" and "A Carcass").
Extend your reading with critical works on Baudelaire or Symbolist art; this will give you a better grasp of his place and value in literary history.

About the publisher

Shanghai Translation Publishing House China · Founded in 1978

Shanghai Translation Publishing House is a Chinese publisher oriented mainly toward translation and publishing. Its publications cover foreign literature, world classics and classic works, as well as social culture, folk literature and classical poetry. The database contains 2,618 titles, including Never Let Me Go, Les Misérables (2 volumes), Don Quixote (illustrated collector's edition), The Complete Comedies of Molière (4 volumes), The Complete Novels of Kafka (3 volumes), The Collected Works of Dostoevsky (9-volume set), Reason and Persons, and Oedipus Rex (Translation Classics). Its author resources include foreign writers such as Kazuo Ishiguro, Victor Hugo, Cervantes and Molière, as well as translators such as Zheng Kelu, Sun Jiameng, Li Jianwu and Zhang Kun. The publisher has brands such as "Translation Classics Selections" and "Translation Documentary," and emphasizes translated works in foreign literature and the humanities and social sciences, while also publishing bilingual dictionaries and foreign-language educational books. Public information is limited; the above is based on the book information in the database.

版权信息
导读
参考书目
译者序波德莱尔与《恶之华》
致波德莱尔
恶之华（1861）
作者献词
致读者
忧郁与理想
1 祝祷
2 信天翁
3 高翔
4 万物照应
5 （我喜爱对那些裸体时代的回忆）
6 灯塔
7 生病的缪斯
8 卖身的缪斯
9 恶僧
10 仇敌
11 厄运
12 前生
13 踏上旅途的波希米亚人
14 人与海
15 唐璜在地狱
16 傲慢的惩罚
17 美
18 理想
19 女巨人
20 假面
21 美的赞歌
22 异国的芳香
23 发
24 （我爱慕你）
25 （你想将整个宇宙带进你的闺房）
26 然而还不满足
27 （穿着波浪状、珍珠母色的衣裳）
28 舞动的蛇
29 腐尸
30 来自深渊的叫喊
31 吸血鬼
32 （一夜，我躺在丑恶犹太女人身边）
33 死后的悔恨
34 猫
35 决斗
36 阳台
37 着魔的男人
38 幽灵
39 （给你这些诗）
40 永远一样
41 她的一切
42 （今晚你要说什么）
43 活火炬
44 通功
45 告白
46 心灵的黎明
47 黄昏的谐调
48 香水瓶
49 毒
50 阴空
51 猫
52 优美的船
53 旅邀
54 无可挽救者
55 交谈
56 秋之歌
57 给一位圣母
58 午后之歌
59 西西娜
60 给我佛兰琪丝嘉的赞歌
61 给生长在殖民地的一位夫人
62 忧愁与流浪
63 幽灵
64 秋的小曲
65 月亮的悲哀
66 猫
67 猫头鹰
68 烟斗
69 音乐
70 坟墓
71 幻想的版画
72 快活的死者
73 憎恨的无底桶
74 裂钟
75 忧郁
76 忧郁
77 忧郁
78 忧郁
79 着魔
80 虚无的滋味
81 苦恼的炼金术
82 恐怖的共感
83 自我惩罚者
84 无可赎救者
85 时钟
巴黎写景
86 风景
87 太阳
88 给一个红发的乞丐女郎
89 天鹅
90 七个老头儿
91 小老太婆
92 盲人
93 给交臂而过的一个女人
94 骸耕图
95 黄昏
96 赌博
97 死的舞蹈
98 虚假的爱
99 （我仍忘不了）
100 （你曾嫉妒的那个好心的女用人）
101 雾和雨
102 巴黎之梦
103 黎明
酒
104 酒魂
105 拾荒者的酒
106 杀人犯的酒
107 孤独者的酒
108 热恋者的酒
恶之华
109 毁灭
110 一个受难的女人
111 该入地狱的女人
112 一对好姊妹
113 血泉
114 寓意
115 贝雅翠斯
116 塞瑟岛之旅
117 爱神与大脑壳
叛逆
118 圣彼得的否认
119 亚伯与该隐
120 向恶魔的连祷
死
121 恋爱者之死
122 穷人之死
123 艺术家之死
124 一日之终
125 好奇者的梦
126 旅航
漂流诗篇（1866）
1 浪漫派的落日
被禁诗篇
2 莱斯波斯岛
3 堕入地狱的女人
4 忘川
5 给一位太快活的女人
6 首饰
7 吸血鬼的化身
艳歌
8 喷泉
9 贝尔特的眼睛
10 赞歌
11 容貌的期许
12 怪物
13 给我佛兰琪丝嘉的赞歌
题咏
14 奥诺雷·杜米埃肖像题诗
15 瓦伦西的罗拉
16 题德拉克洛瓦所画《牢中的塔索》
杂篇
17 声音
18 意想不到者
19 赎金
20 给一位马拉巴姑娘
戏作
21 阿米娜·波雪蒂初上舞台
22 致欧金·福洛曼丹氏
23 戏谑的小酒店
第三版补遗（1868）
1 一本禁书的题词
2 致邦维尔
3 和平的烟斗
4 异教徒的祈祷
5 盖子
6 午夜的反省
7 悲情的恋歌
8 警告者
9 叛逆者
10 离此遥远
11 深渊
12 伊卡洛斯的悲叹
13 静思
14 被冒犯的月亮
附录
波德莱尔年谱
万物照应·东西交辉
波德莱尔与我
初版译者后记
新版译者后记

FAQ

What does the title Les Fleurs du mal mean?

"Les Fleurs du mal" literally means "flowers of evil," suggesting strange blossoms that bloom from sin, melancholy, and suffering. Baudelaire uses it to symbolize the new, paradoxical, and tension-filled artistic beauty he deliberately unearthed and refined from the decay of the modern city and the evil in human nature.

What are the features of this edition?

This Shanghai Translation Publishing House edition is recognized as the authoritative complete translation, translated and extensively annotated by the veteran translator Du Guoqing. The annotations greatly help readers understand the historical allusions, cultural metaphors, and Baudelaire's distinctive symbolic system in the poems, making it an important edition for in-depth study of Les Fleurs du mal in the Chinese-speaking world.

Why is Les Fleurs du mal said to be a "dangerous" book?

Its "danger" lies in its thorough overturning of traditional moral and aesthetic ideas. Baudelaire does not shrink from depicting depravity, despair, and evil, and endows them with an unsettling allure. It challenges readers' comfort zones and forces them to confront the shadowed parts of themselves and their society, and it can provoke strong spiritual shock and moral reflection. It does not advocate evil; rather, it performs a cold and profound poetic dissection of evil.

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About the author

Charles Baudelaire Author · French · 1821–1867

Charles Baudelaire (1821–1867) was a French poet, translator, and critic of literature and art. His poetry collection Les Fleurs du mal, published in 1857, takes city life, sensory experience, and melancholy as its themes, with concise language and intense imagery. It is regarded as one of the most influential poetry collections in nineteenth-century Europe, and he is seen as a forerunner of Symbolism and an important source of literary modernism. His prose poetry collection Le Spleen de Paris represents an early experiment in the genre. He also wrote art criticism such as The Painter of Modern Life, and his letters have been preserved. The library holds 11 of his works, including poetry, prose poetry, criticism, and correspondence, commonly classified under foreign literature, classical poetry, and prose miscellany.

杜国清 Author

Du Guoqing is an author whose biographical information is very limited in publicly available sources: his dates of birth and death, native place, education, and professional career are not clearly documented. What can be confirmed at present is that one work attributed to him, The Flowers of Evil (E Zhi Hua), is listed on this site and classified under classical Chinese poetry. On this evidence alone, it is difficult to determine whether the work is an original poem, a translation, or an edition with commentary on an earlier text, nor is it possible to infer his overall body of work or literary stance. Readers can only learn that he is associated with the genre of poetry, and that his work is placed within the tradition of classical Chinese poetry. Lacking reliable biographical and textual details, this entry makes no speculative claims; the author's identity, writing style, and place in literary history await further material.