Un Cabaret folâtre sur la route de Bruxelles à Uccle
Vous qui raffolez des squelettes
Et des emblèmes détestés,
Pour épicer les voluptés,
(Fût-ce de simples omelettes!)
Vieux Pharaon, ô Monselet!
Devant cette enseigne imprévue,
J'ai rêvé de vous: À la vue
Du Cimetière, Estaminet!
— Charles Baudelaire
A Gay Chophouse
(On the road from Brussels to Uccle)
You who adore the skeleton
And all such horrible devices
As so many relishes and spices
To tickle the delicate palate on,
You old Pharaoh, Monselet,
Here's a sign I saw that will surely whet
Your appetite for an omelette;
It read: Cemetery View. Estaminet.
— David Paul, Flowrs of Evil (NY: New Directions, 1955)
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Two editions of Fleurs du mal were published in Baudelaire's lifetime — one in 1857 and an expanded edition in 1861. "Scraps" and censored poems were collected in Les Épaves in 1866. After Baudelaire died the following year, a "definitive" edition appeared in 1868.