Le Léthé Unutuşun Tadı

Abstract

In his article, Abidin EMRE analyzes a poem by Baudelaire entitled Le Léthé which is among the six poems condemned in 1857 in the first edition of Fleurs du Mal. In this edition, Le Léthé immediately follows Vampire and belongs to the Jeanne Duval cycle that does not refute the physical and moral portrait that is especially recognizable in the lines 2, 4, 23 and 24. This could have been written between 1850-1852, the period which precedes the first great rupture.Le Léthé is about a terrible and devouring femininity- Tigre adoré, monstre aux airs indolents. However, in the second quatrain, the poet erotically euphemizes the insensibility of human suffering of l’âme cruelle et sourde. The water in the river of Léthé lends its powers, through kisses, to the merciless mistress. If her bed (couche) is an abyss (abîme) it is a desired abyss. The formidable femininity metamorphoses into a sort of divinity, a dispenser of a magical beverage that dissipates all suffering.