my "obatala" consists mostly of the figure of obatala that appears in soyinka's work, going back to the Interpreters when i first encountered yoruba gods and tried to learn about them as we had studied greek gods, way back in the 60s. and i learned mostly about the impossibility of relating the one to the other; in fact, learning about the way yoruba beliefs varied over time and place helped me to learn how all those common texts on greek mythology were also based on weak scholarship that tended to universalize beliefs that were actually regional and local as well.
i was interested in how this satan concerned himself with those who were 'unformed' in their final cooking, that is, the weak or imperfect beings, especially those in need of help, those in need, those suffering. obviously this satan sounds like jesus as well, and baudelaire is maybe toying with our prejudices in favor of a certain christianity. without returning to rereading the whole of Fleurs du Mal i couldn't begin to really interpret the poem. but the vulnerability of obatala, getting drunk and falling asleep during the 'cooking' of human beings stayed with my imagination of a vulnerable but generous god, rather than the hardnosed ogun. god betrayed by destiny. another line is,
You who teach through love the taste for Heaven
To the cursed pariah, even to the leper,
i wouldn't go further since i am referring only to impressions of readings done pretty long ago, based mostly on an author's images, not real research....
best
ken
At 11:16 PM 8/17/2010, you wrote:
thanks Ken.It must be so satisfying to be able read both the original and the translation.Baudelaire is in a class of his own.
It would be interesting to read an interpretation of Esu as skilled as Baudelaire's reimagining of Satan.
I am very curious about the Obatala correlation you observed. Could you explain?
thanks
toyin
On 17 August 2010 14:11, kenneth harrow <harrow@msu.edu> wrote:
- not exactly sure of why this is posted on our list, but it is really quite good. the play of languages and translations can be magnificent, esp when dealing with someone like baudelaire. and perhaps there is that resonance with the missionaries' tendencies to call african divinities, like eshu, the devil. and we can also see much, i think, of obatala echoed in this portrait of baudelaire's vision of satan.
- lastly, the french original just sings out with such beauty, i went back to see what could be done in english. very hard to evoke the music of the original, music in all its senses and sensuousness
- thanks toyin
- ken
- At 03:58 AM 8/17/2010, toyin adepoju wrote:
- A remarkable poem by the French poet Charles Baudelaire,here presented in six translations from http://fleursdumal.org/ , a striking site devoted to Baudelaire's landmark poetic sequence Le Fleurs du Mal, Flowers of Evil, in translations that depict its force from a range of angles,along with the French original. The first translation,by William Aggeler,
- is representative of the tone and imagery of the others except that of the fifth one,by Will Schmiz,which varies the imagery of the original significantly,grounding the poem in the social realities of modern capitalist society.
- The poem enables one to appreciate an aspect of the metamorphoses undergone by the figure of Satan,from the formerly glorious but outcast angel in the Bible,the tempter of humanity and ultimate source of evil,exemplified by his despicable portrayal in the 14th century by the Italian poet Dante Alieghiri's Divine Comedy,to the doomed heroic figure of the 17th century English poet John Milton's Paradise Lost who declares it is 'Better to rule in hell than serve in heaven',to the exemplar of creative rebellion of Baudelaire's prayer to and praise of Satan in his 19th century collection.The attitudes embodied by this poem recur in contemporary adaptations of Satanism and associated ideologies and practices as a spiritual path in Western culture.
- Baudelaire's history in relation to Flowers of Evil,from which this poem comes, makes him emblematic of the Promethean spirit he attributes to Satan.Like Prometheus,the Greek mythical figure chained by Zeus,the head of the Olympian gods,to the Caucasus Mountains while an eagle feeds daily on his liver,for stealing fire from Zeus and giving it to humanity, Baudelaire's publisher and printer were successfully prosecuted for the perceived immorality of this collection, the poet fined and some of the poems banned in France.But as the Wikipedia Baudelaire essay describes it, 'Nearly 100 years later, on May 11, 1949, Baudelaire was vindicated, the judgment officially reversed, and the six banned poems reinstated in France'
- The Litany of Satan
- O you, the wisest and fairest of the Angels,
- God betrayed by destiny and deprived of praise,
- O Satan, take pity on my long misery!
- O Prince of Exile, you who have been wronged
- And who vanquished always rise up again more strong,
- O Satan, take pity on my long misery!
- You who know all, great king of hidden things,
- The familiar healer of human sufferings,
- O Satan, take pity on my long misery!
- You who teach through love the taste for Heaven
- To the cursed pariah, even to the leper,
- O Satan, take pity on my long misery!
- You who of Death, your mistress old and strong,
- Have begotten Hope, — a charming madcap!
- O Satan, take pity on my long misery!
- You who give the outlaw that calm and haughty look
- That damns the whole multitude around his scaffold.
- O Satan, take pity on my long misery!
- You who know in what nooks of the miserly earth
- A jealous God has hidden precious stones,
- O Satan, take pity on my long misery!
- You whose clear eye sees the deep arsenals
- Where the tribe of metals sleeps in its tomb,
- O Satan, take pity on my long misery!
- You whose broad hand conceals the precipice
- From the sleep-walker wandering on the building's ledge,
- O Satan, take pity on my long misery!
- You who soften magically the old bones
- Of belated drunkards trampled by the horses,
- O Satan, take pity on my long misery!
- You who to console frail mankind in its sufferings
- Taught us to mix sulphur and saltpeter,
- O Satan, take pity on my long misery!
- You who put your mark, O subtle accomplice,
- Upon the brow of Croesus, base and pitiless,
- O Satan, take pity on my long misery!
- You who put in the eyes and hearts of prostitutes
- The cult of sores and the love of rags and tatters,
- O Satan, take pity on my long misery!
- Staff of those in exile, lamp of the inventor,
- Confessor of the hanged and of conspirators,
- O Satan, take pity on my long misery!
- Adopted father of those whom in black rage
- — God the Father drove from the earthly paradise,
- O Satan, take pity on my long misery!
- Prayer
- Glory and praise to you, O Satan, in the heights
- Of Heaven where you reigned and in the depths
- Of Hell where vanquished you dream in silence!
- Grant that my soul may someday repose near to you
- Under the Tree of Knowledge, when, over your brow,
- Its branches will spread like a new Temple!
- — William Aggeler, The Flowers of Evil (Fresno, CA: Academy Library Guild, 1954)
- Litanies of Satan
- Wisest of Angels, whom your fate betrays,
- And, fairest of them all, deprives of praise,
- Satan have pity on my long despair!
- O Prince of exiles, who have suffered wrong,
- Yet, vanquished, rise from every fall more strong,
- Satan have pity on my long despair!
- All-knowing lord of subterranean things,
- Who remedy our human sufferings,
- Satan have pity on my long despair!
- To lepers and lost beggars full of lice,
- You teach, through love, the taste of Paradise.
- Satan have pity on my long despair!
- You who on Death, your old and sturdy wife,
- Engendered Hope — sweet folly of this life —
- Satan have pity on my long despair!
- You give to the doomed man that calm, unbaffled
- Gaze that rebukes the mob around the scaffold,
- Satan have pity on my long despair!
- You know in what closed corners of the earth
- A jealous God has hidden gems of worth.
- Satan have pity on my long despair!
- You know the deepest arsenals, where slumber
- The breeds of buried metals without number.
- Satan have pity on my long despair!
- You whose huge hand has hidden the abyss
- From sleepwalkers that skirt the precipice,
- Satan have pity on my long despair!
- You who give suppleness to drunkards' bones
- When trampled down by horses on the stones,
- Satan have pity on my long despair!
- You who, to make his sufferings the lighter,
- Taught man to mix the sulphur with the nitre,
- Satan have pity on my long despair!
- You fix your mask, accomplice full of guile,
- On rich men's foreheads, pitiless and vile.
- Satan have pity on my long despair!
- You who fill the hearts and eyes of whores
- With love of trifles and the cult of sores,
- Satan have pity on my long despair!
- The exile's staff, inventor's lamp, caresser
- Of hanged men, and of plotters the confessor,
- Satan have pity on my long despair!
- Step-father of all those who, robbed of pardon,
- God drove in anger out of Eden's garden
- Satan have pity on my long despair!
- Prayer
- Praise to you, Satan! in the heights you lit,
- And also in the deeps where now you sit,
- Vanquished, in Hell, and dream in hushed defiance
- O that my soul, beneath the Tree of Science
- Might rest near you, while shadowing your brows,
- It spreads a second Temple with its boughs.
- — Roy Campbell, Poems of Baudelaire (New York: Pantheon Books, 1952)
- Litany to Satan
- O wise among all Angels ordinate,
- God foiled of glory, god betrayed by fate,
- Satan, O pity my long wretchedness!
- O Prince of Exile doomed to heinous wrong,
- Who, vanquished, riseth ever stark and strong,
- Satan, O pity my long wretchedness!
- Thou knowest all, proud king of occult things,
- Familiar healer of man's sufferings,
- Satan, O pity my long wretchedness!
- Thy love wakes thirst for Heaven in one and all:
- Leper, pimp, outcast, fool and criminal,
- Satan, O pity my long wretchedness!
- Of Death, thy brave leal wanton, Thou didst breed,
- Sweet madcap Hope to charm our idle need,
- Satan, O pity my long wretchedness!
- Thy gift, that bland imperious glance that hallows
- The damned, and damns the blest about the gallows,
- Satan, O pity my long wretchedness!
- In coigns of miser earth veined with dead bones
- Thou knowest what jealous God hid precious stones,
- Satan, O pity my long wretchedness!
- Thy fierce eyes pierce deep arsenals in which
- The tribe of metals sleep, entombed and rich,
- Satan, O pity my long wretchedness!
- Thy broad palm cloaks the precipice's edge
- For sleepwalkers, poised on a building's ledge,
- Satan, O pity my long wretchedness!
- Thy magic softens bones of drunkards struck
- By hooves of horses on a speeding truck,
- Satan, O pity my long wretchedness!
- To cheer him, Thou didst teach frail man, Thy friend,
- How aptly sulphur and saltpeter blend,
- Satan, O pity my long wretchedness!
- Thou, skilled accomplice, Who dost stamp thy mark
- Upon the brow of Croesus, harsh and stark,
- Satan, O pity my long wretchedness!
- Thou Who didst lend the eyes and hearts of whores
- Their love of tatters and their cult of sores,
- Satan, O pity my long wretchedness!
- Thou, sage's lamp and exile's staff, serene
- Guide to those kneeling by the guillotine,
- Satan, O pity my long wretchedness!
- Father to those whom God the Father's vice
- Of vengeance drove from earthly paradise,
- Satan, O pity my long wretchedness!
- Envoi
- Glory and praise to Thee, Satan, on high,
- Where Thou didst reign, in Hell where Thou dost lie,
- Vanquished, silent, dreaming eternally.
- Grant that my soul some day rest close to Thee
- Under the Tree of Knowledge which shall spread
- Its branches like a Temple overhead.
- — Jacques LeClercq, Flowers of Evil (Mt Vernon, NY: Peter Pauper Press, 1958)
- The Litanies of Satan
- O thou, of all the Angels loveliest and most learned,
- To whom no praise is chanted and no incense burned,
- Satan, have pity upon me in my deep distress!
- O Prince of exile, god betrayed by foulest wrong,
- Thou that in vain art vanquished, rising up more strong,
- Satan, have pity upon me in my deep distress!
- O thou who knowest all, each weak and shameful thing,
- Kind minister to man in anguish, mighty king,
- Satan, have pity upon me in my deep distress!
- Thou that dost teach the leper, the pariah we despise,
- To love like other men, and taste sweet Paradise,
- Satan, have pity upon me in my deep distress!
- O thou, that in the womb of Death, thy fecund mate,
- Engenderest Hope, with her sweet eyes and her mad gait,
- Satan, have pity upon me in my deep distress!
- Thou who upon the scaffold dost give that calm and proud
- Demeanor to the felon, which condemns the crowd,
- Satan, have pity upon me in my deep distress!
- Thou that hast seen in darkness and canst bring to light
- The gems a jealous God has hidden from our sight,
- Satan, have pity upon me in my deep distress!
- Thou to whom all the secret arsenals are known
- Where iron, where gold and silver, slumber, locked in stone,
- Satan, have pity upon me in my deep distress!
- Thou whose broad hand dost hide the precipice from him
- Who, barefoot, in his sleep, walks on the building's rim,
- Satan, have pity upon me in my deep distress!
- O thou who makest supple between the horses' feet
- The old bones of the drunkard fallen in the street,
- Satan, have pity upon me in my deep distress!
- Thou who best taught the frail and over-burdened mind
- How easily saltpeter and sulphur are combined,
- Satan, have pity upon me in my deep distress!
- Thou that hast burned thy brand beyond all help secure,
- Into the rich man's brow, who tramples on the poor,
- Satan, have pity upon me in my deep distress!
- O thou, who makest gentle the eyes and hearts of whores
- With kindness for the wretched, homage for rags and sores,
- Satan, have pity upon me in my deep distress!
- Staff of the exile, lamp of the inventor, last
- Priest of the man about whose neck the rope is passed,
- Satan, have pity upon me in my deep distress!
- O thou, adopted father of those fatherless
- Whom God from Eden thrust in terror and nakedness,
- Satan, have pity upon me in my deep distress!
- Prayer
- Glory and praise to thee, Satan, in the most high,
- Where thou didst reign; and in deep hell's obscurity,
- Where, manacled, thou broodest long! O silent power,
- Grant that my soul be near to thee in thy great hour,
- When, like a living Temple, victorious bough on bough,
- Shall rise the Tree of Knowledge, whose roots are in thy brow!
- — Edna St. Vincent Millay, Flowers of Evil (NY: Harper and Brothers, 1936)
- Litany to Satan
- Oh, you, most remarkable of angels
- Driven from the divine crush of the skies —
- You were the first exile.
- The billions have followed,
- Either into new lands or immediate graves
- You heal our discontents
- And make us strong through
- Hate and anger of our masters
- And the weariness of the days
- The cancer victims, young beauties with ulcers
- Alcoholics who won't be content with their O.K. jobs
- Would be happy to give themselves up to the paradise