The Ransom

Man has, for paying his ransom,
Two fields of rich, deep, porous rock
That he must clear and cultivate
With the iron of his reason;

To obtain the sorriest rose,
To extort a few ears of grain,
He must water them constantly
With salty sweat from his gray brow.

One is Art and the other Love.
— To win the judge's favor
When the terrible day
Of dispassionate justice dawns,

He will have to show granaries
Filled with harvests and with flowers
Whose forms and colors will
Win the suffrage of the Angels.

— William Aggeler, The Flowers of Evil (Fresno, CA: Academy Library Guild, 1954)



To read the Original in French: http://fleursdumal.org/poem/315