“The Cat” read by MaxieJane Frazier

From the new edition of The Flowers of Evil by Charles Baudelaire, translated by Aaron Poochigian.

I.
A strong, sweet, handsome and glamorous
cat is strolling inside of me
as if I were his property.
You scarcely hear when he meows;

his voice is so soft and amiable. 
But, when he utters a purr or a growl,
it becomes very powerful.
Such is his secret and his spell.

Those sounds, turned into liquid, sink
into the darkest depths of me.
They fill me up like poetry
and refresh me like a magic drink.

Able to slake the keenest anguish, 
his voice holds many ecstasies
inside itself. It can express
epics without the use of language.

My heart is like a violin,
and there is no bow anywhere
that plays a concert in me more
sublimely and resonantly than

the sound of you, mysterious, 
bizarre and seraphic animal.
As in the nature of angels, all
of you is fine and harmonious.

II.
His patchwork coat emits so sweet 
a fragrance that one night I was 
embalmed in much perfume because
I gave him just one little pet.

My household’s guardian spirit, he
presides and judges, rules in glory
over his whole territory.
Is he an elf? A deity?

My eyes, as if by magnetic attraction,
gape at the loved beast. But, when they
are able to look tamely away,
and I succumb to self-reflection,

I see, surprising, inside of me
his pale irises up in flames,
illustrious beacons, living gems,
that contemplate me fixedly.

From The Flowers of Evil by Charles Baudelaire, translated by Aaron Poochigian. Translation copyright © 2022 by Aaron Poochigian. Used by permission of Liveright Publishing Corporation.

MaxieJane Frazier is the author of creative and academic work. Her recent publications include essays and reviews found in The Line Literary Review, The Willa Cather Review, CONSEQUENCE Magazine, and The Routledge Companion to Literature and Food as well as other literary magazines and academic publications. As retired Senior Military Faculty at the Air Force Academy, MaxieJane spent more than twenty years focusing on literature and creative writing. She has a dual-genre MFA in fiction and nonfiction from the Bennington Writing Seminars and a Ph.D. in literature from the University of Delaware. MaxieJane teaches graduate creative writing courses with Southern New Hampshire University. She’s inspired by the beauty of every moment.