After experiencing a terrible storm off the Cape of Good Hope, the ship sailed towards Port Louis, the only port in the area offering the necessary infrastructure to perform urgent repairs. The young Baudelaire was there against his will: General Aupick, his stepfather, was a harsh disciplinarian and had little understanding or respect for the literature of his time. He fancied Charles a diplomat, and the young man’s poetic aspirations were nothing but pure madness to him. In addition, Baudelaire was then a regular patron of left-bank cafés and loose women. Charles’ mother, to avoid a scandal breaking out, thus decided to send her son away. A family council was convened and resulted in a loan of five thousand francs to cover travel expenses. On 9 June 1841, the liner left Bordeaux. On board, set to spend three full months at sea, the poet’s isolation was almost complete. Many poems, such as La Musique (Music), thus address the long crossing: “While fair winds or the storm’s convulsions / on the immense deep / cradle me. / Or else flat calm, vast mirror there / of my despair!” THE ENCOUNTER The poem Déjà (Already) grants us his first perception of Mauritius: “It was a magnificent, dazzling land. It felt like the music of life itself emanated from it in a vague murmur, and that its coasts, rich in varied greenery, exhaled a delicious smell of flowers and fruits from leagues away.” What did Baudelaire do during the 19 days that the ship remained in the harbour? He is believed to have met Mr Autard de Bragard during a walk in Pamplemousses, according to Solange Rosenmark, a descendant of this Mauritian family. The rich planter welcomed him and offered his hospitality, earning his wife to become the happy recipient of the famous sonnet À une dame créole (To a Creole Lady), a few weeks later. The Autards de Bragard also owned a country house, Célina, on the road to Mon Goût, another possible stop on the poet’s route. The poet’s trip to the Mascarenes took place between two symbolic dates: 1835, year of the abolition of slavery in Mauritius, and 1848, that of its abolition in Reunion Island. Thus, La Belle Dorothée (Beautiful Dorothy), in which slavery is mentioned, is set in Reunion, then Bourbon Island. La Chevelure (Hair), with its port setting, is most certainly a portrayal of Port Louis, while Invitation au voyage (Invitation to the Voyage) offers a vision of the canals of Cape Town at that time, as the poet made a four-day stopover there on the return trip to France. Parfum exotique, Correspondances and Vie antérieure, are among the masterpieces evoking the Mascarenes, in which the poet spent a total of 64 days in both islands. Emmeline de Carcénac may have inspired Baudelaire’s sonnet To a Creole Lady. Emmeline de Carcénac aurait inspiré au poète le sonnet À une dame créole. Left page: the poet is like an albatross, impressive both in flight and in the realms of the imagination, but clumsy on the land of men. Page de gauche : le poète est semblable à l’albatros, à la fois majestueux en vol et dans les sphères de l’imaginaire, mais maladroit sur la terre des hommes.
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