The Albatross

Charles Baudelaire

Often, for sport, the men of the crew

Catch albatrosses, those immense seabirds

That trail, as fellow travellers,

The ship gliding along the briny depths.

Scarcely have they been put on the deck

Than these kings of the sky, clumsy and ashamed,

Pathetically let their great white wings

Like oars, drag beside them.

This winged explorer, how he is awkward and weak

Once so beautiful, that he is now laughable and ugly

One sailor teases his bill with a tobacco pipe,

Another limps around, mimicking the bird who used to fly!

The Poet is alike the prince of the clouds

Who haunts the storm and laughs at the archer;

Exiled on the ground amidst jeers,

His gigantic wings prevent him from walking.