La Cloche Fêlée

[absinthetics]

II est amer et doux, pendant les nuits d’hiver,
D’écouter, près du feu qui palpite et qui fume,
Les souvenirs lointains lentement s’élever
Au bruit des carillons qui chantent dans la brume.

Bienheureuse la cloche au gosier vigoureux
Qui, malgré sa vieillesse, alerte et bien portante,
Jette fidèlement son cri religieux,
Ainsi qu’un vieux soldat qui veille sous la tente!

Moi, mon âme est fêlée, et lorsqu’en ses ennuis
Elle veut de ses chants peupler l’air froid des nuits,
II arrive souvent que sa voix affaiblie

Semble le râle épais d’un blessé qu’on oublie
Au bord d’un lac de sang, sous un grand tas de morts
Et qui meurt, sans bouger, dans d’immenses efforts.
– – –
Bitter and sweet it is on these long winter nights
To sit before the fire and watch the smoking log
Beat like a heart; and hear our lost, our mute delights
Call with the carillons that ring out in the fog.

What certitude, what health, sounds from that brazen throat,
In spite of age and rust, alert! O happy bell,
Sending into the dark your clear religious note,
Like an old soldier crying through the night, “All’s well!”

I am not thus; my soul is cracked across by care;
Its voice, that once could clang upon this icy air,
Has lost the power, it seems, — comes faintly forth, instead,

As from the rattling throat of a hurt man who lies
Beside a lake of blood, under a heap of dead,
And cannot stir, and in prodigious struggling dies.

— Charles Baudelaire, translation by Edna St. Vincent Millay

A new interpretation, inspired by Millay’s translation-
A soul, cracked across by care: blood and ruin, smoke and sorrow, incense and ice.

This scent is dark, with dark incense. The Ice is that of black ice, and the smoke is definitely in the background, but not too burnt smelling. I don't smell any "blood" and the "ruin" is just this overall sharpness. Very intriguing scent.

[LizziesLuck]

This is gorgeous.

 

Initially I get some of the Lab's "cold" note, but it burns off quickly, and this turns into a really warm scent. Smoky, sweet and incensey. A little bit sexy, actually. I am not very familiar with Dragon's Blood, as I thought I hated it for years and avoided it, but there is something really resinous in this, and a little spicy, and I wonder if it might be Dragon's Blood. It doesn't smell burnt to me at all, but it is smoky. As it dries further, some of that cold note surfaces again. This is a beautiful mix of fire and ice. It's freakin amazing. This is my favourite out of this year's Yules, so far.

 

It's hard to describe succinctly, but to me it Is compelling, intriguing, and slightly mournful in feeling. Once dry, it smells of far off incense, ice, smoke and sweet longing. Beautiful. I will treasure it.

[mymymai]

ITI: Holy resins, Batman! I wasn't expecting such a yummy scent from the notes. To me, it smells like sandalwood, aged patchouli, opoponax, snow, and something slightly lemony. It's clean but also think and smoldering.
Wet: The lemon tone is stronger on my skin, although the snow/ice note isn't far behind, buoyed up by smoldering incense. So far, so good!
Dry: Once dried, the scent is almost entirely resin with a hint of smoke. Patchouli, opoponax, perhaps a touch of myrrh and something softer, like a delicate vetiver or heavier frankincense, co-mingle in Woody Oriental bliss.

[zankoku_zen]

Black ice, smokey incense and dripped blood. This one is a very disturbing blend for me actually. It smells dark, and narcotic, and like the type of pagan ritual that ends up with a sacrificed goat in the middle of the night. Not the type that is to honor a god, but to appease his or her savage need for human pain and flesh.

 

So of course it has great throw and wear length.

[Convallaria]

I'm afraid I don't get any darkness. This smells citrusy on me, I think it's bergamot+some incense at the opening. Then, something floral joins in and sticks around for a while. The drydown feels sweet with some salt drizzled on top - for "blood", I guess. Overall, confusing. I'm really not getting the intended imagery - it's more tropical, less mystical on me - and I'm not fond of the kind of sweet component it includes.

[Roogna]

at first (wet) I got lots of incense, a hint of blood, and something lemony/woody

pretty quicky on drydown it turned somewhat soapy with a woody bite

[tinyvulture]

Like a sexy French version of the lab's various cold/icy/slushy blends. It's sweet, smoky, incensy, I could swear there's a bit of anise. Beautiful and sophisticated. Others smelled citrus, but there's none for me, thankfully. It's like being warm and cozy in bed with a sexy someone, in a cabin in the snowy woods.

[tomservoandcroooooooow]

This how winter feels once you take away all the gormands. It makes me think of those nights when my Mom would turn off the lights, lite candles and put on Christmas records. Not my Dad's mid-century crooners or Burl Ives, but the sacred music with the high choirs singing in german and the reedy, folk singers with broken voices singing about cherry trees and "the little tiny child." There was this interplay between darkness and light and just stillness.

 

It's very much an incense smell but not church incense. There's smoke and woods and decidedly citrus, though the exact smell seems to shift each time I wear. It's probably my favorite BPAL and its definitely my Mom's, she's discribed it as "Pure Magnificence."