Glad to see this trending on HN! As I was born in France, I had the pleasure to read it. Just thought the multiple translations available on the site seem like a good corpus to see if frontier models could improve the translation.

Below is o3 take on "Le Chat", given as prompt the French original and all existing translations. I am not an expert in poetry and maybe not versed enough in English poetry specifically, but it looks suboptimal: It changed the structure, some verses seem overlong and I don't find the original beauty in "barbed claw's art".

https://fleursdumal.org/poem/132

Le Chat

Come, lovely cat, upon my ardent breast;

Sheathe in your velvet paw the barbed claw’s art,

And let me drown in eyes where, coalesced,

Cold agate gleams within a molten heart.

--

While idle fingers roam and fondly chart

Your supple head and sinuous arched spine,

My hand grows drunk on thrills that softly start

Across your vibrant body’s living line.

--

Then, in my mind, my woman’s gaze is mine:

Like yours, dear beast, it pierces—deep, serene.

From head to foot a perilous airs combine;

A subtle scent swims round her dusk‑brown sheen.