Diotimos Library · Journals, Notebooks & Fragments Collection · Bilingual Edition
Intimate Journals
Flares and My Heart Laid Bare · French with an independent English translation.
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French Page · Branch 3 of 118
Flares · Fusées · II
French
p. 5Fusées. — De la féminité de l’Église, comme raison de son omni-puissance.
De la couleur violette (amour contenu, mystérieux, voilé, couleur de chanoinesse).
Le prêtre est immense, parce qu’il fait croire à une foule de choses étonnantes.
Que l’Église veuille tout faire et tout être, c’est une loi de l’esprit humain.
Les peuples adorent l’autorité.
Les prêtres sont les serviteurs et les sectaires de l’imagination.
Le trône et l’autel, maxime révolutionnaire.
E. G. ou la séduisante Aventurière.
Ivresse religieuse des grandes villes.
Panthéisme. Moi, c’est tous ; tous, c’est moi.
Intimate Journals: Flares
p. 6Flares. — On the femininity of the Church as the reason for its omnipotence.
On the colour violet (love restrained, mysterious, veiled, the colour of a canoness).
The priest is immense because he makes people believe in a host of astonishing things.
That the Church should want to do everything and be everything is a law of the human mind.
Peoples worship authority.
Priests are the servants and the sectaries of the imagination.
The throne and the altar, a revolutionary maxim.
E. G. or the Seductive Adventuress.
Religious intoxication of great cities.
Pantheism. I am everyone; everyone is me.
Socrates
Reading Intimate Journals · Flares · Flares · II
Ask about a concept, passage, contradiction, or connection.
Socrates will begin with this book and its sources.About This Reading Edition
Charles Baudelaire’s private fragments turn from art, love, and crowds to prayer, anger, work, and the discipline of writing. This complete bilingual edition presents all 117 sections of Flares and My Heart Laid Bare, including Hygiène, with an introduction and 104 explanatory notes.
Historical Text and Translation
The French follows Adolphe van Bever’s 1920 edition of Journaux intimes, printed pages 3–42 and 45–112. Its 117 Roman-numbered sections contain the complete Fusées and Mon cœur mis à nu, including Hygiène. These fragments were arranged after Baudelaire’s death; their printed sequence preserves that edition’s organization of loose sheets. The separate selection of maxims on love and the editor’s backmatter are outside this volume.
About Diotimos Editions
Diotimos Editions prepared this independent English translation directly from the French. Flares and My Heart Laid Bare retain the fragments’ abrupt turns, repetitions, images, and unfinished projects. French and English paragraphs remain paired, with verse, italics, and printed annotations preserved. The introduction places the notebooks in context; translator’s notes clarify references, ambiguities, and uncertain readings. All 104 notes meet the reader’s Essential criterion and remain available beside their passages.
Rights
Baudelaire’s historical French text and the 1920 printing are in the public domain in the United States. The independent English translation, introduction, and new editorial notes are © 2026 Diotimos Editions. The linked facsimile and catalogue identify the printed source, while a historical transcription supplies a comparison witness. Original annotations retain their attribution, and source references distinguish the printed arrangement from the surviving manuscript sheets.