Diotimos Library · Journals, Notebooks & Fragments Collection · Bilingual Edition
Intimate Journals
Flares and My Heart Laid Bare · French with an independent English translation.
Explore the LexiconSwipe or use the arrow keys.
English Page · Branch 103 of 118
My Heart Laid Bare · CII
French
p. 205Toute idée est, par elle-même, douée d’une vie immortelle, comme une personne.
Toute forme créée, même par l’homme ; est immortelle. Car la forme est indépendante de la matière ; et ce ne sont pas les molécules qui constituent la forme.
Anecdotes relatives à Émile Douay et à Constantin Guys détruisant ou plutôt croyant détruire leurs œuvres.
Intimate Journals: My Heart Laid Bare
p. 206Every idea is, in itself, endowed with immortal life, like a person.
Every created form, even one created by man, is immortal. For form is independent of matter; and molecules are not what constitutes form.
Anecdotes about Émile Douay and Constantin Guys destroying, or rather believing they were destroying, their works.
Socrates
Reading Intimate Journals · My Heart Laid Bare · My Heart Laid Bare · CII
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.