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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Facing Pages · Branch 112 of 118
My Heart Laid Bare · CXI
French
p. 223Hygiène. Conduite. Morale. — A chaque minute nous sommes écrasés par l’idée et la sensation du temps. Et il n’y a que deux moyens pour échapper à ce cauchemar, pour l’oublier : le plaisir et le travail. Le plaisir nous use. Le travail nous fortifie. Choisissons.
Plus nous nous servons d’un de ces moyens, plus l’autre nous inspire de répugnance.
On ne peut oublier le temps qu’en s’en servant.
Tout ne se fait que peu à peu.
De Maistre et Edgar Poe m’ont appris à raisonner.
Il n’y a de long ouvrage que celui qu’on n’ose pas commencer. Il devient cauchemar.
Intimate Journals: My Heart Laid Bare
p. 224Hygiene. Conduct. Morals. — At every minute we are crushed by the idea and sensation of time. And there are only two ways to escape this nightmare, to forget it: pleasure and work. Pleasure wears us out. Work strengthens us. Let us choose.
The more we use one of these means, the more repugnance the other inspires in us.
We can forget time only by using it.
Everything is done only little by little.
De Maistre and Edgar Poe taught me to reason.
The only long task is the one we dare not begin. It becomes a nightmare.
Socrates
Reading Intimate Journals · My Heart Laid Bare · My Heart Laid Bare · CXI
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.