Diotimos Library · Journals, Notebooks & Fragments Collection · Bilingual Edition

Charles Baudelaire

Intimate Journals

Name: Intimate Journals
Author: Charles Baudelaire

Flares and My Heart Laid Bare · French with an independent English translation.

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Intimate JournalsFlares · XI

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Facing Pages · Branch 12 of 118

Flares · XI

Translator notesBook Mode

French

p. 23

Ces beaux et grands navires, imperceptiblement balancés (dandinés) sur les eaux tranquilles, ces robustes navires, à l’air désœuvré et nostalgique, ne nous disent-ils pas dans une langue muette : Quand partons-nous pour le bonheur ?

Ne pas oublier dans le drame le côté merveilleux, la sorcellerie, et le romanesque.

Les milieux, les atmosphères, dont tout un récit doit être trempé. (Voir Usher, et en référer aux sensations profondes du haschisch et de l’opium).

T25.Usher and atmosphereUsher refers to Poe’s The Fall of the House of Usher. Its surrounding atmosphere expresses the house’s gloom and is repeatedly presented as affecting its inhabitants. This supports Baudelaire’s instruction that an entire narrative should be steeped in its atmosphere.Edgar Allan Poe, The Fall of the House of Usher, 1839

T29.Passion and the imagined shipsPassion relates everything to itself also appears in Le Poème du haschisch, IV, where Baudelaire develops the intoxicated self’s tendency to make itself the centre of the universe. That chapter also repeats the ships’ question about setting out for happiness from XI. These parallels do not identify a foreign original for XV’s translation and paraphrase.Baudelaire, Le Poème du haschisch, IV, L’Homme-Dieu

Intimate Journals: Flares

p. 24

These beautiful, large ships, imperceptibly rocked (swayed) on tranquil waters, these sturdy ships with their idle, nostalgic air, do they not say to us in a silent language: When do we set out for happiness?

Do not forget, in drama, the marvellous element, sorcery, and romance.

The settings, the atmospheres, in which an entire narrative must be steeped. (See Usher, and refer back to the deep sensations of hashish and opium).

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.