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 JournalsMy Heart Laid Bare · Mon cœur mis à nu · XXVI

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French Page · Branch 27 of 118

My Heart Laid Bare · Mon cœur mis à nu · XXVI

Translator notesBook Mode

French

p. 53

Sottises de Girardin :

« Notre habitude est de prendre le taureau par les cornes. Prenons donc le discours par la fin. »

(7 novembre 1863

Donc, Girardin croit que les cornes des taureaux sont plantées sur leur derrière. Il confond les cornes avec la queue.

« Qu’avant d’imiter les Ptolémées du journalisme français, les journalistes belges se donnent la peine de réfléchir sur la question que j’étudie depuis trente ans sous toutes ses faces, ainsi que le prouvera le volume, qui paraîtra prochainement, sous ce titre : Questions de presse ; qu’ils ne se hâtent pas de traiter de souverainement ridicule (1) une opinion qui est aussi vraie qu’il est vrai que la terre tourne et que le soleil ne tourne pas. »

EMILE DE GIRARDIN

(1) Il y a des gens qui prétendent que rien n’empêche de croire que, le ciel étant immobile, c’est la terre qui tourne autour de son axe. Mais ces gens-là ne sentent pas, à raison de ce qui se passe autour de nous, combien leur opinion est souverainement ridicule (πάνυ γελοιότατον).

PTOLÉMÉE (L’Almageste, livre I, chapitre VI.)

Et habet mea mentrita mentum.

GIRARDIN.

T11.Girardin and the source noteThe source juxtaposes Girardin’s assertion that the earth turns with a passage attributed to Ptolemy calling that view souverainement ridicule, here supremely ridiculous. The French Ptolemy passage, the Greek phrase, and the two attributions form the printed source note marked (1); they are distinguished from the present translator’s notes. The closing parenthesis is missing from the printed date (7 novembre 1863 and is retained as missing in both columns.Ptolemy in Halma’s historical French edition

T12.Uncertain LatinThe source prints Et habet mea mentrita mentum. beneath the Ptolemy passage and attributes it to Girardin. The comparison Gutenberg text has meatum for the final word; this version follows the printed mentum. The sequence, especially mentrita, cannot be confidently construed as printed and is reproduced unchanged in the English column. No conjectural correction or unsupported English meaning is supplied.

Intimate Journals: My Heart Laid Bare

p. 54

Girardin’s absurdities:

“Our habit is to take the bull by the horns. So let us take the speech by its end.”

(7 November 1863

So Girardin believes that bulls’ horns are planted on their backsides. He confuses the horns with the tail.

“Before imitating the Ptolemies of French journalism, let Belgian journalists take the trouble to reflect on the question I have studied for thirty years in all its aspects, as the volume that will shortly appear under the title Press Questions will prove; let them not hasten to call supremely ridiculous (1) an opinion as true as it is true that the earth turns and the sun does not.”

EMILE DE GIRARDIN

(1) There are people who claim that nothing prevents one from believing that, while the heavens remain motionless, it is the earth that turns on its axis. But these people fail to see, in view of what happens around us, how supremely ridiculous their opinion is (πάνυ γελοιότατον).

PTOLEMY (The Almagest, Book I, Chapter VI.)

Et habet mea mentrita mentum.

GIRARDIN.

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.