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 34 of 118
My Heart Laid Bare · Mon cœur mis à nu · XXXIII
French
p. 67Politique. — Je n’ai pas de convictions, comme l’entendent les gens de mon siècle, parce que je n’ai pas d’ambition.
Il n’y a pas en moi de base pour une conviction.
Il y a une certaine lâcheté, ou plutôt une certaine mollesse chez les honnêtes gens.
Les brigands seuls sont convaincus, — de quoi ? — Qu’il leur faut réussir. Aussi, ils réussissent.
Pourquoi réussirais-je, puisque je n’ai même pas envie d’essayer ?
On peut fonder des empires glorieux sur le crime, et de nobles religions sur l’imposture.
Cependant j’ai quelques convictions, dans un sens plus élevé, et qui ne peut pas être compris par les gens de mon temps.
Intimate Journals: My Heart Laid Bare
p. 68Politics.—I have no convictions, as the people of my century understand them, because I have no ambition.
There is no foundation in me for a conviction.
There is a certain cowardice, or rather a certain softness, in respectable people.
Only brigands are convinced—of what?—that they must succeed. And so they succeed.
Why would I succeed, since I do not even feel like trying?
One can found glorious empires on crime, and noble religions on imposture.
Yet I have some convictions, in a higher sense, one that cannot be understood by the people of my time.
Socrates
Reading Intimate Journals · My Heart Laid Bare · My Heart Laid Bare · XXXIII
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.