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 40 of 118
My Heart Laid Bare · Mon cœur mis à nu · XXXIX
French
p. 79Mes opinions sur le théâtre. Ce que j’ai toujours trouvé de plus beau dans un théâtre, dans mon enfance, et encore maintenant, c’est le lustre, — un bel objet lumineux, cristallin, compliqué, circulaire et symétrique.
Cependant je ne nie pas absolument la valeur de la littérature dramatique. Seulement, je voudrais que les comédiens fussent montés sur des patins très hauts, portassent des masques plus expressifs que le visage humain, et parlassent à travers des porte-voix ; enfin que les rôles de femmes fussent joués par des hommes.
Après tout, le lustre m’a toujours paru l’acteur principal, vu à travers le gros bout ou le petit bout de la lorgnette.
Intimate Journals: My Heart Laid Bare
p. 80My opinions on the theatre. What I have always found most beautiful in a theatre, in my childhood and still now, is the chandelier—a beautiful object, luminous, crystalline, intricate, circular and symmetrical.
Yet I do not entirely deny the value of dramatic literature. I would simply like the actors to be raised on very high platform shoes, to wear masks more expressive than the human face, and to speak through speaking trumpets; and finally, for women’s roles to be played by men.
After all, the chandelier has always seemed to me the leading actor, seen through the large end or the small end of the opera glass.
Socrates
Reading Intimate Journals · My Heart Laid Bare · My Heart Laid Bare · XXXIX
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.