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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My Heart Laid Bare · Mon cœur mis à nu · XLIII
French
p. 87La question (torture) est, comme art de découvrir la vérité, une niaiserie barbare ; c’est l’application d’un moyen matériel à un but spirituel.
La peine de mort est le résultat d’une idée mystique, totalement incomprise aujourd’hui. La peine de mort n’a pas pour but de sauver la société, matériellement du moins. Elle a pour but de sauver (spirituellement) la société et le coupable. Pour que le sacrifice soit parfait, il faut qu’il y ait assentiment et joie, de la part de la victime. Donner du chloroforme à un condamné à mort serait une impiété, car ce serait lui enlever la conscience de sa grandeur comme victime et lui supprimer les chances de gagner le Paradis.
Quant à la torture, elle est née de la partie infâme du cœur de l’homme, assoiffé de voluptés. Cruauté et volupté, sensations identiques, comme l’extrême chaud et l’extrême froid.
Intimate Journals: My Heart Laid Bare
p. 88Judicial interrogation (torture), as an art of discovering the truth, is a barbarous folly; it is the application of a material means to a spiritual end.
The death penalty arises from a mystical idea, wholly misunderstood today. The death penalty is not meant to save society, at least materially. Its purpose is to save (spiritually) society and the offender. For the sacrifice to be perfect, there must be assent and joy on the victim’s part. To give chloroform to a man condemned to death would be an impiety, for it would deprive him of the consciousness of his greatness as a victim and remove his chances of winning Paradise.
As for torture, it is born of the vile part of man’s heart, thirsty for sensual pleasures. Cruelty and sensual pleasure, identical sensations, like extreme heat and extreme cold.
Socrates
Reading Intimate Journals · My Heart Laid Bare · My Heart Laid Bare · XLIII
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.