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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English Page · Branch 8 of 118
Flares · VII
French
p. 15Ciel tragique. — Épithète d’un ordre abstrait appliquée à un être matériel.
L’homme boit la lumière avec l’atmosphère. Ainsi le peuple a raison de dire que l’air de la nuit est malsain pour le travail.
Le peuple est adorateur-né du feu.
Feux d’artifice, incendies, incendiaires.
Si l’on suppose un adorateur-né du feu, un Parsis-né, on peut créer une nouvelle...
Intimate Journals: Flares
p. 16Tragic sky. — An epithet of an abstract order applied to a material being.
Man drinks light along with the atmosphere. Thus the people are right to say that the night air is unhealthy for work.
The people are born worshippers of fire.
Fireworks, fires, arsonists.
If one imagines a born worshipper of fire, a born Parsi, one can create a short story…
Socrates
Reading Intimate Journals · Flares · Flares · VII
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.