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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Facing Pages · Branch 9 of 118
Flares · VIII
French
p. 17Les méprises relatives aux visages sont le résultat de l’éclipse de l’image réelle par l’hallucination qui en tire sa naissance.
Connais donc les jouissances d’une vie âpre, et prie, prie sans cesse. La prière est réservoir de force. (Autel de la volonté. — Dynamique morale. — La Sorcellerie des Sacrements. — Hygiène de l’âme.)
La Musique creuse le ciel.
Jean-Jacques disait qu’il n’entrait dans un café qu’avec une certaine émotion. Pour une nature timide, un contrôle de théâtre ressemble quelque peu au tribunal des Enfers.
La vie n’a qu’un charme vrai : c’est le charme du Jeu. Mais s’il nous est indifférent de gagner ou de perdre ?
Intimate Journals: Flares
p. 18Mistakes concerning faces result from the real image being eclipsed by the hallucination born of it.
So learn the pleasures of a harsh life, and pray, pray without ceasing. Prayer is a reservoir of strength. (Altar of the will. — Moral dynamics. — The Sorcery of the Sacraments. — Hygiene of the soul.)
Music hollows out the sky.
Jean-Jacques said that he never entered a café without a certain emotion. For a timid nature, a theatre’s ticket inspection desk somewhat resembles the tribunal of the Underworld.
Life has only one true charm: the charm of the Game. But what if we are indifferent to winning or losing?
Socrates
Reading Intimate Journals · Flares · Flares · VIII
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.