November 9th, 2009 / 12:13 pm
Author Spotlight & Presses

Ariana Reines Week, Part 1: My Heart Laid Bare

Baudelaire11A_0014

All this week I’ll be posting small chunks of the thousand and one new books translated and/or written and/or published by Ariana Reines. We begin with Reines’s new translation of Charles Baudelaire’s My Heart Laid Bare, published in newspaper format by her own Mal-o-Mar Editions.

In a brief introduction to the work, Reines explains: “The text of My Heart Laid Bare consists of notes toward an autobiographical work that Baudelaire did not live to complete, according to Poe’s dictum ‘If any ambitious man have a fancy to revolutionize, at one effort, the universal world of human thought, human opinion, and human sentiment the opportunity is his own–the road to immortal renown lies straight, open, and unencumbered before him. All that he has to do is to write and publish a very little book. Its title should be simple–a few plain words–“My Heart Laid Bare.” But–this little book must be true to its title.’ […] None of these fragments was prepared by Baudelaire for publication, and though they appeared posthumously under various expurgations, their intimacy and ultimate incompleteness will make misprision and outright error, with respect both to interpretation and to translation, more or less inevitable.” What else could you ask for, really? Below the fold, I pick out some favorite fragments.

45 MY HEART LAID BARE

What is love?

The need to exit the self.

Man is an adoring animal.

To adore is to sacrifice and prostitute oneself.

Also all love is prostitution.

71 MY HEART LAID BARE

As a child, I wanted to either be pope, but a military pope, or an actor.

The pleasure I derived from these two hallucinations.

18 MY HEART LAID BARE

One must work, if not according to taste, at least according to despair, since, as proven, working is less boring than amusing oneself.

33 MY HEART LAID BARE

Theology.

What is the fall?

If it is unity become duality, it’s God who fell.

In other terms, wouldn’t creation be the fall of God?

—-

Dandyism

What is the superior man?

It is not the specialist.

It is the man of Leisure and of general Education.

To be rich and to love work.

31 MY HEART LAID BARE

Portrait of the literary herd.

Doctor Divebaricus Crapulosis Pedantissimus. His portrait done in the manner of Praxiteles.

His pipe.

His opinions.

His Hegelianism.

His skank.

His ideas on art.

His malice.

His jealousy.

A fine tableau of modern youth.

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21 Comments

  1. Blake Butler

      i read her translation last week, was really refreshing and smart. as can be gleaned from the above. thanks justin.

  2. Blake Butler

      i read her translation last week, was really refreshing and smart. as can be gleaned from the above. thanks justin.

  3. alec niedenthal

      fragment 31 is gorgeous. this is great. thank you.

      i’m supposed to read paris spleen for my research project on “the poetics of prose.” i’m interested to see how it fits in with the more contemporary material i’ll be working with, i.e. the stuff everybody here knows and loves.

  4. alec niedenthal

      fragment 31 is gorgeous. this is great. thank you.

      i’m supposed to read paris spleen for my research project on “the poetics of prose.” i’m interested to see how it fits in with the more contemporary material i’ll be working with, i.e. the stuff everybody here knows and loves.

  5. alan

      Interesting project. Not to be critical, but “His skank” seems like an odd choice tonally and even meaning-wise (shouldn’t it at least be “skankiness”?).

      Btw, there’s a full translation by Isherwood here.

  6. alan

      Interesting project. Not to be critical, but “His skank” seems like an odd choice tonally and even meaning-wise (shouldn’t it at least be “skankiness”?).

      Btw, there’s a full translation by Isherwood here.

  7. mike

      Read this (As well as The Hot Tube / Glory Hole) yesterday. It kills. Possibly the most fun I’ve had reading Baudelaire. Also, there is something to be said for the format it’s been published in, I think? The experience of reading was a bit fucked for me, as I don’t regularly read newspapers.

  8. mike

      Read this (As well as The Hot Tube / Glory Hole) yesterday. It kills. Possibly the most fun I’ve had reading Baudelaire. Also, there is something to be said for the format it’s been published in, I think? The experience of reading was a bit fucked for me, as I don’t regularly read newspapers.

  9. mark leidner

      these look great, i want this for xmas

  10. mark leidner

      these look great, i want this for xmas

  11. jesusangelgarcia

      Much respect to Reines’s work.

      Re: #45 above — What does Baudelaire know about love?

      He writes:
      What is love?
      The need to exit the self.

      I say:
      What if there is no self?

      He writes:
      All love is prostitution.

      I say:
      Baudelaire never knew love.

  12. jesusangelgarcia

      Much respect to Reines’s work.

      Re: #45 above — What does Baudelaire know about love?

      He writes:
      What is love?
      The need to exit the self.

      I say:
      What if there is no self?

      He writes:
      All love is prostitution.

      I say:
      Baudelaire never knew love.

  13. Ross Brighton

      Waiting on my copy
      Word.

  14. Ross Brighton

      Waiting on my copy
      Word.

  15. JW Veldhoen

      Thank you Alan. I need to read this right now but I can’t afford books anymore.

  16. JW Veldhoen

      Thank you Alan. I need to read this right now but I can’t afford books anymore.

  17. Ross Brighton
  18. Ross Brighton
  19. jh

      I see Milton in ‘Theology’.

  20. jh

      I see Milton in ‘Theology’.

  21. Poet, Playwright, and Astrologer of a Generation: Ariana Reines | Barnard Archives And Special Collections

      […] has completed several works of translation, including Charles Baudelaire’s My Heart Laid Bare (2009), Jean-Luc Hennig’s The Little Black Book of Grisélidis Réal: Days and Nights of an […]