From an outline for a book Charles Baudelaire planned to write on Belgium, where he lived from 1864 until shortly before his death, in 1867. The outline is published in the Spring 2014 issue of Conjunctions. Translated from the French by Richard Sieburth, whose book Late Baudelaire is due out next year from Yale University Press.

Initial impressions. It is said that every city, every country, has its smell. Paris, they say, smells or used to smell of acrid cabbage. Cape Town smells of sheep. There are tropical isles that smell of roses, musk, or coconut oil. Russia smells of…