Diotimos Library · Journals, Notebooks & Fragments Collection · Bilingual Edition
The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume I
Complete Notebooks · French with an independent English translation.
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English Page · Branch 15 of 3781
YEAR 1783 · Entry 15
French
p. 29ANNÉE 1783
Hesiode
— Les maladies font leur ronde la nuit et le jour les maux viennent en silence. Car Jupiter les fit muets ; admirable prévoïance !
Ibid.
Au temps du chant de la ciga’le... alors les femmes sont folâtres, les hommes abbattus et mols... le vin est bon et les chèvres sont grasses.
Ibid.
... toi qui es un homme, garde-toi de laver ton corps dans les bains destinés aux femmes. Car c’est un mesfait dont la punition est grieve...
Ibid.
... ne t’avise pas de souiller de tes excrémens l’eau des fontaines ou l’eau des fleuves qui portent leurs eaux à la mer ; et prends-y garde.
Ibid.
... et je ne te donnerai plus rien, ni ne te prêterai davantage. Insensé Persès, travaille.
Ibid.
... ou commerce, comme a fait mon père qui fut le tien, insensé Persès.. lequel abbandonna Cumes en Eolie... fuïant la pauvreté si haïssable... et vint dans un misérable village, au pied de l’Hélicon. Ascra, tu es funeste en hiver, incommode en été, et pour le dire, tu n’es bon en aucune saison...
Ibid.
Et ceppendant je n’ai point traversé la large mer... si ce n’est une fois pour aler d’Eubée en Aulide... où je me fais honneur d’avoir remporté pour prix de mes vers un trépied doré, que je consacrai aux muses habitantes de l’Hélicon.
au printemps de 1783.
The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume I: YEAR 1783
p. 30YEAR 1783
Hesiod
— Diseases make their rounds by night and by day; afflictions come in silence. For Jupiter made them mute; admirable foresight!
Ibid.
At the time of the cicada’s song... then women are frolicsome, men weary and soft... the wine is good and the goats are fat.
Ibid.
... you who are a man, beware of washing your body in baths intended for women. For this is a misdeed whose punishment is grievous...
Ibid.
... do not take it into your head to foul with your excrement the water of springs or the water of rivers that carry their waters to the sea; and take care.
Ibid.
... and I shall give you nothing more, nor lend you any more. Foolish Perses, work.
Ibid.
... or trade, as my father did, who was yours, foolish Perses.. who left Cyme in Aeolia... fleeing poverty, so hateful... and came to a wretched village at the foot of Helicon. Ascra, you are baleful in winter, inconvenient in summer, and, to say it plainly, you are good in no season...
Ibid.
And yet I have not crossed the broad sea... except once to go from Euboea to Aulis... where I pride myself on having won for my verses a gilded tripod, which I dedicated to the Muses who dwell on Helicon.
in the spring of 1783.
Socrates
Reading The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume I · YEAR 1783 · Entry 15
Ask about a concept, passage, contradiction, or connection.
Socrates will begin with this book and its sources.About This Reading Edition
Joubert’s notebooks return to the work of thinking and writing, the demands of friendship, and questions of faith, beauty and conduct. This edition pairs the French with a new English translation, preserving the order of the chosen source and the unfinished character of its fragments. Dates and source references allow readers to follow a thought through time or return to its printed context.
Historical Text and Translation
The French text follows André Beaunier’s 1938 edition of Les Carnets de Joseph Joubert, published by Gallimard from Joubert’s autograph manuscripts. Volume I presents the entries on printed pages 32–475. French and English are aligned paragraph by paragraph, retaining the source order, printed dates and page references so readers can return to the facsimile.
About Diotimos Editions
Diotimos Editions prepared this new English translation directly from the French, preserving Joubert’s distinctions, recurring images, ambiguities and unfinished thoughts. Translator’s notes clarify wording, references and uncertain readings: Essential keeps notes that help explain a passage, while All includes technical detail. Annotations from the 1938 source edition remain distinct from the new translator’s notes.
Rights
The linked facsimile records identify the French source as public domain in the United States. The new English translation and editorial notes are © 2026 Diotimos, with source annotations and new editorial contributions credited separately. This edition pairs the complete French notebooks with an independent English translation, preserving the distinction between Joubert’s text and its accompanying notes.