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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French Page · Branch 1738 of 3781
[On movement.] · Entry 1738
French
p. 347521 mai.
Comme les anciens avoient des mots dont la quantité étoit fixe et très marquée, un arrangement de mots qui auroit mis les mesures de quelqu’un de leurs vers dans la prose auroit été très remarquable. Pour produire dans notre prose française la même bigarure et la même disparate et pour la rendre aussi sensible qu’elle l’eût été dans le grec ou dans le latin, il faudroit qu’il se trouvât dans quelqu’une de nos phrazes, non seulement un, mais deux de nos vers rimant ensemble. C’est la rime surtout qui distingue nos vers et qu’il faut bannir de notre prose. Quant au nombre des syllabes, qui compose le vers avec la rime, il entre malgré nous, non seulement dans nos écrits, mais encore dans le simple parler. Le langage de nos paysans, et surtout de nos enfans, en est plein. Nous ne pouvons rien mesurer dans le discours que par quelqu’un de ces assemblages de pieds (ou nombre de syllabes) qui constituent nos différentes espèces de vers. Nous sommes donc tenus, non à l’éviter (ce qui est impossible et inutile), mais à le déguiser, ce qui est indispensable à l’agrément, à la variété.
The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume I: [On movement.]
p. 3476May 21.
Since the ancients had words whose quantity was fixed and very distinct, an arrangement of words that brought the meter of one of their lines of verse into prose would have been very noticeable. To produce the same motley and the same discordance in our French prose, and to make it as perceptible as it would have been in Greek or Latin, there would have to be not one but two of our lines of verse rhyming together within one of our sentences. It is rhyme above all that distinguishes our verse and that must be banished from our prose. As for the number of syllables, which together with rhyme forms the line of verse, it enters against our will not only into our writings but also into ordinary speech. The language of our peasants, and especially of our children, is full of it. We can measure nothing in discourse except by one of those combinations of feet (or number of syllables) that constitute our different kinds of verse. We are therefore bound not to avoid it (which is impossible and useless), but to disguise it, which is indispensable to pleasure, to variety.
Socrates
Reading The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume I · [On movement.] · Entry 1738
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.