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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Facing Pages · Branch 1113 of 3781
YEAR 1798 · Entry 1113
French
p. 2225Désir d’être oiseau, d’être abeille. L’homme sent que son bonheur est dans les airs. — Et si on voudroit être un oiseau, ce n’est pas un aigle, un vautour, ni un faisan, une perdrix, un perroquet qu’on voudroit être, mais ce petit oiseau modeste et doué d’amabilité, une fauvette, une mésange, un rouge-gorge, un rossignol, un oiseau d’espèce moyenne et innocente. Car on ne voudroit pas non plus être oiseau-mouche ou colibri.
The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume I: YEAR 1798
p. 2226Desire to be a bird, to be a bee. Man feels that his happiness is in the air. — And if one wished to be a bird, it is not an eagle, a vulture, nor a pheasant, a partridge, a parrot that one would wish to be, but that little bird, modest and endowed with amiability, a warbler, a tit, a robin, a nightingale, a bird of a middling and innocent kind. For one would not wish to be a hummingbird or a colibri either.
Socrates
Reading The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume I · YEAR 1798 · Entry 1113
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.