Diotimos Library · Journals, Notebooks & Fragments Collection · Bilingual Edition

Joseph Joubert

The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume I

Name: The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume I
Author: Joseph Joubert

Complete Notebooks · French with an independent English translation.

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The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume I[On movement.] · Entry 1835

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[On movement.] · Entry 1835

Translator notesBook Mode

French

p. 3669

Sur la langue des Grecs. — C’est que leur langue étoit aisée et elle étoit aisée parce que les constructions élégantes y étoient triviales. Elles étoit parlée avec la même pureté par le peuple et par les auteurs. Aussi les allusions aux proverbes populaires sont-elles fréquentes et presque perpétuelles dans les écrivains les plus polis. Platon en est plein. Or les allusions sont ce qui donne le plus de magie au style et le plus d’amusement à l’esprit de l’écrivain qui s’y égaye, s’y délasse et s’y ranime. En France, nous avons dit que « les maximes étoient les proverbes des honnêtes gens » et à Athènes les maximes des honnêtes gens et les proverbes de la halle étoient une même chose.

The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume I: [On movement.]

p. 3670

On the language of the Greeks. — The fact is that their language was easy, and it was easy because elegant constructions were commonplace in it. It was spoken with the same purity by the people and by authors. Thus allusions to popular proverbs are frequent and almost perpetual in the most polished writers. Plato is full of them. Now allusions give the most magic to style and the most amusement to the writer’s mind, which takes delight, rest, and renewed life in them. In France we have said that “maxims were the proverbs of cultivated people,” and in Athens the maxims of cultivated people and the proverbs of the marketplace were one and the same thing.

S2.Source editor’s annotationMany erasures. And Joubert notes: “18th, revised 19th.” And, at the end of the paragraph: “Look again at what I noted on the language of the Romans 3 years ago, in one of the notebooks covered in parchment.” These parchment covers were removed for binding. Joubert used them, I believe, as ordinary leaves when these notebooks were full. And Paul de Raynal generally recopied onto the first leaves of the notebook the thoughts that thus disappeared.

T62.Commonplace renders triviales, describing familiar usage rather than insignificance. Cultivated people renders honnêtes gens in its social and literary sense. The source prints Elles étoit parlée, with plural pronoun and singular verb; English It follows the evident language reference without reproducing the agreement error. The separate source annotation retains Beaunier’s I believe qualification about the notebook covers. The relative qui s’y égaye can describe the writer or his mind; the English takes the latter reading without excluding the former.

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.