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 2711 of 3781
YEAR 1803 · Entry 2711
French
p. 5421Elle établit entre nos sens et toutes nos perceptions... de la distance, un intervalle et une séparation où tout passe, se calme, se rallentit, se tranquillise et dépose son propre excès. Elle ourdit pour nous une trame, à cette époque de la vie. Elle nous file une clôture. Elle isole notre existence, elle en fait une sphère à part. Elle en ouate les remparts, elle en accroît la solitude, le mystère et la sûreté, et nous rend comme inaccessibles à toute atteinte immédiate par etc. ... soit dégagée à son inscu de périls qu’il faut qu’elle ignore. Elle écarte les passions et nous en met comme à couvert par un méchanisme idéal pareil à celui qu’on observe dans toutes les productions. Elle nous donne une enveloppe etc. Ces premiers tégumens eux mêmes... Elle environne de barrières incorruptibles et légères cette alcôve etc. Absolue et ailleurs achevée etc.
The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume I: YEAR 1803
p. 5422She establishes between our senses and all our perceptions... a distance, an interval and a separation in which everything passes, calms, slows, grows tranquil, and lays down its own excess. She weaves a web for us at this time of life. She spins us an enclosure. She isolates our existence, makes it a sphere apart. She pads its ramparts, increases its solitude, mystery, and security, and makes us as though inaccessible to any immediate assault through etc. ...be freed without her knowledge from perils of which she must be unaware. She keeps the passions away and gives us something like shelter from them through an ideal mechanism like that observed in all productions. She gives us an envelope etc. These first integuments themselves... She surrounds this alcove with incorruptible and light barriers etc. Absolute and completed elsewhere etc.
Socrates
Reading The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume I · YEAR 1803 · Entry 2711
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.