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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 IYEAR 1793 · Entry 363

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French Page · Branch 363 of 3781

YEAR 1793 · Entry 363

Translator notesBook Mode

French

p. 725

19 mai [1793?]

Au quatorzième jour du mois appelé juillet par les hommes et en l’année que nos ères vulgaires et périssables désignent par les quatre chiffres 1789, il y eut dans le ciel un grand bruit. Les immortels s’étoient assis au bord de la matière, en ce point de l’espace par où commence le lieu et d’où le temps reçoit sa première mesure et le mal son germe premier. L’éternité, l’immensité et le bonheur sont par delà.

Dieu s’étoit retiré en lui et caché dans le sein de sa propre essence, comme notre soleil pour nous quand il s’offusque d’un nuage. Ce soleil des esprits n’étoit plus visible pour eux. Ils n’étoient plus heureux de sa présence, mais de sa seule impression. Dans cette absence de l’extase et dans cette vacance de la haute contemplation, ne pouvant plus regarder l’être, ils s’occupoient du monde. Ils s’entretenoient de la vie de leurs amis, de leurs épreuves, de leurs affections passées; et ils parloient de la vertu, comme les hommes achevés parlent de leur enfance quand ils ont un sage loisir.

Tout à coup il parut devant eux une ombre. Elle avoit pour figure ces apparences de son corps qu’une âme emporte de la terre et qu’elle garde jusqu’après son épuration. Elle avoit dans ses mains sa tête et sa tête parla. Elle leur dit : « Hier, une paix universelle règnoit aux régions d’où je suis venu. Aujourd’hui, mort plein de vie, tué hors de la guerre et frappé par un peuple entier dans les fonctions de ma magistrature, j’arrive avant mon heure, étonné et innocent de ce départ précipité ».

Comme il parloit, une infinité d’autres arrivèrent en même temps, tous blessés comme lui et montant de la terre sans relâche et rapidement comme une pluye qui tomberoit de bas en haut. Les uns avoient des apparences d’armes, d’autres des ornemens de paix, plusieurs mêmes les vêtemens et les instrumens pacifiques de leurs sédentaires travaux. Ils crioient tous : « Recevez-nous. » Ils étoient tous des ombres d’hommes qu’on avoit frappés à leurs postes et qui étoient morts debout ou assis dans leur devoir. Ceux-ci avoient reçu le meurtre. Ceux qui l’avoient commis, descendant par une autre voye, arrivoient aux lieux infernaux.

S1.Source editor’s annotationCe morceau n’a pas d’autre date que « 19 mai ». Mais Joubert a plus tard ajouté : « Ceci est ancien ». L’année est incertaine. Je crois qu’on peut choisir 1793; et Joubert aurait écrit ce début de récit fantastique quatre mois après la mort du roi, qui (nous le savons) l’a vivement impressionné.

S1.Source editor’s annotationD’abord : « toutes leurs anciennes affections ».

S2.Source editor’s annotationD’abord : « Elle avoit sa tête entre ses mains ».

S3.Source editor’s annotationD’abord : « cette ».

S4.Source editor’s annotationD’abord : « dans les régions ».

S5.Source editor’s annotationD’abord : « d’où j’arrive ».

S6.Source editor’s annotationD’abord : « ... avant l’heure. Que les fautes que j’aurois expiées s’ils ne m’eussent ôté le temps retombent sur mes meurtriers. » Comme il parloit... »

S7.Source editor’s annotationD’abord : « une nuée ».

S8.Source editor’s annotationD’abord : « D’autres ombres ».

S9.Source editor’s annotationD’abord : « comme lui, meurtris par des coups violens ».

S10.Source editor’s annotationAu lieu de « rapidement », d’abord « avec précipitation ».

S11.Source editor’s annotationMême feuillet : « 23 mai. Les distractions et les scrupules que cause à tous les écrivains à longue vuë la perspective et le lointain. — Etourderie, principe de fécondité. »

The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume I: YEAR 1793

p. 726

May 19 [1793?]

On the fourteenth day of the month men call July, in the year that our common and perishable eras designate by the four digits 1789, there was a great noise in heaven. The immortals had seated themselves at the edge of matter, at that point in space where place begins and from which time receives its first measure and evil its first seed. Eternity, immensity, and happiness are beyond.

God had withdrawn into himself and hidden in the bosom of his own essence, as our sun does for us when it muffles itself in a cloud. This sun of spirits was no longer visible to them. Their happiness came no longer from his presence, but from his impression alone. In this absence of ecstasy and this vacancy of high contemplation, unable any longer to look upon being, they occupied themselves with the world. They spoke together of the lives of their friends, of their trials, of their past affections; and they spoke of virtue as fully formed men speak of their childhood when they have wise leisure.

Suddenly a shade appeared before them. Its form was those appearances of its body that a soul carries from the earth and keeps until after its purification. It held its head in its hands, and its head spoke. It said to them: “Yesterday, universal peace reigned in the regions from which I have come. Today, dead, full of life, killed outside war and struck down by an entire people in the functions of my magistracy, I arrive before my hour, astonished and innocent of this precipitate departure.”

As he spoke, an infinity of others arrived at the same time, all wounded like him, rising from the earth ceaselessly and swiftly, like rain falling upward. Some bore the appearances of arms, others the ornaments of peace, several even the clothes and peaceful tools of their sedentary labors. They all cried: “Receive us.” They were all shades of men who had been struck down at their posts and had died standing or seated at their duty. These had received murder. Those who had committed it, descending by another path, were arriving in the infernal places.

S1.Source editor’s annotationThis piece has no date other than “May 19.” But Joubert later added: “This is old.” The year is uncertain. I think one may choose 1793; Joubert would then have written this opening of a fantastic tale four months after the king’s death, which (we know) made a deep impression on him.

T41.The heading’s [1793?] is Beaunier’s conjecture; the manuscript date he reports is only May 19. Inside the narrative Joubert explicitly writes July 14 and 1789. Neither date has been replaced to reconcile the narrative with the source editor’s conjecture or its account of the king’s death.

S1.Source editor’s annotationAt first: “all their former affections.”

S2.Source editor’s annotationAt first: “It held its head between its hands.”

S3.Source editor’s annotationAt first: “this.”

S4.Source editor’s annotationAt first: “in the regions.”

S5.Source editor’s annotationAt first: “from which I arrive.”

S6.Source editor’s annotationAt first: “... before the hour. May the faults I would have expiated, had they not taken away my time, fall upon my murderers.” As he spoke...

T42.The shade is introduced with it in English while its form is described, then speaks as the dead man; the following paragraph uses he. This follows the movement from French une ombre and elle to Comme il parloit. Received murder retains the unusual passive image of receivership in Ceux-ci avoient reçu le meurtre.

T48.The left edge of page 103 clips a few initial letters in this narrative’s continuation. Their complete forms are contextual restorations from the surviving print and syntax. These restorations are ours, distinct from the variants quoted in Beaunier’s source notes.

S7.Source editor’s annotationAt first: “a cloud.”

S8.Source editor’s annotationAt first: “Other shades.”

S9.Source editor’s annotationAt first: “like him, bruised by violent blows.”

S10.Source editor’s annotationInstead of “swiftly,” at first “with haste.”

S11.Source editor’s annotationThe same leaf: “May 23. The distractions and scruples that perspective and distance cause all farsighted writers. — Heedlessness, a principle of fecundity.”

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.