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← ExitThe Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume II

Reading language

Mr. Hochet and Mme de Sévigné.

May 5.

“There is (they say) art in such a style.” I reply that: charm, and above all perfection, excuse art.

Who said: “I have wit when people credit me with it”?

May 7.

All those, finally, for whom style is not a game but work.

It is to the fashion for portraits that we owe Labruyère’s Characters. More than one poor genre has been the source of a masterpiece in literature.

May 11.

... so that the reader may be tempted to say to you, like Philoctetes in Sophocles: “O voice, o sweet voice. O my son, speak; speak again.”

Jesuits and Jansenists. — Some take their rules from the nature of man’s mind, which guides him so little, and the others from his heart, which guides him almost always. Thus some give much to habit, which becomes dear sooner or later; the others to reasoning and instruction, which admittedly does not fade but rarely prompts action.

May 12.

... because my thoughts come from my nature and my style from the habits I have acquired in writing.

May 16.

Affectation? Yes, when one affects forms for which one does not have the molds within oneself.

Every thought has softness by its nature, and roundness by its perfection.

May 17.

Wherever there is movement, there is a journey, and there is a search for progress, an advance toward a goal, a battle against obstacles.

May 18.

(Evening of the 17th.) For it is the cities that give movement to all the rest.

The movements of the mind, when they are alone, measure nothing. The beats of the pulse measure time, the beats of the heart measure life; but peace alone and the movements of our soul measure happiness.

T147.Art is retained for art in both occurrences. The answer defends its presence when charm and, especially, perfection excuse it; the English does not predefine it as deception. The unusual colon following I reply that belongs to the source.

T148.On m’en croit means that others believe the speaker has wit, not simply that they believe what the speaker says. The question leaves the original speaker unidentified.

T325.The relative construction remains without a main predicate.

T149.Characters translates the title Caractères. The fashion for portraits gives rise to Labruyère’s work in this sentence, not the reverse. Labruyère remains the source’s spelling.

T150.The parallel is Sophocles, Philoctetes 234–238, where Philoctetes welcomes Greek speech and asks Neoptolemus what has brought him there. Joubert’s repeated voice and speak are a freer recollection, not the exact sequence of the Greek. His immediate French version has not been established. His opening ellipsis and repeated invocations remain unchanged in translation.

T326.Affin is printed with two f’s. The successive O, o, O capitalization and internal period after voix are retained. The opening ellipsis leaves the governing construction unstated.

T151.The repeated some and the others follow the printed les uns and les autres in both sentences. The translation does not reverse their assignments to reconcile the relations among mind, heart, habit, and reasoning. The final singular verbs in French follow reasoning and instruction; the English retains the singular relative clause nearest instruction.

T152.Affects repeats the root of affectation. Molds remain objects within oneself that give a form its shape; the English does not replace the physical image with a general claim about sincerity.

T153.Softness belongs to a thought’s nature and roundness to its perfection. Both remain physical qualities rather than being silently converted into weakness and completeness.

T154.Evening of the 17th is an embedded parenthesis beneath the printed May 18 heading. Both are retained; the entry has not been moved to May 17.

T155.The successive mind and soul distinguish esprit and âme. Peace alone and the movements of our soul retains the source’s unusual coordination and the position of seule; the English does not rewrite the phrase as only the movements of the soul or as peace without movement.