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← ExitThe Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume II

Reading language

Mr. Hochet and Mme de Sévigné.

Finally, his mind seems to reside at a center too far from all his senses, and especially from his hearing and his eyes.

May 30.

It is never the opinion of others that displeases us, but their sometimes wishing to subject us to it when we do not wish it.

June 1.

It is from this that another, very subtle body forms between the soul and the body, capable of bringing the soul into communication with spiritual things.

From what one voluntarily cuts away from one’s passions.

The soul, then, is an eye capable of seeing spiritual things. But to see, this eye needs a membrane and a fluid. Now this fluid and this membrane can be formed only from the extremely subtle substance that the will cuts away from the passions... (This must be put better.)

Facility is the enemy of great things.

Singular minds are naturally the enemies of all the others. They differ from them, and that is enough.

She has enthusiasm in her voice. And one needs it in color to be a great painter, in sounds to be a great musician, and in words to be a great writer. But this enthusiasm must be hidden and almost imperceptible. It is this enthusiasm that produces what is called charm. (In second place, clarity and lightness.)

They think themselves very good judges because they are very decided judges.

June 3.

The four ages. The first is linked to God by its origin. The second enters the affairs of life. The third finds itself in them and must hold its place there with uprightness. The fourth leaves them to enter divine affairs.

To translate well, when one translates for a long time, one needs a style somewhat soft and able to express everything with more facility than force.

His sinews are those of a bow. They launch, and even with force, but they are cold and dried out.

All women are very fond of minds that dwell in young bodies, and souls that have beautiful eyes.

T164.The contrast concerns the wish to subject others to an opinion and their unwillingness to submit. Sometimes qualifies that wish, not the existence of the opinion. The English retains the repeated willing and wishing rather than replacing the sentence with a general objection to disagreement.

T165.The soul renders the feminine pronoun la, whose antecedent is âme rather than either masculine corps. Subtle describes the fine substance of the intermediate body. The following separate From what fragment is not silently joined to this paragraph, and the opening from this is not given a new antecedent.

T166.Membrane and fluid render the anatomical senses of tunique and humeur. The Académie’s 1798 definitions include the eye’s membranes under tunique and bodily fluid under humeur. The order reverses in the next sentence, as in the source. Joubert’s instruction This must be put better remains in his text; the translator has not carried out that proposed rewrite.

T167.Singular retains the sense of minds that differ from the others, which the next sentence makes explicit. It is not silently strengthened into genius or reduced to a numerical singular.

T168.The unnamed She has enthusiasm in her voice; the sentence then generalizes to painters, musicians, and writers. Almost imperceptible renders presque insensible, not emotional insensitivity. The ranking of clarity and lightness remains Joubert’s parenthesis.

T169.Decided preserves the contrast between confidence of judgment and goodness of judgment. The plural They has no named antecedent. This physical paragraph follows the enthusiasm paragraph in the same source block, without being merged into it.

T170.The source numbers four ages without supplying names or age ranges. Affairs of life and divine affairs retain the repeated affaires and the movement into and out of them.

T171.Somewhat soft renders un peu mou, preserving the material quality instead of silently substituting an ideal of polished elegance. Longtemps refers to translating for a long time; it does not itself name a long book. Facility and force remain the two compared qualities.

T172.Sinews keeps the bodily image of nerfs as it passes to a bow. Cold and dried out contrast with the power to launch. The source names neither the person nor an object launched; the translation supplies neither.