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

Joseph Joubert

The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume II

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

Complete Notebooks · French with an independent English translation.

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The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume IIYEAR 1815 · Entry 7419

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English Page · Branch 3638 of 4529

YEAR 1815 · Entry 7419

Translator notesBook Mode

French

p. 7275

Platon, Xénophon et les autres écrivains de l’école de Socrate. Ils ont les évolutions du vol des oiseaux; ils font de longs circuits; ils embrassent beaucoup d’espace; ils tournent longtemps, autour du point où ils veulent se poser et qu’ils ont toujours en perspective; ils s’y abbatent. C’est eux qui bâtissent des labyrinthes, mais des labyrinthes en l’air. Ils employent peu de mots figurés ou colorés; ils les choisissent au contraire simples et communs, précisément parce que l’idée qu’ils les employent à tracer est elle même une grande et longue figure. En imaginant le sillage que laisse en l’air le vol de ces oiseaux qui s’amusent à monter, à descendre, à planer et à tournoyer, on auroit une idée de ce que j’ai appellé les évolutions de leur esprit et de leur style. (La suspension perpétuëlle.)

The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume II: YEAR 1815

p. 7276

Plato, Xenophon and the other writers of Socrates’ school. They have the evolutions of birds’ flight; they make long circuits; they embrace much space; they circle for a long time around the point where they wish to alight and which they always keep in view; they swoop down upon it. It is they who build labyrinths, but labyrinths in the air. They use few figurative or colored words; on the contrary, they choose them simple and common, precisely because the idea they use them to trace is itself a great and long figure. By imagining the wake left in the air by the flight of these birds that amuse themselves by rising, descending, gliding and wheeling, one would have an idea of what I have called the evolutions of their mind and their style. (Perpetual suspension.)

T255.The complete aerial image retains circuits, embracing space, the landing point and all four final flight movements. Evolutions is used in its movement sense, as in the earlier wing passage, not biological development. Long time, always, few, on-the-contrary and precisely preserve the progression. The repeated labyrinths and figure/figurative relation remain, with simple/common words distinguished from the long idea they trace. The conditional imagining and final parenthetic fragment remain. No individual work or actual flight behavior is authenticated. The source’s comma after longtemps is omitted in the English phrase for a long time around; the final period stays inside the parenthesis in both languages. Literal abbatent, employent, appellé and qualified perpétuëlle remain unchanged in French.

T609.In the French source, one long paragraph retains all repeated ils, semicolons, the comma after longtemps, plain unhyphenated elle même, and the final parenthesis with its internal period. Original-size color confirms literal abbatent, both employent, and appellé; no modern spellings replace them. The semicolon after colorés remains; its adjacent thin vertical trace does not certify an added letter. The two raised components over e in perpétuëlle support its qualified diaeresis. The line openings ont/embrassent/point/s’y/rinthes/les/que/longue/oiseaux/on/et retain identifiable foreground letters under abrasion; adjacent left-margin show-through does not establish additional words. The bounded independent comparison of full color 833 and the seven named original-size rectangles agrees with these qualified contours; no body, date or style change is requested.

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 II continues the notebooks and includes seventy undated pieces. 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.