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 1821 · Entry 8140

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Facing Pages · Branch 4359 of 4529

YEAR 1821 · Entry 8140

Translator notesBook Mode

French

p. 8717

Lundi 22 octobre.

Ce qui est opaque est une taye qui peut aveugler notre esprit. — Elle le réduit en poussière, et cette poussière en nuéë, et cette nuéë en air pur. Sa diffusion inapperçue fait toutes nos sérénités. Ses éclats remplissent de joië. Heureux alors ceux qu’elle éclaire, qui sentent leur être exposé aux clartés et à la chaleur de ce soleil intelligible; et que leur propre joie excite (ou — que leur bonheur même excite) à se jouër dans ses rayons.

(Add. y laisse une diffusion qui entretient nos sérénités.)

The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume II: YEAR 1821

p. 8718

Monday, October 22.

What is opaque is a film that can blind our mind. — It reduces it to dust, and this dust to cloud, and this cloud to pure air. Its unnoticed diffusion makes all our serenities. Its flashes fill with joy. Happy then those it lights, who feel their being exposed to the brightnesses and warmth of this intelligible sun; and whom their own joy urges (or — whom their very happiness urges) to play in its rays.

(Add. leaves there a diffusion that sustains our serenities.)

T29.Film renders taye’s ocular image; the complete Académie Taie entry of 1798 describes a white film on the eye or cornea, alongside other senses. The official electronic entry was directly read by the literary specialist and senior editor; no dictionary facsimile was inspected. The French feminine Elle begins a new action without an explicit nearby feminine noun other than taye; the English it leaves the agent unassigned, rather than silently supplying light. Its referent remains unresolved. The three transformations, repeated this, plural serenities and brightnesses, bare fill-with-joy, full alternative parenthesis and final play remain. French retains taye, inapperçue with pp, nuéë twice, first joië but later joie, and jouër. The differently positioned upper marks are the source specialist’s qualified color/native readings, not a normalization to one spelling. The complete Monday, October 22 date governs this paragraph and the separate parenthetic addition; neither is source apparatus.

T119.The complete weekday/day, two separate paragraphs and all roman text remain. The second paragraph is an indented parenthetic addition in the main text, not source apparatus; Add. is not expanded and no missing subject is supplied. The original-size color and native 436 crops distinguish literal nuéë twice (acute on the first e and two raised components on the second), joië in the first joy word, ordinary joie later, and jouër. Native compression affects the tiny contours but their different positions remain visible. Inapperçue has pp; taye is not modernized. Elle follows the opaque-film sentence without a newly supplied nominal antecedent. The repeated transformations, both ou/et relations, full alternative parenthesis, plural clartés/sérénités and final y remain. No grammatical repair or reconstructed connective is inserted. All line-wrap continuations are complete.

T30.The separate indented parenthetic paragraph stays in Joubert’s body, not in translator notes. Add. remains an unexpanded signal and the subject is not supplied. There preserves y, while repeated diffusion and serenities connect to the preceding paragraph.

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.