Diotimos Library · Journals, Notebooks & Fragments Collection · Bilingual Edition
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English Page · Branch 2 of 121
1832 · July 30, 1832
French
p. 3Le 30.
Il y a des livres qu’il ne faut plus lire. J’ai choisi pour relire René un jour des plus désenchantés de ma vie, où mon cœur me semblait mort, un jour de la plus aride sécheresse, pour essayer tout le pouvoir de ce livre sur une âme, et j’ai connu qu’il était grand. Cette lecture a détrempé mon âme comme une pluie d’orage.
Je prends un charme infini à revenir sur mes premières lectures, mes lectures passionnées de seize à dix-neuf ans. J’aime à puiser des larmes aux sources presque taries de ma jeunesse.
The Green Notebook: 1832
p. 4July 30, 1832
There are books one should read no more. I chose to reread René on one of the most disenchanted days of my life, when my heart seemed dead to me, a day of the most barren dryness, to test this book’s full power over a soul, and I learned that its power was great. This reading drenched my soul like rain from a thunderstorm.
I find infinite delight in returning to my early reading, my impassioned reading from sixteen to nineteen. I love to draw tears from the almost dry springs of my youth.
Socrates
Reading The Green Notebook · 1832 · July 30, 1832
Ask about a concept, passage, contradiction, or connection.
Socrates will begin with this book and its sources.About This Reading Edition
Maurice de Guérin’s journal moves between close attention to nature, friendship, faith, and the inward demands of poetry. This bilingual edition presents the complete Journal section of the 1864 printing, with a separate appendix of earlier printed passages from 1861.
Historical Text and Translation
The French follows G. S. Trébutien’s sixth edition of Journal, lettres et poèmes (Paris: Didier et Cie, 1864), pages 3–126. Its 116 dated entries run from July 1832 to October 1835. Five earlier passages from Reliquiae (1861) appear separately in the appendix. Completeness refers to the printed Journal, rather than the autograph notebook; the following letters and poems are outside this edition.
About Diotimos Editions
Diotimos Editions prepared this independent English translation directly from the French, preserving Guérin’s imagery, repetitions, intimate voice, and original paragraph divisions. French and English remain aligned for comparison. Translator’s notes clarify words, quotations, and allusions, while historical editor notes retain their separate attribution. The Essential setting keeps explanations useful to reading; All also includes the note on the edition’s typographic treatment.
Rights
The historical French printings are in the public domain in the United States. The independent English translation and new editorial notes are © 2026 Diotimos Editions. The linked facsimiles identify the printed witnesses used for this edition. Historical annotations and editorial conjectures remain attributed to their source editors, and the earlier variant passages are presented separately from the later Journal text.