Diotimos Library · Journals, Notebooks & Fragments Collection · Bilingual Edition
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English Page · Branch 27 of 121
1833 · April 2, 1833
French
p. 53Le 2 avril.
Les nuages nous ont jeté de la pluie tout le long du jour. Elle est tombée tantôt par ondées violentes, tantôt par rosées fines bruissant légèrement. Les merles, les fauvettes, tous les oiseaux chanteurs sifflent, gazouillent, rossignolent nonobstant. Les nuages laissent parfois de grandes clairières dans le ciel, par où le soleil précipite des torrents de lumière. Alors les nuages qui font la lisière s’illuminent, leurs files successives et fuyant au loin se retirent de proche en proche, mais par nuances affaiblies et dégradées en raison de leur éloignement, jusqu’à ce qu’enfin les rayons vont mourir sur une masse énorme qui se tient immobile aux confins de l’horizon sud-est, blanchissant ses saillies et laissant dans l’ombre les parties rentrantes de ses anfractuosités.
The Green Notebook: 1833
p. 54April 2, 1833
The clouds have thrown rain upon us all day long. It fell now in violent showers, now in fine dews with a faint rustling. The blackbirds, the warblers, all the songbirds whistle, chirp, and sing like nightingales nevertheless. Sometimes the clouds leave great clearings in the sky, through which the sun pours torrents of light. Then the clouds along the edge light up; their successive ranks, fleeing into the distance, retreat one after another, but in shades weakened and diminished according to their distance, until at last the rays go to die upon an enormous mass standing motionless at the limits of the southeastern horizon, whitening its projections and leaving the recesses of its rugged contours in shadow.
Socrates
Reading The Green Notebook · 1833 · April 2, 1833
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.