Diotimos Library · Journals, Notebooks & Fragments Collection · Bilingual Edition
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French Page · Branch 93 of 121
1834 · Le 21.
French
p. 185Le 21.
Après tout, de quoi s’agit-il ici-bas? De passer la vie utilement. Cela posé, qu’importe l’instrument que Dieu met aux mains d’un homme pour exploiter le temps, plume ou marteau ? Accepter sans hésiter toute condition où les forces de mon âme ou de mes mains suffisent, telle est la résolution à laquelle mon âme se rattache, voyant que tout fuit et se dissipe autour d’elle, que le sol lui croule sous les pieds. Mais puis-je compter sur une résolution de mon âme? Qui m’assurera de sa constance, après mille variations, après mille projets pris, quittés, repris? Je m’échappe à moi-même; ma pesante et nonchalante volonté s’essouffle à la poursuite de mon âme qui prend les ailes des rêves les plus légers, des plus fuyantes illusions. Telle est ma vie : elle se compose de projets sérieux toujours changés, et de vains rêves permanents, de longs enivrements d’imagination et de scènes ridicules entre ma volonté et mon âme indépendante et légère à la fuite comme un sauvage; et dans le plus vif et le plus intime de ma vie, toujours souffrance aiguë ou malaise sourd, selon que le désordre croît ou décroît.
The Green Notebook: 1834
p. 186September 21, 1834
After all, what is our concern here below? To spend life usefully. That established, what does it matter which instrument God places in a man’s hands to make use of time, pen or hammer? To accept without hesitation any condition for which the strength of my soul or my hands suffices: that is the resolution to which my soul clings, seeing everything flee and dissolve around it, the ground crumble beneath its feet. But can I count upon a resolution of my soul? Who will assure me of its constancy after a thousand changes, after a thousand plans taken up, abandoned, resumed? I escape myself; my heavy and indolent will grows breathless in pursuit of my soul, which takes the wings of the lightest dreams, the most fleeting illusions. Such is my life: it consists of serious plans forever changed, and vain dreams enduring, of long intoxications of the imagination and ridiculous scenes between my will and my soul, independent and swift in flight like a savage; and in the liveliest and innermost part of my life, always sharp suffering or a muffled unease, as the disorder increases or diminishes.
Socrates
Reading The Green Notebook · 1834 · September 21, 1834
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.