Diotimos Library · Journals, Notebooks & Fragments Collection · Bilingual Edition
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English Page · Branch 96 of 121
1834 · September 29, 1834
French
p. 191Le 29.
La graine qui germe pousse la vie en deux sens contraires; la plumule gagne en haut et la radicule en bas. Je voudrais être l’insecte qui se loge et vit dans la radicule. Je me placerais à la dernière pointe des racines et je contemplerais l’action puissante des pores qui aspirent la vie ; je regarderais la vie passer du sein de la molécule féconde dans les pores qui, comme autant de bouches, l’éveillent et l’attirent par des appels mélodieux. Je serais témoin de l’amour ineffable avec lequel elle se précipite vers l’être qui l’invoque, et de la joie de l’être. J’assisterais à leurs embrassements.
The Green Notebook: 1834
p. 192September 29, 1834
The germinating seed drives life in two opposite directions; the plumule grows upward and the radicle downward. I would like to be the insect which lodges and lives in the radicle. I would place myself at the very tip of the roots and contemplate the powerful action of the pores which draw in life; I would watch life pass from the breast of the fertile molecule into the pores which, like so many mouths, awaken it and attract it with melodious calls. I would witness the ineffable love with which it rushes toward the being that invokes it, and the being’s joy. I would be present at their embraces.
Socrates
Reading The Green Notebook · 1834 · September 29, 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.