Diotimos Library · Journals, Notebooks & Fragments Collection · Bilingual Edition
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English Page · Branch 38 of 121
1833 · May 7, 1833
French
p. 75Le 7.
Je reçois à l’instant une lettre et des vers de mon cher François, en réponse à la pièce que je lui avais adressée. C’est une amitié bien douce que j’ai faite là. François est une des âmes les plus fraîches, les plus limpides, les plus consolantes que j’aie jamais connues. De plus, il est poète, et ce n’est pas possible autrement; et poète, non par effort et travail de l’esprit, comme il y en a tant, mais par expansion et parole naturelle. Cela s’en va de chez lui comme l’eau de la fontaine. Son amitié m’est d’autant plus chère et je comprends d’autant plus son talent que je suis loin de mériter l’une et d’approcher de l’autre. Je lui ressemble si peu! mais je trouve ma consolation à penser que l’amitié naît des contrastes.
The Green Notebook: 1833
p. 76May 7, 1833
I have this moment received a letter and verses from my dear François, in reply to the poem I sent him. What a sweet friendship I have formed there. François is one of the freshest, clearest, most consoling souls I have ever known. Moreover, he is a poet, and it could not be otherwise; a poet not through effort and mental labor, as so many are, but through outpouring and natural speech. It flows from him like water from a fountain. His friendship is all the dearer to me, and I understand his talent all the better, because I am far from deserving the one or approaching the other. I resemble him so little! But I find consolation in thinking that friendship is born of contrasts.
Socrates
Reading The Green Notebook · 1833 · May 7, 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.