Diotimos Library · Journals, Notebooks & Fragments Collection · Bilingual Edition
Swipe or use the arrow keys.
English Page · Branch 97 of 121
1834 · October 22, 1834
French
p. 193Le 22 octobre.
Depuis trois semaines, travail extérieur qui dévore toutes mes journées jusqu’aux miettes : révolution dans mes habitudes, transition brusque de la nonchalance des rêves à l’essoufflement de l’action. Tout ce tracas de vie affairée absorbe une certaine portion de ma pensée, mais c’est cette portion flottante que je laisse aller à tout vent comme les derniers plis d’un manteau. Je n’y ai aucun regret. Ce sont les vagues qui viennent sur la grève : le sable en boit, l’homme les écume, la mer en fait abandon à qui les veut. Ainsi ma pensée sur les bords est prise par les soins et les soucis de la vie active; mais, au large, rien n’y touche, nul n’y puise, rien ne s’en va de ses flots que par l’évaporation continuelle de son onde aspirée par une puissance inconnue.
The Green Notebook: 1834
p. 194October 22, 1834
For three weeks, outward work which devours all my days down to the crumbs: a revolution in my habits, an abrupt transition from the indolence of dreams to the breathlessness of action. All this bustle of busy life absorbs a certain portion of my thought, but it is that floating portion which I let go to every wind like the trailing folds of a cloak. I have no regret for it. These are the waves which come upon the shore: the sand drinks of them, man skims them, the sea gives them up to whoever wants them. So my thought at its edges is taken by the cares and concerns of active life; but out at sea, nothing touches it, no one draws from it, nothing leaves its waves except through the continual evaporation of its water, drawn up by an unknown power.
Socrates
Reading The Green Notebook · 1834 · October 22, 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.