Diotimos Library · Journals, Notebooks & Fragments Collection · Bilingual Edition
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English Page · Branch 115 of 121
1835 · July 11, 1835
French
p. 229Le 11 juillet.
Quel est le vrai Dieu? Le Dieu des cités ou celui des déserts? Auquel aller? Les goûts longtemps nourris, les impulsions du cœur, les accidents de la vie décident le choix. Nous portons en nous-mêmes mille fatalités. Que savons-nous de ce qui nous entraîne et quel est le mieux dans tout cela ? L’homme des cités se rit en lui-même des rêves écartés des solitaires ; ceux-ci s’applaudissent de leur séparation et de se trouver, comme les îles du grand Océan, loin des continents et baignés par des flots inconnus. Les plus à plaindre sont ceux qui, jetés entre ces deux contradictions, tendent les bras de part et d’autre.
The Green Notebook: 1835
p. 230July 11, 1835
Which is the true God? The God of cities or the God of wildernesses? To which should one go? Long-nourished tastes, the heart’s impulses, the accidents of life decide the choice. We carry within ourselves a thousand forces of fate. What do we know of what draws us on, and what is best in all this? The man of cities laughs within himself at the solitary men’s remote dreams; they applaud their separation, finding themselves, like the islands of the great Ocean, far from continents and bathed by unknown waves. Most to be pitied are those who, thrown between these two contradictions, stretch their arms toward both sides.
Socrates
Reading The Green Notebook · 1835 · July 11, 1835
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.