Diotimos Library · Journals, Notebooks & Fragments Collection · Bilingual Edition
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English Page · Branch 100 of 121
1835 · January 26, 1835
French
p. 199Le 26 janvier 1835.
J’ai mené mon petit drame sous vos yeux ; vous en avez suivi les mouvements et écouté le bruit avec un tendre intérêt qui a fait tout mon courage. Et cependant que regardiez-vous ? Ce qu’on suit de l’œil, les soirs d’été : un insecte ailé qui tournoie et circule dans l’air avec un léger bourdonnement de ses ailes. Comme lui, ma pensée exécute follement un vol capricieux qui ne va nulle part. J’ai acquis assez de philosophie pour marcher déterminément dans la vie pratique et m’élever au-dessus de certaines atteintes qui m’eussent autrefois renversé. Mais le gouvernement de ma pensée ne m’appartient pas. Elle n’a d’autre guide qu’un infatigable instinct de fuite loin de la demeure commune, comme si la liberté était dans l’évasion et la vérité au bout d’un voyage infini. Aussi, malgré l’aplanissement de mes voies intérieures, je ne ressens guère moins de fatigue à vivre; car l’inquiétude de l’intelligence vaut bien, comme mal, l’incertitude du lendemain. La poésie n’est plus présente à mon âme, je ne jouis plus de ses entretiens familiers; à l’absence d’un doux fardeau, au refroidissement de mes habitudes d’imagination, je reconnais qu’elle s’est retirée, et d’ailleurs j’entends sa voix au loin, bien haut, déjà faible et presque éteinte dans l’éloignement. Tantôt je crois qu’elle m’appelle, ayant trouvé mieux qu’ici par delà l’obscurité, car aujourd’hui j’espère tout du côté impénétrable, et tantôt il me semble qu’elle me dit ses adieux. Au reste, qu’importe que ce que nous appelons imagination, poésie , me quitte ou me prenne? Cela ne peut arrêter ni hâter le cours de ma destinée; et que j’aie prévu ou non d’ici-bas, je n’en contemplerai pas moins un jour ce qui m’est réservé. Ne devrais-je pas plutôt, négligeant toutes ces inquiétudes, m’appliquer à étendre mes connaissances positives, et préférer le moindre filet lumineux de vérité certaine aux vagues lueurs où je me noie? L’homme qui se rend compte d’une vérité mathématique quelconque est plus avancé dans la compréhension du vrai que la plus belle imagination. Il a acquis une possession inviolable dans le domaine de l’intelligence, il peut s’y loger pour l’éternité. Le poëte est chassé d’exil en exil et n’aura jamais de demeure assurée.
The Green Notebook: 1835
p. 200January 26, 1835
I have played out my little drama before your eyes; you have followed its movements and listened to its noise with a tender interest which has been all my courage. Yet what were you watching? What one follows with the eye on summer evenings: a winged insect which turns and circles in the air with a light humming of its wings. Like it, my thought madly executes a capricious flight which goes nowhere. I have acquired enough philosophy to walk resolutely in practical life and rise above certain blows which would once have overthrown me. But the government of my thought does not belong to me. Its only guide is a tireless instinct of flight far from the common dwelling, as though liberty lay in escape and truth at the end of an infinite journey. Thus, despite the smoothing of my inward paths, I feel scarcely less weariness in living; for the restlessness of the mind is as great an affliction as uncertainty about tomorrow. Poetry is no longer present to my soul; I no longer enjoy her familiar conversations; by the absence of a sweet burden, by the cooling of my habits of imagination, I recognize that she has withdrawn, and besides I hear her voice far away, very high, already faint and almost extinguished in the distance. Sometimes I believe she is calling me, having found something better than here beyond the darkness, for today I hope for everything from the impenetrable side; and sometimes it seems she is saying her farewells. Besides, what does it matter whether what we call imagination, poetry, leaves me or takes hold of me? It cannot arrest or hasten the course of my destiny; and whether or not I have foreseen it from here below, I shall one day contemplate what is reserved for me all the same. Should I not rather, setting aside all these anxieties, apply myself to extending my positive knowledge and prefer the smallest luminous thread of certain truth to the vague glimmers in which I drown? The man who understands any mathematical truth has advanced further in the comprehension of truth than the most beautiful imagination. He has acquired an inviolable possession in the domain of intelligence; he can lodge there for eternity. The poet is driven from exile to exile and will never have a secure dwelling.
Socrates
Reading The Green Notebook · 1835 · January 26, 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.