Diotimos Library · Journals, Notebooks & Fragments Collection · Bilingual Edition
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French Page · Branch 104 of 121
1835 · Le 24 mars.
French
p. 207Le 24 mars.
Autrefois mes douleurs étaient comme trempées; elles sont devenues arides. Les amertumes contenaient quelques gouttes d’un baume en solution dans leurs flots; aujourd’hui la liqueur toute pure ne dépose plus rien de doux à goûter secrètement et longuement.
J’imaginais les lueurs molles et tendres des crépuscules comme des particules douces et bienfaisantes déposées par le fleuve brûlant de lumière qui venait de traverser le ciel. Et je considérais avec un charme profond le ciel se pénétrant avec une mélancolique volupté de ce limon aérien qui le calmait. Je suivais au couchant ce qui se passait en moi dans la même heure, et le soir et moi nous nous assoupissions dans le même apaisement de douleur.
Douceur calmante de ces lents spectacles, conformités de mon âme avec l’esprit des scènes naturelles, qu’êtes-vous devenues? Je suis seul. Je ne ressens, je n’éprouve plus rien que ma vie. L’aigreur d’une existence profondément altérée par mille poisons intérieurs : telle est l’unique saveur de mes jours.
The Green Notebook: 1835
p. 208March 24, 1835
Once my sorrows were as though steeped; they have become dry. Their bitter waters contained a few drops of balm in solution; today the unmixed liquor deposits nothing sweet to be savored secretly and at length.
I imagined the soft and tender glimmers of twilight as gentle, beneficent particles deposited by the burning river of light which had just crossed the sky. And with a deep enchantment I watched the sky steep itself, with a melancholy delight, in that aerial silt which soothed it. In the west I followed what was happening within me at the same hour, and evening and I drowsed in the same easing of sorrow.
Soothing sweetness of those slow spectacles, accord of my soul with the spirit of natural scenes, what has become of you? I am alone. I feel, I experience nothing now but my life. The sourness of an existence profoundly altered by a thousand inward poisons: such is the sole savor of my days.
Socrates
Reading The Green Notebook · 1835 · March 24, 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.