Diotimos Library · Journals, Notebooks & Fragments Collection · Bilingual Edition
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French Page · Branch 15 of 121
1833 · Le 16.
French
p. 29Le 16.
Je lis dans l’Europe littéraire quelques pensées remarquables. Il y est dit que les zones intellectuelles s’effacent chaque jour, que les hautes intelligences éparses sur tout le globe commencent à se comprendre les unes les autres, que tout s’achemine vers une vaste république de la pensée humaine. Et plus bas : que les anciens ont admirablement saisi les traits généraux de l’âme humaine et de la nature, qu’ils en ont fait une poésie extérieure, plastique, visible; mais que l’âge est venu de la poésie intime, profonde, analytique... Ces pensées ne sont pas tout à fait neuves et courent le monde depuis quelque temps; mais il est bon de se rendre présent le plus possible le grand mouvement qui s’opère, de le formuler.
The Green Notebook: 1833
p. 30March 16, 1833
I am reading some remarkable thoughts in L’Europe littéraire. It says that intellectual zones are fading day by day, that the higher minds scattered throughout the globe are beginning to understand one another, that everything is moving toward a vast republic of human thought. And farther on: that the ancients admirably grasped the general features of the human soul and of nature, making of them an outward poetry, plastic, visible; but that the age of inward, profound, analytical poetry has come... These thoughts are not altogether new and have been circulating in the world for some time; but it is good to keep the great movement taking place as present to one’s mind as possible, to give it expression.
Socrates
Reading The Green Notebook · 1833 · March 16, 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.