Diotimos Library · Journals, Notebooks & Fragments Collection · Bilingual Edition
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Facing Pages · Branch 17 of 121
1833 · March 20, 1833
French
p. 33Le 20.
L’hiver s’en va en souriant; il nous fait ses adieux par un beau soleil resplendissant dans un ciel pur et uni comme une glace de Venise. Encore un pas du temps qui s’achève. Oh! que ne peut-il, comme les coursiers des immortels, atteindre en quatre bonds les limites de sa durée!
Achevé de lire le premier volume de l’Histoire des Républiques italiennes. C’est un beau spectacle que de voir la liberté sortant des décombres de l’empire romain et s’asseyant, une croix à la main, sur les grèves des mers, à Venise, à Gênes, à Pise. Elle s’était d’abord montrée à Amalfi, à Naples, à Gaëte; mais les rois la chassèrent. Alors elle dit un long adieu à l’Italie méridionale, et, côtoyant toujours la mer, elle s’arrêta au nord. M. Sismonde Sismondi a manqué ce beau drame de la liberté italienne; il n’a pas compris le caractère du plus haut personnage, du véritable héros de cette grande scène, le Pape. Il jette presque parmi les comparses les acteurs à qui appartient le premier rôle. Il représente les souverains pontifes comme des ambitieux vulgaires, des barons querelleurs, la tiare sur la tête et la crosse en main. C’est dans son œuvre un vide immense qui se fait sentir à chaque page. — Il paye aussi fort mal la comtesse Mathilde de son beau dévouement à la cause des papes, et conséquemment à la liberté italienne.
The Green Notebook: 1833
p. 34March 20, 1833
Winter departs smiling; it bids us farewell with a beautiful sun shining in a sky as clear and smooth as a Venetian mirror. Another step of time draws to its close. Oh, why can it not, like the coursers of the immortals, reach the limits of its allotted span in four bounds!
Finished the first volume of the History of the Italian Republics. It is a beautiful spectacle to see liberty emerging from the ruins of the Roman Empire and taking her seat, a cross in her hand, upon the shores of the sea, at Venice, Genoa, Pisa. She first appeared at Amalfi, Naples, Gaeta; but the kings drove her away. Then she bade a long farewell to southern Italy and, always following the coast, came to rest in the north. M. Sismonde Sismondi has missed this beautiful drama of Italian liberty; he has not understood the character of its highest personage, the true hero of this great scene, the Pope. He casts almost among the extras the actors to whom the leading role belongs. He portrays the sovereign pontiffs as vulgar men of ambition, quarrelsome barons, with tiaras on their heads and croziers in their hands. In his work this leaves an immense void, felt on every page. — He also pays Countess Matilda very poorly for her noble devotion to the cause of the popes, and consequently to Italian liberty.
Socrates
Reading The Green Notebook · 1833 · March 20, 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.