Diotimos Library · Journals, Notebooks & Fragments Collection · Bilingual Edition
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Facing Pages · Branch 26 of 121
1833 · March 31, 1833
French
p. 51Le 31.
L’amour qui parle, chante, gémit dans une partie de la création, se révèle dans l’autre moitié sous la forme des fleurs. Toute cette floraison si riche de formes, de couleurs, de parfums, qui resplendit dans la campagne, c’est l’expression de l’amour, c’est l’amour lui-même qui célèbre ses doux mystères dans le sein de chaque fleur. La branche fleurie, l’oiseau qui vient s’y percher pour chanter ou y bâtir son nid, l’homme qui regarde la branche et l’oiseau, sont mus par le même principe à divers degrés de perfection. Je lisais dans Herder que les fleurs périssent aussitôt après la fécondation, que les oiseaux perdent leur chant, leur gaieté, quelques-uns les vives couleurs de leur plumage après la saison des nids, que l’homme décline rapidement vers la vieillesse après l’âge des passions. Il y a beaucoup à méditer sur cette loi de dépérissement intimement liée à la loi de l’amour et de la reproduction.
The Green Notebook: 1833
p. 52March 31, 1833
The love which speaks, sings, and moans in one part of creation reveals itself in the other half in the form of flowers. All this flowering, so rich in forms, colors, perfumes, shining across the countryside, is the expression of love, is love itself celebrating its sweet mysteries within each flower. The flowering branch, the bird that comes to perch upon it and sing or build its nest, the man who watches the branch and the bird, are moved by the same principle at different degrees of perfection. I read in Herder that flowers perish as soon as they have been fertilized, that birds lose their song, their gaiety, and some of them the vivid colors of their plumage after the nesting season, that man declines rapidly toward old age after the age of passions. There is much to ponder in this law of decay, intimately bound to the law of love and reproduction.
Socrates
Reading The Green Notebook · 1833 · March 31, 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.