Diotimos Library · Journals, Notebooks & Fragments Collection · Bilingual Edition
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Facing Pages · Branch 3 of 121
1832 · August 4, 1832
French
p. 5Le 4 août.
Aujourd’hui j’achève ma vingt-deuxième année. J’ai vu souvent, à Paris, des enfants s’en aller en terre dans de tout petits cercueils, et traverser ainsi la grande foule. Oh! que n’ai-je traversé le monde comme eux, enseveli dans l’innocence de mon cercueil et dans l’oubli d’une vie d’un jour! Ces petits anges ne savent rien de la terre; ils naissent dans le ciel. Mon père m’a dit que, dans mon enfance, il a vu souvent mon âme sur mes lèvres, prête à s’envoler. Dieu et l’amour paternel la retinrent dans l’épreuve de la vie. Reconnaissance et amour à tous deux! Mais je ne puis m’empêcher de regretter le ciel où je serais, et que je ne puis atteindre que par la ligne oblique de la carrière humaine.
The Green Notebook: 1832
p. 6August 4, 1832
Today I complete my twenty-second year. I have often seen children in Paris being carried to their graves in tiny coffins, passing thus through the throng. Oh, if only I had passed through the world as they did, buried in the innocence of my coffin and in the oblivion of a life of a day! These little angels know nothing of the earth; they are born in heaven. My father told me that in my childhood he often saw my soul on my lips, ready to fly away. God and a father’s love kept it in the trial of life. Gratitude and love to them both! Yet I cannot help longing for the heaven where I would be, and which I can reach only by the slanting line of human life.
Socrates
Reading The Green Notebook · 1832 · August 4, 1832
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.