Diotimos Library · Journals, Notebooks & Fragments Collection · Bilingual Edition
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Facing Pages · Branch 33 of 121
1833 · April 23, 1833
French
p. 65Le 23.
Le réveil de la végétation est prodigieusement lent. J’ai presque de l’humeur contre la nature, qui semble prendre plaisir à nous faire perdre patience. Les mélèzes, les bouleaux, deux pieds de lilas que nous avons au jardin, les rosiers et les haies d’aubépine, portent à peine quelque verdure; tout le reste est sombre et dort presque comme en hiver, sauf quelques hêtres qui, plus printaniers que leurs frères, commencent à se nuancer sur la masse noire de la plantation qui borde l’étang. Au reste, tous les oiseaux sont arrivés, les rossignols chantent nuit et jour, le soleil luit à merveille, les insectes ailés bourdonnent et tourbillonnent; c’est partout de la vie et de la joie, excepté chez moi. Je ne sais par quel bizarre contraste j’ai plus de mal à vivre depuis quelques jours que dans les jours d’hiver où cependant je n’étais pas peu en peine. Je me fais l’effet d’un arbre mort au milieu d’un bois tout verdoyant.
The Green Notebook: 1833
p. 66April 23, 1833
The awakening of vegetation is prodigiously slow. I am almost vexed with nature, which seems to take pleasure in making us lose patience. The larches, the birches, the two lilac bushes we have in the garden, the rosebushes and hawthorn hedges bear scarcely any greenery; everything else is dark and sleeps almost as in winter, except for a few beeches which, more springlike than their brothers, are beginning to take on color against the black mass of the planting along the pond. Besides, all the birds have arrived, the nightingales sing day and night, the sun shines wonderfully, winged insects buzz and whirl; there is life and joy everywhere, except within me. By some strange contrast I cannot explain, I have found life harder these past few days than in the winter days, when I was already in no little distress. I feel like a dead tree in the midst of a wood all green.
Socrates
Reading The Green Notebook · 1833 · April 23, 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.