Diotimos Library · Journals, Notebooks & Fragments Collection · Bilingual Edition
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French Page · Branch 35 of 121
1833 · Le 25.
French
p. 69Le 25.
Il vient de pleuvoir. La nature est fraîche, rayonnante; la terre semble savourer avec volupté l’eau qui lui apporte la vie. On dirait que le gosier des oiseaux s’est aussi rafraîchi à cette pluie : leur chant est plus pur, plus vif, plus éclatant, et vibre à merveille dans l’air devenu extrêmement sonore et retentissant. Les rossignols, les bouvreuils, les merles, les grives, les loriots, les pinsons, les roitelets, tout cela chante et se réjouit. Une oie, qui crie comme une trompette, ajoute au charme par le contraste. Les arbres immobiles semblent écouter tous ces bruits. D’innombrables pommiers fleuris paraissent au loin comme des boules de neige; les cerisiers aussi tout blancs se dressent en pyramides ou s’étalent en éventails de fleurs.
Les oiseaux semblent viser parfois à ces effets d’orchestre où tous les instruments se confondent en une masse d’harmonie.
Si l’on pouvait s’identifier au printemps, forcer cette pensée au point de croire aspirer en soi toute la vie, tout l’amour qui fermentent dans la nature, se sentir à la fois fleur, verdure, oiseau, chant, fraîcheur, élasticité, volupté, sérénité! Que serait-ce de moi? Il y a des moments où, à force de se concentrer dans cette idée et de regarder fixement la nature, on croit éprouver quelque chose comme cela.
The Green Notebook: 1833
p. 70April 25, 1833
It has just rained. Nature is fresh, radiant; the earth seems to savor with delight the water that brings it life. One would say the birds’ throats had also been refreshed by this rain: their song is purer, livelier, more brilliant, and vibrates wonderfully in the air, now extraordinarily resonant and resounding. The nightingales, bullfinches, blackbirds, thrushes, orioles, finches, kinglets, all sing and rejoice. A goose, crying like a trumpet, adds to the charm by contrast. The motionless trees seem to listen to all these sounds. Countless apple trees in blossom appear in the distance like balls of snow; the cherry trees, also all white, rise in pyramids or spread into fans of flowers.
The birds sometimes seem to aim at those orchestral effects in which all the instruments mingle in a mass of harmony.
If one could identify oneself with spring, press that thought to the point of believing one breathed into oneself all the life, all the love fermenting in nature, feel oneself at once flower, greenery, bird, song, freshness, suppleness, delight, serenity! What would become of me? There are moments when, by concentrating upon this idea and gazing steadily at nature, one believes one feels something like it.
Socrates
Reading The Green Notebook · 1833 · April 25, 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.