Diotimos Library · Journals, Notebooks & Fragments Collection · Bilingual Edition
Swipe or use the arrow keys.
Facing Pages · Branch 40 of 121
1833 · May 22, 1833
French
p. 79Le 22.
Il n’y a plus de fleurs aux arbres. Leur mission d’amour accomplie, elles sont mortes, comme une mère qui périt en donnant la vie. Les fruits ont noué, ils aspirent l’énergie vitale et reproductrice qui doit mettre sur pied de nouveaux individus. Une génération innombrable est actuellement suspendue aux branches de tous les arbres, aux fibres des plus humbles graminées, comme des enfants au sein maternel. Tous ces germes, incalculables dans leur nombre et leur diversité, sont là suspendus entre le ciel et la terre dans leur berceau et livrés au vent qui a la charge de bercer ces créatures. Les forêts futures se balancent imperceptibles aux forêts vivantes. La nature est tout entière aux soins de son immense maternité.
The Green Notebook: 1833
p. 80May 22, 1833
There are no more flowers on the trees. Their mission of love accomplished, they have died, like a mother who perishes in giving life. The fruits have set; they draw in the vital and reproductive energy that is to bring new individuals into being. A countless generation is now suspended from the branches of every tree, from the fibers of the humblest grasses, like children at the maternal breast. All these seeds, incalculable in their number and diversity, hang there between heaven and earth in their cradle, given over to the wind, whose charge it is to rock these creatures. Future forests sway, imperceptible, upon the living forests. Nature is wholly occupied with the cares of her immense maternity.
Socrates
Reading The Green Notebook · 1833 · May 22, 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.