Diotimos Library · Journals, Notebooks & Fragments Collection · Bilingual Edition
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Facing Pages · Branch 41 of 121
1833 · May 23, 1833
French
p. 81Le 23.
Nous sommes parvenus à lancer sur l’étang une vieille chaloupe que nous avons retirée de la vase où elle était ensevelie depuis plus d’un an. Elle nous a bien coûté à réparer, mais nous sommes bien payés de nos peines par le plaisir que nous prenons à nos petites navigations. Cette chaloupe a appartenu à un bâtiment suédois. Qui sait les mers qu’elle a courues? Eût-elle fait le tour du monde, elle n’en pourrira pas moins sur une petite flaque d’eau.
The Green Notebook: 1833
p. 82May 23, 1833
We have managed to launch upon the pond an old boat which we pulled from the mud where it had lain buried for more than a year. It cost us much to repair, but we are well repaid for our trouble by the pleasure we take in our little voyages. This boat belonged to a Swedish ship. Who knows what seas it has traveled? Even had it gone around the world, it would rot just the same upon a little puddle of water.
Socrates
Reading The Green Notebook · 1833 · May 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.