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Diotimos Library · Journals, Notebooks & Fragments Collection · Bilingual Edition

Maurice de Guérin

The Green Notebook

French with an independent English translation.

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The Green Notebook1833 · June 12, 1833

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Facing Pages · Branch 42 of 121

1833 · June 12, 1833

Book Mode

French

p. 83

Le 12 juin.

Ces vingt jours se sont passés misérablement, et si misérablement que je n’ai pas eu le courage d’écrire un mot ici ni ailleurs. Le mal m’a ressaisi avec une extrême violence et m’a comme réduit à l’extrémité. C’est comparable à ce que j’ai souffert de plus rude par le passé. Une lettre d’Eugénie, qui m’est arrivée dans le plus fort de l’accès m’a fait grand bien, mais il fallait que la crise eût son cours... Mon Dieu et mon bon ange, ayez pitié de moi, préservez-moi de pareilles souffrances!

83

The Green Notebook: 1833

p. 84

June 12, 1833

These twenty days have passed miserably, so miserably that I have not had the courage to write a word here or elsewhere. The affliction seized me again with extreme violence and, as it were, brought me to the last extremity. It is comparable to the harshest suffering I have known in the past. A letter from Eugénie, which reached me at the height of the attack, did me great good, but the crisis had to run its course... My God and my good angel, have pity on me, preserve me from such sufferings!

84

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.