Diotimos Library · Journals, Notebooks & Fragments Collection · Bilingual Edition
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French Page · Branch 46 of 121
1833 · Le 23.
French
p. 91Le 23.
« Je sens bien que je suis une pauvre créature qui ai peu d’esprit. » Oh! que c’est bien dit, mon cher Bernardin! Comme tu as bien rendu le sentiment d’une âme qu’on s’efforce d’élever au-dessus de sa sphère et qui, pénétrée de son impuissance, s’écrie : Je sens bien que je suis une pauvre créature, comme tu fais dire à Virginie. Il y a bien longtemps que je me répète ces paroles; c’est le résumé de tous mes travaux, de toute ma vie. Oh! si je n’étais pauvre que de ce côté, encore passe; mais c’est que ma pauvreté est presque universelle, oui universelle, et que je ne tirerai jamais grand’chose de bon de ma tête, non pas pour moi, mais pour ceux qui ont droit d’attendre quelque chose de moi. C’est là ce qui me désole. Je me suis trompé de chemin. J’aurais pu faire quelque chose d’utile en prenant une direction tout opposée. Impossible de pousser les expériences plus loin que je ne l’ai fait. Celle que je suis en train de parfaire sera sans réplique. Après cela, qui pourrait dire ce qu’il adviendra de moi? Le fil invisible de la Providence me tirera toujours du meilleur côté.
The Green Notebook: 1833
p. 92June 23, 1833
‘I clearly feel that I am a poor creature with little intelligence.’ Oh, how well said, my dear Bernardin! How well you have conveyed the feeling of a soul one strives to raise above its sphere and which, penetrated by its own powerlessness, cries out: I clearly feel that I am a poor creature, as you make Virginie say. I have been repeating these words to myself for a long time; they sum up all my labors, all my life. Oh, if I were poor only in that respect, it might still be borne; but my poverty is almost universal, yes, universal, and I shall never draw much good from my head, not for myself, but for those who have the right to expect something of me. That is what desolates me. I have taken the wrong road. I might have done something useful by taking an entirely opposite direction. It is impossible to carry these experiments farther than I have done. The one I am now completing will leave no room for reply. After that, who could say what will become of me? The invisible thread of Providence will always draw me toward the best course.
Socrates
Reading The Green Notebook · 1833 · June 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.