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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 · Le 28.

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French Page · Branch 47 of 121

1833 · Le 28.

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French

p. 93

Le 28.

J’ai bien des choses à dire, allons au plus pressé. J’ai là une irritation qui veut parler et se faire jour à travers tout le reste. J’ai tant pâti dans mon âme que je devrais être à l’épreuve des piqûres d’épingle, s’il en allait de l’âme comme du corps qui s’endurcit aux coups comme le fer sous le marteau. Mais pour elle, c’est tout au rebours. Je désirerais vivement...

93

The Green Notebook: 1833

p. 94

June 28, 1833

I have many things to say; let us go to the most pressing. There is an irritation here that wishes to speak and make its way out through everything else. I have suffered so much in my soul that I ought to be proof against pinpricks, if the soul were like the body, which hardens under blows like iron beneath the hammer. But with the soul it is quite the reverse. I would earnestly wish...

94

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.