Diotimos Library · Journals, Notebooks & Fragments Collection · Bilingual Edition
Swipe or use the arrow keys.
Facing Pages · Branch 58 of 121
1833 · October 2, 1833
French
p. 115Le 2.
Six heures du soir. C’est le moment où les souvenirs me reviennent par milliers, comme les oiseaux qui, à la même heure, accourent en foule au rendez-vous qu’ils se sont donné sur un grand peuplier où ils ramagent confusément jusqu’à ce que la nuit les endorme. Le coucher du soleil est ravissant. Les nuages, qui l’ont escorté vers l’occident, s’ouvrent à l’horizon comme un groupe de courtisans qui voient venir le roi, et puis se referment sur son passage. Le soleil couché, quelques-uns de ces nuages s’en reviennent et remontent dans le ciel, emportant les plus belles couleurs. Les plus lourds restent là aux portes du palais, comme une compagnie de gardes aux cuirasses dorées. Ces nuages ne touchent pas tout à fait à l’horizon : une bande lumineuse qui va s’effilant par les extrémités court entre eux et la ligne bleue de la terre. Quelques peupliers grêles et lointains, qui semblent sortir de cette ligne bleue et dont la taille élancée se détache parfaitement sur la pureté de la bande lumineuse, figurent les mâts de navires à l’ancre sur l’horizon de la mer.
The Green Notebook: 1833
p. 116October 2, 1833
Six o’clock in the evening. This is the moment when memories return to me by the thousand, like the birds that, at the same hour, flock to the meeting place they have chosen in a great poplar, where they chatter in confusion until night puts them to sleep. The sunset is enchanting. The clouds which escorted it westward open upon the horizon like a group of courtiers who see the king approaching, then close again after he passes. Once the sun has set, some of those clouds return and rise again into the sky, carrying off the loveliest colors. The heaviest remain there at the palace gates, like a company of guards in gilded breastplates. These clouds do not quite touch the horizon: a luminous band, tapering at its ends, runs between them and the earth’s blue line. A few slender, distant poplars, seeming to emerge from that blue line and whose tall forms stand out perfectly against the purity of the luminous band, resemble the masts of ships anchored upon the sea’s horizon.
Socrates
Reading The Green Notebook · 1833 · October 2, 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.