Diotimos Library · Literary Fiction Collection · Bilingual Edition
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Facing Pages · Branch 57 of 94
René · p. 172
French
p. 172ma cellule, j’entendrai le murmure des flots qui baignent les murs du couvent ; je songerai à ces promenades que je faisois avec vous, au milieu des bois, alors que nous croyions retrouver le bruit des mers dans la cime agitée des pins. Aimable compagnon de mon enfance, est-ce que je ne vous verrai plus ? A peine plus âgée que vous, je vous balançois dans votre berceau ; souvent nous avons dormi ensemble. Ah ! si un même tombeau nous réunissoit un jour ! Mais non : je dois dormir seule sous les marbres glacés de ce sanctuaire où reposent pour jamais ces filles qui n’ont point aimé.
» Je ne sais si vous pourrez lire ces lignes à demi effacées par mes larmes. Après tout, mon ami, un peu plus tôt, un peu plus tard, n’auroit-il pas fallu nous quitter ? Qu’ai-je besoin de vous entretenir de l’incertitude et du peu de valeur de la vie ? Vous vous rappelez le jeune M……. qui fit naufrage à l’Isle-de-France. Quand vous reçûtes sa dernière lettre, quelques mois après sa mort, sa dépouille terrestre n’existoit même plus, et l’instant où vous commenciez son deuil en Europe étoit celui où on le finissoit aux Indes. Qu’est-ce donc que l’homme, dont la mémoire périt si
René
Source p. 172my cell, I shall hear the murmur of the waves that wash the walls of the convent; I shall think of those walks I used to take with you in the midst of the woods, when we thought we heard again the sound of the seas in the tossing tops of the pines. Dear companion of my childhood, shall I never see you again? Scarcely older than you, I rocked you in your cradle; often we have slept together. Ah! if one tomb might unite us some day! But no: I must sleep alone beneath the icy marbles of that sanctuary where those maidens who have never loved rest for ever.
’I do not know whether you will be able to read these lines half effaced by my tears. After all, my friend, a little sooner, a little later, would we not have had to part? What need have I to speak to you of the uncertainty and the little worth of life? You remember young M……. who was shipwrecked at the Isle de France. When you received his last letter, some months after his death, his earthly remains no longer even existed, and the moment when you began to mourn him in Europe was the moment when they were ending their mourning in the Indies. What then is man, whose memory perishes so
Socrates
Reading René · René · René · p. 172
Ask about a concept, passage, contradiction, or connection.
Socrates will begin with this book and its sources.About This Reading Edition
Chateaubriand’s tale of René and Amélie, with the Preface of 1805, two contemporary reviews, and the longer readings of 1802. This French–English edition preserves the 1826 printed pages, with a new English translation, author’s notes, variant readings, introduction and glossary.
Historical Text and Translation
François-René de Chateaubriand, Œuvres complètes, tome XVI (Paris: Ladvocat, 1826), pp. 1–16, 137–192 and 351–358, University of Toronto Library copy. Earlier witness: Génie du Christianisme, tome II (Paris: Migneret, 1802), pp. 158–216, Bibliothèque nationale de France copy.
About Diotimos Editions
This historical edition credits Diotimos Editions as its English translator.
Rights
The historical French source is in the public domain in the United States. New English translation and editorial matter © 2026 Diotimos Editions. Chateaubriand’s author notes and historical variants remain separately attributed.