B — Beau, Beauté
Original French
Demandez à un crapaud ce que c’est que la beauté, le grand beau, le to kalon? il vous répondra que c’est sa femelle avec deux gros yeux ronds, sortans de sa petite tête, une gueule large & plate, un ventre jaune, un dos brun. Interrogez un nègre de Guinée, le beau est pour lui une peau noire huileuse, des yeux enfoncés, un nez épaté.
Interrogez le Diable, il vous dira que le beau est une paire de cornes, quatre griffes & une queue. Consultez enfin les philosophes, ils vous répondront par du galimatias; il leur faut quelque chose de conforme à l’archetipe du beau en essence, au to kalon.
J’assistais un jour à une tragédie auprès d’un philosophe; Que cela est beau! disait-il. Que trouvez-vous là de beau? lui dis-je; C’est, dit-il, que l’auteur a atteint son but. Le lendemain il prit une médecine qui lui fit du bien; Elle a atteint son but, lui dis-je; voilà une belle médecine; il comprit qu’on ne peut dire qu’une médecine est belle, & que pour donner à quelque chose le nom de beauté, il faut qu’elle vous cause de l’admiration & du plaisir. Il convint que cette tragédie lui avait inspiré ces deux sentiments, & que c’était là le to kalon, le beau.
Nous fîmes un voyage en Angleterre; on y joüa la même piéce, parfaitement traduite; elle fit bâiller tous les spectateurs. Oh, oh, dit-il, le to kalon n’est pas le même pour les Anglais & pour les Français. Il conclut après bien des réflexions, que le beau est très rélatif, comme ce qui est décent au Japon est indécent à Rome; & ce qui est de mode à Paris ne l’est pas à Pekin; & il s’épargna la peine de composer un long traité sur le beau.
Musean translation
Mouseia’s complete machine-assisted Musean translation of the 73 articles in the 1764 first edition, made directly from the French and reviewed against the scan-collated French text. The author’s notes, quotations and verse are retained. Historical ethnic labels, including offensive terms, are retained from the 1764 text.
Ask a toad what beauty is, the supremely beautiful, the to kalon: he will answer that it is his mate, with two large round eyes protruding from her little head, a broad flat mouth, a yellow belly, a brown back. Question a Negro of Guinea: beauty, for him, is black oily skin, sunken eyes, a flattened nose.
Question the Devil: he will tell you that beauty is a pair of horns, four claws and a tail. Finally, consult the philosophers: they will answer you with gibberish; they must have something conforming to the archetype of beauty in essence, to the to kalon.
One day I attended a tragedy beside a philosopher. “How beautiful that is!” he said. “What do you find beautiful in it?” I asked him. “It is,” he said, “that the author has attained his end.” The next day he took a medicine that did him good. “It has attained its end,” I said to him; “there is a beautiful medicine.” He understood that one cannot say a medicine is beautiful, and that to give anything the name of beauty it must cause us admiration and pleasure. He agreed that this tragedy had inspired those two sentiments in him, and that this was the to kalon, the beautiful.
We traveled to England; the same play was performed there, perfectly translated; it made all the spectators yawn. “Oh, oh,” he said, “the to kalon is not the same for the English and for the French.” He concluded after much reflection that beauty is very relative, as what is decent in Japan is indecent in Rome, and what is fashionable in Paris is not so in Peking; and he spared himself the trouble of composing a long treatise on beauty.
Plain English translation
Mouseia’s complete machine-assisted Plain English translation of the same 73 articles, made directly from the French and reviewed against the scan-collated French text. The author’s notes, quotations and verse are retained. Historical ethnic labels, including offensive terms, are retained from the 1764 text.
What is beauty, supreme beauty, the to kalon? Put that to a toad. He’ll point to his mate: her little head with two big round eyes sticking out, her broad flat mouth, her yellow belly, her brown back. Put it to a Negro from Guinea. For him, it’s black oily skin, eyes set deep, and a flat nose.
Put the question to the Devil. He’ll describe two horns, four claws, and a tail. Turn at last to the philosophers, and you’ll get nonsense. They want something that matches the archetype of beauty itself, the to kalon.
I once sat next to a philosopher watching a tragedy. “That’s beautiful!” he kept saying. I asked him what was beautiful about it. “The writer has done what he set out to do,” he answered. Next day, he took medicine and felt better. “It’s done what it set out to do,” I said. “Beautiful medicine, then!” He saw that medicine isn’t something you can call beautiful. To deserve that name, a thing has to give you pleasure and make you admire it. He agreed the tragedy had done both. That was the to kalon, beauty.
We went to England, where they put on the same play in a perfect translation. Everyone in the audience yawned. “Oh, oh!” he said. “The English and French don’t have the same to kalon.” He thought it over a great deal. He concluded that what counts as beautiful varies greatly. What’s decent in Japan is indecent in Rome. A fashion in Paris isn’t a fashion in Peking. That saved him writing a long book on beauty.
About this section
B — Beau, Beauté is part of Pocket Philosophical Dictionary by Voltaire. This page sets the French original beside 2 direct-source translations, so any line can be checked against the source. It is article 13 of 73 in the work, which is kept in the European tradition.
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