Chapter 9: The Beaten Woman
Original French
La femme battue.
Zadig dirigeait sa route sur les étoiles. La constellation d'Orion et le brillant astre de Sirius le guidaient vers le port de Canope. Il admirait ces vastes globes de lumière qui ne paraissent que de faibles étincelles à nos yeux, tandis que la terre, qui n'est en effet qu'un point imperceptible dans la nature, paraît à notre cupidité quelque chose de si grand et de si noble. Il se figurait alors les hommes tels qu'ils sont en effet, des insectes se dévorant les uns les autres sur un petit atome de boue. Cette image vraie semblait anéantir ses malheurs, en lui retraçant le néant de son être et celui de Babylone. Son âme s'élançait jusque dans l'infini, et contemplait, détachée de ses sens, l'ordre immuable de l'univers. Mais lorsque ensuite, rendu à lui-même et rentrant dans son coeur, il pensait qu'Astarté était peut-être morte pour lui, l'univers disparaissait à ses yeux, et il ne voyait dans la nature entière qu'Astarté mourante et Zadig infortuné. Comme il se livrait à ce flux et à ce reflux de philosophie sublime et de douleur accablante, il avançait vers les frontières de l'Egypte; et déjà son domestique fidèle était dans la première bourgade, où il lui cherchait un logement. Zadig cependant se promenait vers les jardins qui bordaient ce village. Il vit, non loin du grand chemin, une femme éplorée qui appelait le ciel et la terre à son secours, et un homme furieux qui la suivait. Elle était déjà atteinte par lui, elle embrassait ses genoux. Cet homme l'accablait de coups et de reproches. Il jugea, à la violence de l'Egyptien et aux pardons réitérés que lui demandait la dame, que l'un était un jaloux, et l'autre une infidèle; mais quand il eut considéré cette femme, qui était d'une beauté touchante, et qui même ressemblait un peu à la malheureuse Astarté, il se sentit pénétré de compassion pour elle, et d'horreur pour l'Égyptien. Secourez-moi, s'écria-t-elle à Zadig avec des sanglots; tirez-moi des mains du plus barbare des hommes, sauvez-moi la vie! A ces cris, Zadig courut se jeter entre elle et ce barbare. Il avait quelque connaissance de la langue égyptienne. Il lui dit en cette langue: Si vous avez quelque humanité, je vous conjure de respecter la beauté et la faiblesse. Pouvez-vous outrager ainsi un chef-d'oeuvre de la nature, qui est à vos pieds, et qui n'a pour sa défense que des larmes? Ah! ah! lui dit cet emporté, tu l'aimes donc aussi! et c'est de toi qu'il faut que je me venge. En disant ces paroles, il laisse la dame, qu'il tenait d'une main par les cheveux, et, prenant sa lance, il veut en percer l'étranger. Celui-ci, qui était de sang-froid, évita aisément le coup d'un furieux. Il se saisit de la lance près du fer dont elle est armée. L'un veut la retirer, l'autre l'arracher. Elle se brise entre leurs mains. L'Égyptien tire son épée; Zadig s'arme de la sienne. Ils s'attaquent l'un l'autre. Celui-là porte cent coups précipités; celui-ci les pare avec adresse. La dame, assise sur un gazon, rajuste sa coiffure, et les regarde. L'Egyptien était plus robuste que son adversaire, Zadig était plus adroit. Celui-ci se battait en homme dont la tête conduisait le bras, et celui-là comme un emporté dont une colère aveugle guidait les mouvements au hasard. Zadig passe à lui, et le désarme; et tandis que l'Egyptien, devenu plus furieux, veut se jeter sur lui, il le saisit, le presse, le fait tomber en lui tenant l'épée sur la poitrine; il lui offre de lui donner la vie. L'Egyptien hors de lui tire son poignard; il en blesse Zadig dans le temps même que le vainqueur lui pardonnait. Zadig indigné lui plonge son épée dans le sein. L'Egyptien jette un cri horrible, et meurt en se débattant. Zadig alors s'avança vers la dame, et lui dit d'une voix soumise: Il m'a forcé de le tuer: je vous ai vengée; vous êtes délivrée de l'homme le plus violent que j'aie jamais vu. Que voulez-vous maintenant de moi, madame? Que tu meures, scélérat, lui répondit-elle; que tu meures! tu as tué mon amant; je voudrais pouvoir déchirer ton coeur. En vérité, madame, vous aviez là un étrange homme pour amant, lui répondit Zadig; il vous battait de toutes ses forces, et il voulait m'arracher la vie parceque vous m'avez conjuré de vous secourir. Je voudrais qu'il me battît encore, reprit la dame en poussant des cris. Je le méritais bien, je lui avais donné de la jalousie. Plût au ciel qu'il me battît, et que tu fusses à sa place! Zadig, plus surpris et plus en colère qu'il ne l'avait été de sa vie, lui dit: Madame, toute belle que vous êtes, vous mériteriez que je vous battisse à mon tour, tant vous êtes extravagante; mais je n'en prendrai pas la peine. Là-dessus il remonta sur son chameau, et avança vers le bourg. A peine avait-il fait quelques pas qu'il se retourne au bruit que fesaient quatre courriers de Babylone. Ils venaient à toute bride. L'un d'eux, en voyant cette femme, s'écria: C'est elle-même! elle ressemble au portrait qu'on nous en a fait. Ils ne s'embarrassèrent pas du mort, et se saisirent incontinent de la dame. Elle ne cessait de crier à Zadig: Secourez-moi encore une fois, étranger généreux! je vous demande pardon de m'être plainte de vous: secourez-moi, et je suis à vous jusqu'au tombeau! L'envie avait passé à Zadig de se battre désormais pour elle. A d'autres, répond-il; vous ne m'y attraperez plus. D'ailleurs il était blessé, son sang coulait, il avait besoin de secours; et la vue des quatre Babyloniens, probablement envoyés par le roi Moabdar, le remplissait d'inquiétude. Il s'avance en hâte vers le village, n'imaginant pas pourquoi quatre courriers de Babylone venaient prendre cette Egyptienne, mais encore plus étonné du caractère de cette dame.
Musean translation
Complete machine-assisted Musean translation made directly from Voltaire’s French in Beuchot’s 1829 edition: Approbation, dedicatory epistle and all twenty-one chapters, including The Dance and Blue Eyes. Voltaire’s notes are retained; later editors’ notes are omitted. Source-language review is recorded with the source witness.
The Beaten Woman.
Zadig steered by the stars. The constellation Orion and the brilliant star Sirius guided him toward the port of Canopus. He marveled at those vast globes of light that appear to our eyes as mere faint sparks, while the earth, which is really only an imperceptible speck in nature, seems to our greed so great and noble a thing. He pictured human beings as they truly are: insects devouring one another on a tiny atom of mud. This faithful image seemed to blot out his misfortunes by showing him the nothingness of his own existence and of Babylon. His soul soared into infinity and, released from his senses, contemplated the unchanging order of the universe. But afterward, when he returned to himself and looked into his heart, and thought that Astarté might have died for him, the universe vanished from his eyes, and in all nature he saw only Astarté dying and Zadig unhappy. Yielding to this ebb and flow of sublime philosophy and crushing grief, he traveled toward the borders of Egypt; his faithful servant had already reached the first village and was looking for lodgings for him there. Meanwhile Zadig walked toward the gardens bordering the village. Not far from the highway he saw a weeping woman calling on heaven and earth to help her, and a furious man pursuing her. He had already caught her; she clasped his knees. The man rained blows and reproaches on her. From the Egyptian’s violence and the woman’s repeated pleas for forgiveness, Zadig judged that one was jealous and the other unfaithful; but when he looked closely at this woman, whose beauty was touching and who even bore some resemblance to the unfortunate Astarté, he felt himself filled with compassion for her and horror at the Egyptian. “Help me!” she cried to Zadig through her sobs. “Save me from the most brutal of men! Save my life!” At these cries Zadig ran to throw himself between her and the brute. He knew something of the Egyptian language. In that language he said, “If you have any humanity, I beg you to respect beauty and weakness. Can you abuse a masterpiece of nature like this, when she lies at your feet with nothing but tears to defend her?” “Aha!” said the raging man. “So you love her too! Then it is on you that I must take revenge.” With these words he lets go of the woman, whom he was holding by the hair with one hand, takes up his spear, and tries to run the stranger through. Zadig, who had kept his composure, easily avoided a madman’s thrust. He seized the spear near its iron point. One tries to pull it back, the other to wrench it away. It breaks in their hands. The Egyptian draws his sword; Zadig arms himself with his own. They attack each other. The first rains down a hundred hasty strokes; the second parries them skillfully. Sitting on the grass, the woman adjusts her hair and watches them. The Egyptian was stronger than his opponent; Zadig was more skillful. Zadig fought like a man whose head directed his arm, the other like a hothead whose blind anger drove his movements at random. Zadig lunges and disarms him; and as the Egyptian, more furious than ever, tries to hurl himself upon him, Zadig seizes him, bears down on him, throws him to the ground, and holds his sword against his chest. He offers to spare his life. Beside himself, the Egyptian draws his dagger and wounds Zadig at the very moment his conqueror was granting him mercy. Outraged, Zadig plunges his sword into the man’s breast. The Egyptian gives a horrible cry and dies struggling. Zadig then went up to the woman and said humbly, “He forced me to kill him. I have avenged you; you are free of the most violent man I have ever seen. What would you have me do now, madam?” “Die, you villain!” she answered. “Die! You have killed my lover. I wish I could tear out your heart.” “Really, madam,” Zadig replied, “you had a strange man for a lover. He was beating you with all his strength, and he wanted to take my life because you begged me to help you.” “I wish he were still beating me!” the woman cried out. “I thoroughly deserved it; I had made him jealous. If only heaven would let him beat me and put you in his place!” More astonished and angrier than he had ever been in his life, Zadig said, “Madam, beautiful as you are, you deserve a beating from me in turn, you are so absurd; but I will not take the trouble.” With that he climbed back onto his camel and headed toward the village. He had scarcely gone a few paces when he turns at the noise of four couriers from Babylon. They were riding at full gallop. On seeing the woman, one of them cried, “That is her! She matches the description we were given.” They paid no attention to the dead man and immediately seized the woman. She kept crying out to Zadig, “Help me once more, generous stranger! Forgive me for complaining of you. Help me, and I am yours until the grave!” Zadig no longer had any desire to fight for her. “Try someone else,” he replies. “You will not catch me again.” Besides, he was wounded, his blood was flowing, he needed help; and the sight of the four Babylonians, probably sent by King Moabdar, filled him with alarm. He hurries toward the village, unable to imagine why four couriers from Babylon had come to seize this Egyptian woman, but still more astonished at the woman’s character.
Plain English translation
Complete machine-assisted Plain English translation made independently and directly from the French, in separate source-only translation tasks, not from the Musean edition or a published English translation. Same complete scope and author’s notes; later editors’ notes are omitted. Source-language review is recorded with the source witness.
The Beaten Woman.
Zadig steered by the stars. The constellation Orion and the bright star Sirius guided him toward the port of Canopus. He admired those vast globes of light that look to our eyes like faint sparks, while the earth, really just an invisible speck in nature, seems so great and noble to our greed. He pictured human beings as they really are: insects devouring one another on a tiny atom of mud. This true image seemed to wipe out his troubles by showing him how insignificant he and Babylon were. His soul soared into infinity. Freed from his senses, it contemplated the unchanging order of the universe. But then he returned to himself and looked into his heart. When he thought that Astarté might have died because of him, the universe disappeared from his eyes. In all of nature, he saw only Astarté dying and Zadig in misery. Swept back and forth between lofty philosophy and crushing grief, he traveled toward the borders of Egypt. His faithful servant had already reached the first village and was looking for lodging for him. Meanwhile, Zadig walked toward the gardens along the village's edge. Not far from the main road, he saw a woman in tears calling on heaven and earth to help her, with a furious man chasing her. The man had caught her, and she was clinging to his knees. He rained blows and accusations on her. From the Egyptian's violence and the woman's repeated pleas for forgiveness, Zadig judged that the man was jealous and the woman unfaithful. But when he looked at her touching beauty, which even reminded him a little of the unfortunate Astarté, he felt deep pity for her and horror at the Egyptian. "Help me!" she cried to Zadig between sobs. "Get me out of the hands of this most brutal man! Save my life!" At these cries, Zadig ran to put himself between her and the brute. He knew some Egyptian. He said to the man in that language, "If you have any humanity, I beg you to respect beauty and weakness. How can you treat this masterpiece of nature so badly, when she is at your feet with nothing but tears to defend her?" "Aha!" the furious man told him. "So you love her too! Then you're the one I must take revenge on." As he spoke, he let go of the woman, whom he had been holding by the hair with one hand. He grabbed his spear and tried to run the stranger through. Zadig remained calm and easily dodged the enraged man's thrust. He caught the spear near its iron tip. One man tried to pull it back, the other to wrench it away. It broke in their hands. The Egyptian drew his sword, and Zadig drew his own. They attacked each other. The Egyptian delivered a hundred hurried blows, and Zadig skillfully blocked them. Sitting on the grass, the woman fixed her hair and watched. The Egyptian was stronger than his opponent, but Zadig was more skillful. Zadig fought like a man whose head directed his arm. The Egyptian fought in a rage, his blind anger sending his movements at random. Zadig closed in and disarmed him. The Egyptian, even more furious, tried to throw himself at him. Zadig seized him, pressed him back, and brought him down, holding his sword against his chest. He offered to spare his life. Beside himself, the Egyptian pulled out a dagger and wounded Zadig at the very moment his conqueror was forgiving him. Outraged, Zadig drove his sword into his chest. The Egyptian gave a horrible cry and died struggling. Zadig then approached the woman and said humbly, "He forced me to kill him. I've avenged you. You're free of the most violent man I've ever seen. What would you like me to do for you now, madam?" "Die, you villain!" she answered. "Die! You've killed my lover. I wish I could tear your heart out." "Really, madam," Zadig answered, "that was a strange lover you had. He was beating you with all his strength, and he wanted to kill me because you begged me to help you." "I wish he were still beating me!" the woman cried out. "I deserved it. I had made him jealous. I wish to heaven he were beating me and you were in his place!" More astonished and angry than he had ever been in his life, Zadig said, "Madam, beautiful as you are, you're so unreasonable that you deserve for me to beat you in turn. But I won't trouble myself." With that, he got back on his camel and headed for the village. He had gone only a few steps when he turned at the sound of four couriers from Babylon. They were riding at full speed. Seeing the woman, one of them cried, "That's her! She matches the description we were given." They paid no attention to the dead man and seized the woman at once. She kept crying to Zadig, "Help me once more, generous stranger! Forgive me for complaining about you. Help me, and I'm yours until death!" Zadig no longer felt any desire to fight for her. "Try someone else," he answered. "You won't catch me again." Besides, he was wounded and bleeding and needed help. The sight of the four Babylonians, probably sent by King Moabdar, filled him with alarm. He hurried toward the village, unable to imagine why four couriers from Babylon had come to seize this Egyptian woman, but even more astonished by her character.
About this section
Chapter 9: The Beaten Woman is part of Zadig, or Destiny by Voltaire. This page sets the French original beside 2 direct-source translations, so any line can be checked against the source. It is chapter 11 of 23 in the work, which is kept in the European tradition.
Open the work page for the full contents, every edition, and the download links, or go back to Explore to browse other complete works in the European tradition. The reader keeps your place when you are signed in and lets you compare the original with each translation, one edition at a time.