Beyond Good and Evil · Chapter
28 explained
The chapter argues that a language's tempo, rooted in the physiological character of its people, is nearly impossible to translate.
What happens
The chapter argues that a language's tempo, rooted in the physiological character of its people, is nearly impossible to translate. It criticizes German style as ponderous and incapable of capturing the lively, free-spirited presto found in writers like Aristophanes, Petronius, and Machiavelli. Lessing is presented as a rare German exception due to his theatrical nature and love for free-spiritism, while Goethe's prose is seen as a reflection of a bygone rococo taste. The chapter culminates in a meditation on Aristophanes as a transfiguring genius and the revealing fact that Plato died with a copy of Aristophanes under his pillow.
Themes in this chapter
Critique of Modernity
Criticizes modern German style as ponderous, viscous, and pompous, contrasting it with the lively, free-spirited tempo of other cultures and eras.
Nobility and Order of Rank
Implies an order of rank in style and spirit, elevating the 'presto' of free-spirited thought and scorning the 'ponderous' German temperament.
Characters to notice
- Aristophanes
Celebrated as a transfiguring, complementary genius whose work was found under Plato's deathbed pillow, symbolizing the necessity of his liberating scorn for enduring Greek life.
- Plato
His 'secrecy and sphinxlike nature' is meditated upon; the discovery of Aristophanes' book under his pillow highlights a complex relationship with the culture he repudiated.
- Gotthold Ephraim Lessing
Presented as a German exception due to his histrionic, versatile nature and love for free-spiritism in tempo, fleeing German stylistic constraints.
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
His prose is cited as a reflection of the 'good old time' of German rococo taste, characterized by a mixture of stiffness and elegance.
- Niccolò Machiavelli
His style in 'The Prince' is praised for its dry, fine Florentine air and boisterous 'allegrissimo' tempo that contrasts with heavy thoughts.
Key passages
“What is most difficult to render from one language into another is the tempo of its style, which has its basis in the character of the race...”
The style's pace, rooted in a people's physiological nature, is the hardest thing to translate.
Establishes the core argument about untranslatable cultural tempo.
“Everything ponderous, viscous, and pompously clumsy, all long-winded and wearying species of style, are developed in profuse variety among Germans...”
Germans excel at producing heavy, tedious, and overly formal styles.
Direct critique of the German stylistic character.
“...how could even Plato have endured life—a Greek life which he repudiated—without an Aristophanes!”
Plato needed Aristophanes' liberating art to bear the Greek life he rejected.
Highlights the complementary, necessary role of the transfiguring artist for the philosopher.