This site uses cookies. Some of these cookies are essential to the operation of the site, while others help to improve your experience by providing insights into how the site is being used. For more information, please see the ProZ.com privacy policy.
Cookie settings
s/p IM
CBN (Calcul des besoins nets)
Aug 30, 2010 13:49
13 yrs ago
2 viewers *
French term

légèreté

French to English Art/Literary Poetry & Literature
As used by Apollinaire, for example. "La légèreté d'art"
Proposed translations (English)
4 +6 What are you looking for?
5 lightness (of art)
4 delicacy
4 the ethereal nature of...
3 instability
3 triviality
4 -2 (the) light (of art)

Discussion

Ipecac (asker) Aug 30, 2010:
No, Phil, by no means is it religious grace. Gracefulness, rather. Thanks!
Ipecac (asker) Aug 30, 2010:
I'm glad you agree with "grace." "Delicacy" is another good idea. Légèrté is one of those French words that really doesn't lend itself to quick translation. (Yes, I should have said "l'art.") Thank you all so much for your input !
B D Finch Aug 30, 2010:
@phil Do you mean grace in the religious sense? That, I believe, is the only sense in which "souffrance" would fit, not in the sense of physical or aesthetic gracefullness. However, I don't think that religious grace can be a translation of "légèreté".
philgoddard Aug 30, 2010:
In that context, I would say "grace".
Is "la légèreté d'art" the same as "la légèreté de l'art"?
Ipecac (asker) Aug 30, 2010:
For example, Apollinaire says something like, "la souffrance et la beauté contribuent plus que la proportion à la légèreté d'art." I'm thinking légèrté as in "grace," but I'm not sure. What do you think?
philgoddard Aug 30, 2010:
Please could we have some context, and could you also tell us what research you've done - eg which dictionaries you've consulted.

Proposed translations

+6
23 mins
Selected

What are you looking for?

Basically, in this situation, the word means "lightness", but are you looking for something more poetic? Something like "The airiness of art"? The etherial nature of art"? "Thou will-o'-the-wisp, art"?

The word also has senses relating to the "seriousness" of art, in the sense both of its moral, cultural, and humorous value. "The fatuity of art", "The shallowness of art", "The inanity of art".

All of which are covered by "lightness".

Then there's the sense of sexual probity, as in une femme légère. I suppose "art" could be personified as a woman.

More context required.
Peer comment(s):
agree David Salas
12 mins
agree JoshBurkholder : "The lightness of art" coveys the same meaning as the French expression.
15 mins
agree ormiston : doubt anyone can beat this thorough answer!
17 mins
agree Carol Gullidge : more context, indeed
57 mins
agree Verginia Ophof
4 hrs
agree Rachel Fell : or, elusiveness / ~ nature ?
7 hrs
Something went wrong...
4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer. Comment: "True. "Lightness" is often used, and is often the best choice, as in Kundera's "Unbearable lightness of being," written in Czech but with a French influence. "
-2
23 mins

(the) light (of art)

Please see the following:

[PDF] HACETTEPE UNIVERSITY - [ Traducir esta página ]Formato de archivo: PDF/Adobe Acrobat - Versión en HTML
Pound, Williams, Marinetti, Breton, Stevens, Apollinaire and other modernist writers. ..... to discuss representative works of art in the light of art ...
www.ake.hacettepe.edu.tr/Download/Socrates_Erasmus_Info_Pac...

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 25 mins (2010-08-30 14:15:16 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

break-even-point's Blog - Windows Live - [ Traducir esta página ]Go make a list of everything she said and mark the points that are true. ... the writing of Guillaume Apollinaire (from whom the notion of surreality ..... identities of contemporary man, seen in the light of art and philosophy. ...
break-even-point.spaces.live.com/?_... - En caché

Maurice Merleau Ponty: Basic Writings - Research and Read Books ...de RC Ltd
This meaning will not become any clearer in the light of art history - that ...... Apollinaire said that in a poem there are phrases which do not appear to ...
www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&se=gglsc&d=104254191

There's not much else to go by, but this seems to be what this is referring to.
Peer comment(s):
disagree JoshBurkholder : WroNg kind of light I think;" in the light of" would be "à la lumière de..." I believe
21 mins
neutral Jim Tucker (X) : w/Josh, this is not "in light of" but the other kind of light, as in lightness of weight or treatment
28 mins
disagree Carol Gullidge : "in the light of" means something quite different. The fact that in yr links the expression happens to be followed by "art" is quite irrelevant
56 mins
Something went wrong...
39 mins

lightness (of art)

légèreté= lightness (substantive)
légère = light (adjective)
Peer comment(s):
neutral philgoddard : Did you bother to read Bourth's answer?
1 hr
Something went wrong...
1 hr

delicacy

Given the context you have added, I think this is the meaning.

" 4 (1688, La Bruyère). Vieilli. Délicatesse et agrément (de la conversation, du ton, du style). → Léger, III., 4. è Aisance, facilité, grâce (cit. 77). | La légèreté de son style. — REM. Les risques d'ambiguïté avec le sens II, 1, plus cour., font que cette acception a vieilli."
Ref. Le Grand Robert

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 2 hrs (2010-08-30 16:09:26 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

According to Collins dico:
"delicacy
...[1] fine or subtle quality, character, construction etc.: delicacy of craftsmanship. ...
[5] refinement of feeling, manner or appreciation: the delicacy of the orchestra's playing..."
Something went wrong...
2 hrs

the ethereal nature of...

a suggestion, difficult without any context at all
Something went wrong...
3 hrs

instability

Another meaning of ''légèreté'':

Il signifie au figuré Inconstance, instabilité. Je crains la légèreté de son esprit, de son caractère. Il a dans le caractère une légèreté qui l'empêche de se fixer à aucun parti.

Dictionnaire de l'Académie française, 8th Edition (1932-5)

http://artflx.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/dicos/pubdico1look.pl?str...



L'art et la philosophie ne sont pas de bonnes ententes dans la mesure où la philosophie reproche à l'art de conduire l'esprit vers quelque chose qui ne peut être porteur de vérité. Ainsi, selon Platon, l'art semble être uniquement une imitation des apparences des objets et, par conséquent, séduit le public pour de mauvaises causes. L'art semble être une représentation des perceptions, d'où l'INSTABILITÉ DE L'ART

http://www.oodoc.com/95372-l-art-transforme-t-il-notre-consc...

Le tableau sur la mort de Brune, peut-être emblème du basculement des choses, de l'INSTABILITÉ DE L'ART, de la vie, sur les bascules, comme le passage à l'âge adulte.

http://www.voixauchapitre.com/archives/2008/la_mort _de_brun...

. But few artists in history have made such a blatant point about the incomplete nature of art, the undecideability of art, the INSTABILITY OF ART as have those artists we typically refer to as “conceptual” artists.

http://www.popmatters.com/pm/feature/bruce-nauman-and-the-ar...

in favour of a world where the
uncertainty and the INSTABILITY OF ART will have precedence over the stagnant permanence of
knowledge and truth.

http://www.revue-texto.net/marges/marges/Documents Site 7/do...
Something went wrong...
23 hrs

triviality

The triviality of art
Something went wrong...
Close search
Term search
  • All of ProZ.com
  • Term search
  • Jobs
  • Forums
  • Multiple search