March 02, 2004

Gracián: Oráculo Manual 2

1 Genio y Ingenio. 2 Los dos ejes del lucimiento de prendas: el uno sin el otro, felicidad a medias. 3 No basta lo entendido, deséase lo genial. 4 Infelicidad de necio: errar la vocación en el estado, empleo, región, familiaridad.

1 Genius and Wit. 2 The two poles of the display of natural gifts: the one without the other, happiness by halves. 3 Understanding does not suffice, genius is desired. 4 A fool’s misfortune: to be mistaken in his choice of status, employment, domicile, circle of friends.

Note: How difficult is Gracián? The three translations I have consulted translate “Genio y Ingenio” as “Genius and Wit” (Walton), “Character and Intelligence” (Maurer), and “Mind and Spirit” (Fischer). That’s an embarrassingly wide range of antitheses: the three pairs of words have very little in common. Was Gracián too busy punning to be precise?

Posted by Michael Hendry at March 2, 2004 12:00 AM
Comments
Ingenio has a shade of cleverness in handling situations, tools. I am not sure that the English word ingenuity will reflect Ingenio which has a sense of engineering in it. Ingenioso is somebody that is able to fix his own car. Posted by: daniel at March 11, 2004 09:12 PM