Editing Le Ton beau de Marot

{{Short description|1997 book by Douglas Hofstadter about translation}}
{{Infobox book
 | name        = Le Ton beau de Marot: In Praise of the Music of Language
 | image       = Le Ton beau de Marot.bookcover.amazon.jpg
 | caption     = 
 | author      = [[Douglas Hofstadter]]
 | country     = United States
 | language    = English
 | subject     = 
 | published   = 1997 ([[Basic Books]])
 | pages       =
 | isbn =  0-465-08645-4
 | dewey       = 
 | congress    = 
 | oclc        = 
 | followed_by = 
}}

'''''Le Ton beau de Marot: In Praise of the Music of Language''''' is a 1997 book by [[Douglas Hofstadter]] in which he explores the meaning, strengths, failings and beauty of [[translation]]. The book is a long and detailed examination of translations of a minor French poem and, through that, an examination of the mysteries of translation (and indeed more generally, language and [[consciousness]]) itself.  Hofstadter himself refers to it as "my ruminations on the art of translation".

The title itself is a [[pun]], revealing many of the themes of the work: {{Lang|fr|le ton beau}} means 'the beautiful tone' or 'the sweet tone', but the word order is unusual for French. It would be more common to write {{Lang|fr|le beau ton}}. A French speaker hearing the title spoken ({{IPA|fr|lə tɔ̃ bo də ma.ʁo|}}) would be [[Mondegreen|more likely to interpret]] it as ''le tombeau de [[Clément Marot|Marot]]''; where {{Lang|fr|tombeau}} may mean 'tomb' (as per the cover picture), but also ''[[tombeau]]'', 'a work of art (literature or music) done in memory and homage to a deceased person' (the title is intended to parallel the title of [[Maurice Ravel]]'s ''[[Le Tombeau de Couperin]]''). In a further play on the title, Hofstadter refers to his deceased wife Carol, to whom the book is dedicated, as {{Lang|fr|ma rose}} ("my rose"), and to himself as {{Lang|fr|ton beau}} ("your dear").

At the surface level, the book treats the difficulties and rewards of translating works (particularly poetry) from one [[language]] to another. Diverse translations (usually to English) of a short poem in [[French Renaissance|Renaissance French]], [[Clément Marot]]'s ''A une Damoyselle malade'' (referred to as '''Ma mignonne''<nowiki/>' by Hofstadter), serve as reference points for his ideas on the subject.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://clementmarot.com/MaMignonne.htm|title=Ma Mignonne}}</ref> Groups of translations alternate with analysis and commentary on the same throughout the book. However, Hofstadter's reading of the idea of 'translation' goes deeper than simply that of translating between languages. Translation between frames of reference—languages, cultures, modes of expression or, indeed, between one person's thoughts and another—becomes an element in many of the same concepts Hofstadter has addressed in prior works, such as reference and [[self-reference]], structure and function, and [[artificial intelligence]].

One theme of this book is the loss of Hofstadter's wife Carol, who died of a [[brain tumor]] while the book was being written; she also created one of the numerous translations of Marot's poem presented in the book. In this context the poem, dedicated to 'a sick lady', gained yet another deeply tragic and personal meaning, even though the translations were started long before her illness was even known (Hofstadter went on to follow with an even more personal book titled ''[[I Am a Strange Loop]]'' after the death of his wife).

==Reception==
Reviewing the book for ''[[The Washington Post]]'', [[Michael Dirda]] praised it as "dazzlingly smart, useful, impassioned and extremely enjoyable" and "an exhilarating blend of autobiography, analysis, wordplay, and elegy". Dirda observed that Hofstadter used a narrative voice that is "chatty, energetic and slangy", with "even the most abstruse matters (being) plain and jargon-free," but also faulted the book for its "blithe self-centeredness".<ref name=Dirda>[https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/entertainment/books/1997/06/29/at-play-in-a-field-of-words/9551324f-1c4e-49c7-ba27-3b961f077546/ At Play in a Field of Words], by [[Michael Dirda]]; in ''[[The Washington Post]]''; published June 28, 1997; retrieved April 19, 2025</ref>

Writing in ''[[The New York Times]]'', [[Robert Alter]] found it to be "quirky, personal, amusing, sometimes touching and often exasperating", with an "eccentric structure [that] allows [Hofstadter] to talk about pretty much whatever he wants to, some of it only loosely associated with translation." Alter felt that many of Hofstadter's insights about translation "involve a good deal of [[reinventing the wheel|reinvention of the wheel]]", and that the book's "ultimate weakness" is that ''Ma Mignonne'' is "no more than a charming trifle, with the charm clearly inseparable from its elegant form", concluding that although "Hofstadter has  valid things to say about one-half the task of literary translation—the juggling of verbal combinations and permutations", he does not address "the fundamental fact that literature is not merely an articulation of patterns but a deep imagining of the world through words."<ref name=NYT>{{cite web|last1=Alter |first1=Robert |title=My Little Chickadee:Douglas Hofstadter takes a 16th-century French poem addressed to a young girl and translates it every which way |url=https://www.nytimes.com/books/97/07/20/reviews/970720.20altert.html|work=[[The New York Times]] |date=July 20, 1997 |accessdate=7 August 2014|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20130616192456/http://www.nytimes.com/books/97/07/20/reviews/970720.20altert.html|archivedate=2013-06-16}}</ref>

''[[Kirkus Reviews]]'' described it as "friendly, sometimes brilliant, but generally pedantic", and noted that "despite Hofstadter's multifarious ingenuity, his central insights—e.g., the sublime complexity of language—seem banal", positing that they will be "familiar, not just to philosophers of language and literary critics, but to thoughtful lay readers."<ref name=Kirkus>[https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/douglas-r-hofstadter/le-ton-beau-de-marot/LE TON BEAU DE MAROT], reviewed in ''[[Kirkus Reviews]]''; published February 15, 1997; archived online,  May 19, 2010</ref>

''[[Publishers Weekly]]'' stated that the book's "moments of wit, intelligence and uncommon curiosity" are countered by its "diffuse structure and inflated—and sometimes hokey—prose" and its "cheery gee-whizzery [that] often rings false", comparing it negatively to Hofstadter's earlier works.<ref name=PW>[https://www.publishersweekly.com/9780465086436 Le Ton beau de Marot], reviewed in ''[[Publishers Weekly]]''; published 04/28/1997</ref>

[[David Langford]], while conceding that the book "isn't [[science fiction]]", emphasized that it is "full of SF examples, SF ideas, and that special tingly flavour of intelligent SF."<ref name=Langford>"Take Me To Your Picard", by [[David Langford]]; published in ''[[SFX (magazine)|SFX]]'' #33 (Christmas 1997); collected in ''The SEX Column and other misprints''; published 2005 by [[Cosmos Books]]; p. 65</ref>

==See also==
* [[Translation studies]]
* [[Machine translation]]
* "[[On Translating Beowulf|On Translating ''Beowulf'']]{{-"}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
*{{in lang|fr}} [https://web.archive.org/web/20040405063636/http://poesie.webnet.fr/auteurs/marot.html Site with complete works of Marot, plus many other French poets]
{{Douglas Hofstadter}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ton Beau De Marot, Le}}
[[Category:1997 non-fiction books]]
[[Category:Linguistics books]]
[[Category:Philosophy books]]
[[Category:Cognitive science literature]]
[[Category:Books by Douglas Hofstadter]]
[[Category:Basic Books books]]
[[Category:Translation publications]]