Tempo of style#
Summary#
The tempo of style reflects the physiological character of a race and proves the most difficult element to translate between languages. Nietzsche contrasts the ponderous, viscous German style with the swift presto of Machiavelli’s Principe, which presents serious and dangerous thoughts with a galloping, wanton humor. This mastery of tempo, also found in Aristophanes and Petronius, remains essentially untranslatable into German.