2

I'm just reading a story, whose title is 'Sad Beauty'. This is translated in our language as 'beauty of sadness'. The story is that an unhealthy woman gets sick and finally passes away. Actually this is a SAD story, but I think the translation is wrong and 'sad beauty' has any meaning like slang, such as 'pity' or 'sad princess'.
If somebody knows the meaning of this, please let me know.

I saw the following sentence (the old poem about a thousand years ago), so I decide to ask this question.

Kokoronaki mi ni mo aware wa shirarekeri shigi tatsu sawa no aki no yugure
(Even one who claims to no longer have a heart feels this sad beauty: snipes flying up from a marsh on an evening in autumn).

6
  • Is the woman in the story perceived to be beautiful? Is the fact that she is beautiful maybe simply not of any consequence to her condition as she wilts away?
    – Joachim
    Commented May 1, 2021 at 9:13
  • 1
    'Sad beauty' does not, as far as I know, have any slang meaning, but 'beauty' can mean either 'the quality of being beautiful' or 'beautiful woman'. The title may refer to either, or both, of those meanings. Commented May 1, 2021 at 10:39
  • The translation of the quote says that the "sad beauty" is the sight of snipes (should be snipe really) flying off a marsh into the evening sky. The title does, however, have the implication of a double meaning: both the snipe and the woman herself being "sad beauties" in different senses.
    – BoldBen
    Commented May 1, 2021 at 11:23
  • Joachim, Kate, BoldBen, thank you for your quick response! I understand there is no slang about 'Sad Beauty'. I think it may mean her outer and inner beauty, and also the title has a double meaning as BoldBen commented. The old poem is too difficult and makes me so confused.
    – Chizuru
    Commented May 2, 2021 at 7:20
  • For me, the title contrasts two words that would not normally be found together. I would typically think of "Beauty" as joyful and happy. The title describes this "beauty" as "sad" perhaps mournful or tragic. Again for me, the title sets a mood or expectation of tragedy.
    – jim
    Commented May 2, 2021 at 12:53

1 Answer 1

2

There's no slang meaning. "Sad beauty" means exactly what it says: beauty that's sad.

Beauty is often short-lived. When it is, bearing witness to it, like bearing witness to someone's beauty and mortality simultaneously, is often sad for the witness, so seeing a picture of the now-late Princess Diana holding a terminally ill child with AIDS would be an example of "sad beauty." Another example is films that are both beautiful and sad, like Sophie's Choice, Brian's Song, The Fault in Our Stars, and The Goldfinch are very beautiful and very sad films, thus exemplifying "sad beauty."

We can also imbue sadness onto beauty after we know it has met some tragic end, like when we look at any picture of Princess Diana now, not just ones with her holding terminally ill children. When my grandmother was still in her twenties, she died quite tragically. My grandmother was also very beautiful. So now when my mother and great grandmother look at pictures of her, they see her as a "sad beauty." She didn't look sad or make people sad when she was alive, but now, because of her untimely death and an overwhelming sense of loss and sadness that flowed from that, her beauty, like when seen in photographs, is imbued with sadness, evokes tremendous feelings of sadness, so this is another example of "sad beauty."

"Sad beauty" can also be beauty that does itself look innately sad or that for some aesthetic reason is heartbreaking to look at, like I would say that Irish actor Anthony Boyle (pictured below) exemplifies "sad beauty" because he's beautiful and just naturally from his big, doey eyes that pronouncedly angle outwardly downward like eyes do when someone's weeping or grief-stricken and also from how he generally holds his face, especially his mouth and eyebrows, has a look about him that's a bit heartbreaking, that's sad.

Anthony Boyle

Anthony Boyle

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .