#28 The Power of Taste (Zbigniew Herbert, Trad. John y Bogdana Carpenter)

La unión entre ética y estética es la cuestión del gusto. No como quien dice, "para gustos, los colores", sino en el sentido aristotélico de que la persona virtuosa tiene bien educado el gusto: "le sabe bien" lo que es en verdad bueno y el mal le resulta repugnante. El objetivo de la educación es, en definitiva, una educación del gusto.

"No es bueno quien no se complace con las actividades nobles. Nadie llama 'justo' a quien no goza obrando justamente ni 'generoso' a quien no se complace en actividades generosas; e igual en lo demás. Y si ello es así, las actividades conforme a la virtud serían por sí mismas placenteras. Pero es más: también buenas y bellas (ἀλλὰ μὴν καὶ ἀγαθαί γε καὶ καλαί)." (Ética a Nicómaco, 1099a)

Βelleza y bondad: καλός καί ἀγαθός. El ideal de la vida lograda. 

(via)

THE POWER OF TASTE

For Professor Izydora Dambska

It didn't require great character at all

our refusal disagreement and resistance

we had a shred of necessary courage

but fundamentally it was a matter of taste

                                    Yes taste

in which there are fibers of soul the cartilage of conscience

Who knows if we had been better and more attractively tempted

sent rose-skinned women thin as a wafer

or fantastic creatures from the paintings of Hieronymus Bosch

but what kind of hell was there at this time

a wet pit the murderers' alley the barrack

called a palace of justice

a home-brewed Mephisto in a Lenin jacket

sent Aurora's grandchildren out into the field

boys with potato faces

very ugly girls with red hands

Verily their rhetoric was made of cheap sacking

(Marcus Tullius kept turning in his grave)

chains of tautologies a couple of concepts like flails

the dialectics of slaughterers no distinctions in reasoning

syntax deprived of beauty of the subjunctive

So aesthetics can be helpful in life

one should not neglect the study of beauty

Before we declare our consent we must carefully examine

the shape of the architecture the rhythm of the drums and pipes

official colors the despicable ritual of funerals

              Our eyes and ears refused obedience

              the princes of our senses proudly chose exile

It did not require great character at all

we had a shred of necessary courage

but fundamentally it was a matter of taste

                                Yes taste

that commands us to get out to make a wry face draw out a sneer

even if for this the precious capital of the body the head

                                                    must fall