E. S. Ariel, also referred to as Monsieur Ariel (

French French may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France ** French people, a nation and ethnic group ** French cuisine, cooking traditions and practices Arts and media * The French (band), ...

for "Mr. Ariel") by his contemporaries, was a 19th-century

translator Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. The English language draws a terminological distinction (which does not exist in every language) between ''trans ...

known for his French translation of the ancient Indian philosophical text of the

Tirukkural The ''Tirukkuṟaḷ'' (), or shortly the ''Kural'' (), is a classic Tamil language text on commoner's morality consisting of 1,330 short couplets, or Kural (poetic form), kurals, of seven words each. The text is divided into three books wit ...

. He translated select couplets of the Tirukkural into French in 1848 and published it in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

under the title ''Kural de Thiruvalluvar (Traduits du Tamoul)''. Although the first French translation of the Kural text was made by an unknown author in 1767, which Ariel had mentioned in his work, it was Ariel's translation that brought the ancient work to the French world.

Quotations

In a letter to Burnouf published in the ''Journal Asiatique'' (November–December 1848), Ariel called the Kural text, He also famously said of the Tirukkural thus: "''Ce livre sans nom, par un auteur sans nom''" ("The book without a name by an author without a name.")

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ariel, E. S. Tamil–French translators Translators of the Tirukkural into French 19th-century French translators Date of birth missing Date of death missing French Indologists 19th-century French male writers

Quotations

See also

References