French Translations and Reception of the Declaration of Independence

Abstract

The French and the American revolutions are said to be landmarks in the history of mankind, and each claimed to be exceptional, while each entertained a unique relationship with the other, partly because of the short time that separated them. Indeed, although French culture stands alone in history, it is not without direct or indirect affiliation with the history of the United States. The American Declaration of Independence was valued by French readers of its time, and not only because French liberals enrolled in the defense of the British American colonies; in its French wording, the declaration became one of the philosophical and political references of the French who envisioned a utopian future. Very early in the French revolutionary development, however, the American Declaration of Independence and other founding documents revealed themselves to be less and less relevant to French political culture. Strangely enough, as the American Revolution was rediscovered, so to speak, in the late twentieth century as the only valid model for revolutionary ideals, the declaration was no longer translated; earlier translations proved sufficient for modern readers, and commentators focused primarily on the more general and universal meaning the document conveyed. After two centuries of translations and commentaries, it seems that the language of the Declaration of Independence has grown apart from French political culture, as a 1918 document, whose frontispieces are here reproduced, illustrates.' These two symmetrical pages of a document symbolizing the French-American alliance and friendship epitomize the misunderstandings arising from any attempt to transpose the spirit of the declaration from one culture to another. Even though the translation beneath the icons comes out clear and faithful to the original text, the symbols that surmount them are not equivalent. For instance, to what extent is the motto Epluribus unum an accurate transposition of the French Une et indivisible? The latter qualifies the French republic, but it is far from occupying the symbolic place that the American motto takes on the Great Seal of the United States. And is the Phrygian cap, which symbolizes the popular revolution in France in 1789, a parallel to