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PARTISAN REVIEW
and Winthrop's version suggests a chemistry experiment ("the action of
sulfuric acid on calcium carbonate") not the vagaries of political life.
Mansfield and Winthrop's preference for the literal shapes virtually
every sentence in their translation. Sometimes the result is stuffy:
"con–
stitue Ie pouvoir judiciare,"
translated by both Reeve and Bowen, and
Lawrence as "organized a judicial power," is anglified by Mansfield and
Winthrop as "constituted judicial power."
But sometimes Mansfield and Winthrop's literalism captures some–
thing the other translators missed. For example:
Tocqueville:
"C'est ainsi qu'aux Etats-Unis Ie prejuge qui repousse
les negres semble croitre
a
proportion que les negres cessent d'etre
esclaves, et que l'inegalite se grave dans les moeurs
a
mesure qU'elle
avec s'efface dans les lois."
Reeve and Bowen: "Thus it is that in the United States that the prej–
udice which repels the Negroes seems to increase as they are eman–
cipated, and inequality is sanctioned by the manners while it is
effaced from the laws of the country."
Lawrence: "Thus it is that in the United States the prejudice reject–
ing the Negroes seems to increase in proportion to their emancipa–
tion, and inequality cuts deep into mores as it is effaced from the
laws."
Mansfield and Winthrop: "Thus in the United States the prejudice
that repels Negroes seems to grow as Negroes cease to be slaves,
and inequality is engraved in mores in the same measure as it is
effaced in the laws."
In this case, Mansfield and Winthrop'S "engraved" / "effaced" cap–
tures Tocqueville's epigram far better than Reeve and Bowen's "sanc–
tioned" / "effaced" or Lawrence's "cuts deep" / "effaced." And
Mansfield and Winthrop'S "cease to be slaves" retains Tocqueville's
carefully uncommitted phrasing, where both Reeve and Bowen, and
Lawrence opted for the more conclusive "emancipation." The sense of
the passage is that, in Tocqueville's view, ceasing
to
be a slave is a far
shot from genuine emancipation.
In passages like this, Mansfield and Winthrop'S literalism gives us a
richer text, one to perhaps set next to Allan Bloom's translation of
The
Republic,
or Mansfield's own translations of Machiavelli. These are all
translations infused with a certain pedantry but which also aim at
