"J'ai survécu"

Who said that?

[troels nybo nielsen]

I want to use the phrase [meaning: "I (have) survived"] as the short version of my biography for one of my blogs, but of course I would like to give my readers the impression that I am a well-read person who does indeed know who answered with that short phrase when asked what he had been doing in the years of the first french republic.

Can someone help me fulfilling this noble purpose?

[encyclo]

I believe it was l'Abbé Emmanuel Joseph Sieyes (sp?) - can't find it in Google, though... (sorry, I studied French history at university, but it's a while back!)

Bonne chance!

[trillianjedi]

I'm afraid I don't actually know, but would hazzard a guess it was probably Napoleon Bonaparte if that helps with your googling for the answer.

TJ

[trillianjedi]

Ah, I better bow to the better-educated encyclo then I think!

TJ

[troels nybo nielsen]

Thanks encyclo. You were right.

But actually he said: "J'ai vécu." Does that make my translation uncorrect? Actually I only knew the quote in Danish: "Jeg overlevede", and then I translated this translation back to French. This of course is always a questionable practice and I happened to get it wrong.

I would like to know if "I survived" is an acceptable translation.

His name was Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès. Which means that you only forgot the accent. You seem to be a better historian than you thought. :)

<added>
I have done further research, and I have found two different translations, presumably both made by people with better understanding of French AND English than mine:

"I existed"
"I have survived"

It seems that my translation to English is an acceptable option.
</added>

[Macguru]

>>I would like to know if "I survived" is an acceptable translation.

Hi Troels,

If l'Abbé said "j'ai vécu" à Paris. I would translate it as "I lived" in Paris.
If he said "j'ai survécu" à Paris. I would translate it as "I survived" to Paris.

But my English is far from perfect. "J'ai vécu" could be translated as "I have lived".

I am sure of on thing.

Survivre = survive
vivre = live (could apply to stay as in a long trip)
exister = to exist (wich apply to non living things, too)

[encyclo]

OK I've looked it up (always a good idea!). Sieyès was a popular politician, an author of the pamplet "Qu'est-ce que le tiers état?", participant in the 1789 revolution and he wrote a number of important constitutional texts.

Sieyès was asked about his role during "la Terreur" - when a large number of people involved in the revolution were guillotined. He had wisely kept very quiet during this period. His reply was "J'ai vécu" - which does usually mean "I lived" rather than specifically "survived" (survivre).

Macguru is correct in his translation, but the nuance and meaning behind his answer implied that he managed to continue living when many of his colleagues died - so you can translate "j'ai vécu" as meaning "I survived" in this case. My knowledge of Danish is non-existent, but from your description, it sounds like a reasonable translation!

[Sinner_G]

In this context, you could also understand his statement as a way of saying not only that he survived, but also that he didn't take any part in the Terreur, i.e. he wasn't either one of the guillotined (obviously) or one of the guillotiner (this probably is no english word). So for me it's just a way of saying that he did indeed live during that time, but wasn't really involved.

[le_gber]

Found on a french site [herodote.net...]

"Mauvais orateur, Sieyès se tint coi pendant les mois agités de la Convention. Et à ceux qui lui demandèrent plus tard ce qu'il avait fait en qualité de député pendant cette période, il répondait laconiquement : «J'ai vécu.»"

which could be translated as:

Bad public speaker, Sieyes remained quiet during the troubled months of the 'Convention'. And to those who asked him later what he did, as a politician (deputy, delegate), during this time, he laconically replied : "I lived".

Which could mean as much "I lived" as "I survived", depending on wether he intended to be ironic or not.

Thanks for this thread, reminded me of the time, a while ago, when I studied "histoire au Lycee" ;)

Leo

[edited by: Macguru at 3:13 pm (utc) on Mar. 16, 2004]
[edit reason] Linkless URL [webmasterworld.com] [/edit]

[EBear]

Would "I got by" be a good rendering in today's idiom? Laconic ambiguity without the implicit melodrama of "I survived".

[TheDoctor]

I think the melodrama was intended in the original French. Danton, after all - along with many other revolutionaries from the early years of the Revolution - had his head chopped off. It doesn't come much more melodramatic than that.