Safety or Salvation?

[chip-squidley.livejournal.com]

For a long time I was only able to read about the Revolution in English....so I never really thought anything of the translation of "Comite de Salut Public" as "Committee of Public Safety"

But as I taught myself to read French I became aware that the word "Salut" could also mean "Salvation". So I find myself wondering if "Committee of Public Salvation" would be a better translation...more in keeping with the intent of its mission.

Comments

[chip-squidley.livejournal.com]

Perhaps if the first people to translate "Salut Public" as "Public Safety" were from England maybe they were thinking of your 1642 Committee of Safety.

I know if someone came out with a Committee of Public Safety now I would expect a group that nagged you to look both ways before crossing the street or to wear your seatbelt in the car.

Of course, in today's America a Committee of Public Salvation would most likely be a group of crackpot right-wing Christians.

What my country needs is a really huge Festival of Reason!

[victoriavandal.livejournal.com]

I think they may be taking it from Cicero's 'salus populi suprema lex esto' (let the good of the people be the supreme law) - Christopher Hill (Marxist historian of English Revolution period) suggests the 1642 one is from 'salus populi' and given the revolutionaries' love of Rome...

I really like the idea of government by a committeee of experts - but I wonder how long it would take them to be at each other's throats! Certainly, relations within British government cabinets have always been poisonous and I'm sure they'd cut each other's heads off if they could...