Cartesian studies in English often make only rare references to the Latin or French of the original texts. With a central passage from the Fourth Meditation on free will, we provide an example of the interpretive problems that arise from imperfect translations. One has to view Descartes as a writer, that is, as an inventor of phrases that cannot be purely reduced to a series of statements. This means that a translation, however careful, can only be a provisional version, which the interpreter always has to discuss and refine.
Key words: Cartesian Studies, Interpretation, Philology, Rhetoric, Free Will.