La Marseillaise
Arise, children of the Fatherland,
The day of glory has arrived!
Against us tyranny's
Bloody banner is raised,
Bloody banner is raised,
Do you hear, in the countryside,
The roar of those ferocious soldiers?
They're coming right into your arms
To cut the throats of your sons, your women!
To arms, citizens,
Form your battalions,
Let's march, let's march!
Let an impure blood
Water our furrows! (Repeat)
What does this horde of slaves,
Of traitors and conspiratorial kings want?
For whom are these vile chains,
These long-prepared irons?
These long-prepared irons?
Frenchmen, for us, ah! What outrage
What fury it must arouse!
It is us they dare plan
To return to the old slavery!
To arms, citizens,
Form your battalions,
Let's march, let's march!
Let an impure blood
Water our furrows! (Repeat)
What! Foreign cohorts
Would make the law in our homes!
What! These mercenary phalanxes
Would strike down our proud warriors!
Would strike down our proud warriors!
Great God! By chained hands
Our brows would yield under the yoke
Vile despots would have themselves
The masters of our destinies!
To arms, citizens,
Form your battalions,
Let's march, let's march!
Let an impure blood
Water our furrows! (Repeat)
Tremble, tyrants and you traitors
The shame of all parties,
Tremble! Your parricidal schemes
Will finally receive their reward!
Will finally receive their reward!
Everyone is a soldier to combat you
If they fall, our young heroes,
The earth will produce new ones,
Ready to fight against you!
To arms, citizens,
Form your battalions,
Let's march, let's march!
Let an impure blood
Water our furrows! (Repeat)
Frenchmen, as magnanimous warriors,
Bear or hold back your blows!
Spare those sorry victims,
Who arm against us with regret.
Who arm against us with regret.
But not these bloodthirsty despots,
These accomplices of Bouillé,
All these tigers who, mercilessly,
Rip their mother's breast!
To arms, citizens,
Form your battalions,
Let's march, let's march!
Let an impure blood
Water our furrows! (Repeat)
Sacred love of the Fatherland,
Lead, support our avenging arms
Liberty, cherished Liberty,
Fight with thy defenders!
Fight with thy defenders!
Under our flags, may victory
Hurry to thy manly accents,
May thy expiring enemies,
See thy triumph and our glory!
To arms, citizens,
Form your battalions,
Let's march, let's march!
Let an impure blood
Water our furrows! (Repeat)
(Children's Verse)
We shall enter the (military) career
When our elders are no longer there,
There we shall find their dust
And the trace of their virtues
And the trace of their virtues
Much less keen to survive them
Than to share their coffins,
We shall have the sublime pride
Of avenging or following them
To arms, citizens,
Form your battalions,
Let's march, let's march!
Let an impure blood
Water our furrows! (Repeat)
Optimally, Europe can hold France long enough for CW 2 to finish cleaning up in America. Until then, not much can be done to project power. However, it is far more likely that the worst case scenario will result.
ReplyDeleteThomas, Indeed I've been thinking that the lyrics are the right response to the attack- excepting perhaps the 'impure blood' thing, unless it can be argued that by 'impure' it is meant 'evil'.
ReplyDeleteI doubt hardly any Americans know about the lyrics, and I wonder how familiar the average Frenchman is with them, or how many verse they know, generally.
I did like the video of people leaving the Soccer stadium, singing it in the corridors, first and flags in the air. It gives one some hope, as does the initial strikes by the French Air Force.
I couldn't find it in the Wiki article, but I thought I remembered hearing that there was a rumor current ca. 1792 that King Louis, panicked by the revolutionary fervor, had actually petitioned Austria to invade France to come to his aid. The song was sung in the spirit of the King's betrayal of his country to foreigners in order to shore up his own crumbling regime. Whether there's any historical basis for the rumor I have no idea.
ReplyDeleteThe "impure blood" thing bothered me, too, but it's hard to say what that meant in the 18th century. Our current ideas of race weren't really developed until the 19th.
ReplyDeleteTex, that's interesting. Certainly the song has some elements of that, condemning foreign invaders and traitors both.
I have heard it said that the 'impure blood' was a reference to the Third Estate's own blood, i.e., the peasants and workmen who made the revolution and who did not have the pure blood of the aristocracy. In which case it would be akin to our own Battle Hymn:
ReplyDelete"As He died to make men holy,
Let us die to make men free."
That is, it's an appeal to water the grass with your own blood.
At least, that's one theory defenders of the song use. Of course, France is having a debate about whether it's too racist for such a progressive country to continue to use, just as we sometimes ask whether the Star Spangled Banner shouldn't be changed to something less warlike (or the team name of the Washington Redskins, or...).