French Revolution 1794
Source: Michel Delon and Paul-Edouard Levayer, Chansonnier révolutionnaire. Paris, Gallimard, 1989;
Translated: for marxists.org by Mitchell Abidor.
Singing, Victory opens the gates for us,
Liberty guides our steps;
And from the north, the south, the warrior trumpet has sounded the hour of combat.
Tremble, enemies of France,
Kings drunk on blood and pride;
The sovereign people advance:
Tyrants, go down to your coffin.
The Republic calls us
We know how to win and how to die;
For it a Frenchman must live,
For it a Frenchman must die.
CHORUS OF WARRIORS
The Republic calls us, etc.
A MOTHER
Fear not tears from our maternal eyes,
Away! cowardly pain!
We shall triumph when you take up arms:
It is kings who should shed tears.
We gave you life, warriors, but
It is no longer yours:
All your days belong to the Fatherland;
Before we are, it is your mother.
CHORUS OF MOTHERS
The Republic calls you, etc.
TWO ELDERS
May paternal steel arm the hand of the brave,
Think on us on the fields of Mars;
Consecrate in the blood of kings and slaves
The steel blessed by your elders;
And, bringing back to your humble huts
Wounds and virtues,
Come close our eyelids
When there will no longer be any tyrants.
CHORUS OF ELDERS
The Republic calls you, etc.
A CHILD
We envy the fates of Bara and Viala:
They are dead, but they have vanquished:
The coward, weighed down with years has not known life,
Who dies for the people has lived.
You are valiant, and we are too,
Guide us against tyrants.
Republicans are men,
Slaves are infants.
CHORUS OF CHILDREN
The Republic calls us, etc...
A WIFE
Go, valiant spouses; combats are your festivals;
Go, models of warriors,
We pluck flowers to crown your heads;
Our hands will weave your laurels.
And if the temple of memory
Opens to your household gods,
We will sing your glory
And our wombs will carry your avengers.
CHORUS OF WIVES
The Republic calls you, etc.
A MAIDEN
And we, sisters of heroes, we who of wedded bliss
Are ignorant of its loving ties;
If to unite themselves one day to our destiny
Citizens form desires,
Let them come back within our walls
Handsome in glory and liberty,
And may their blood have flowed in battle
For equality!
CHORUS OF MAIDENS
The Republic calls you, etc.
THREE WARRIORS
Before God, on our steel we swear to our fathers
To our wives, to our sisters,
To our representatives, to our sons, our mothers
To annihilate the oppressors
Everywhere; plunging feudalism
Into the darkest night
The French will give the world
Both peace and liberty.
GENERAL CHORUS
The Republic calls us
We know how to live and how to die;
A Frenchman must live for it
For it a Frenchman must die.