l'Internationale

["Tom Condit" <tomcondit@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Okay, in response to popular demand ...

Here are three verses of "l'Internationale" in the original
French. This text is taken from _Carry It On! A history in song
and picture of the working men and women of America_, by Pete
Seeger and Bob Reiser (NY: Simon & Schuster, 1986). The book also
has the first verse and chorus in English (U.S. and U.K.
versions), Spanish, Italian, German, Danish, Swedish, Dutch,
Polish and Russian (in Cyrillic script).

I would say that "groupon nous, et demain" comes very close to
"Let us stand in our place."

L'INTERNATIONALE
-----------------
Words by Eugene Pottier, 1871
Music by Pierre Degeyter, 1888

Debout! les damn<e'>s de la terre!
Debout! les forcat; de la faim!
La raison tonne en son crat<'e>rre;
C'est l'<e'>ruption de la fin.
  Du pass<e'> faison table rase,
  Foule esclave, debout! debout!
  Le monde va changer de base;
  Nous ne sommes rien, soyons tout!

CHORUS:
C'est la lutte finale:
Groupons nous, et demain,
L'internationale sera le genre humain.
C'est la lutte finale:
Groupons nous, et demain,
L'internationale sera le genre humain.

Il n'est pas de sauveurs supr<e^>mes:
Ni dieu, ni C<e'>sar, ni tribun,
Producteurs, sauvons-nous nous-m<e^>mes!
Decr<e'>tons le salut commun!
  Pour que le voleur rende gorge,
  Pour tirez l'esprit du cachot,
  Soufflons nous-m<e^>mes notre forge,
  Batton, le fer quand il est chaud!

CHORUS

Ouvriers, paysans, nous sommes
Le grande parti des traivailleurs;
La terre n'appartient qu'aux hommes,
L'oisif ira loger ailleurs.
  Combien de nos chairs se repaissent!
  Mais si les corbeaux, les vautours,
  Un de ces matins, disparaissent,
  Le soleil brillera toujours!

CHORUS

There are three additional verses not given in the book.

Tom Condit

P S The Danish translation given begins:

Rejs Jer! Fordomte her paa Jorden!
Rejs dig, du Sultens Slavehaer!
I Rettens Krater buldrer Torden,
nu er det sidste Udbrud maer!

Which if I understand it correctly is *really* drifting from the
original (but perhaps you have to have a grasp of idiomatic
Danish to know why it makes more sense that way).

T.


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