Chant des Partisans
|
|
The Chant des Partisans was the most popular song in the Free France.
It was created in London in 1943 after a Russian song of Anna Marly. Joseph Kessel and Maurice Druon wrote the French lyrics. It was performed by Anna Marly, broadcasted by the BBC and adopted by the maquis.
After the war the Chant des Partisans was so popular, it was proposed as new national anthem for France. It became the unofficial national anthem, next to the official La Marseillaise.
French Lyrics
- Ami, entends-tu le vol noir des corbeaux sur nos plaines ?
- Ami, entends-tu les cris sourds du pays qu'on enchaîne ?
- Ohé partisans, ouvriers et paysans, c'est l'alarme !
- Ce soir l'ennemi connaîtra le prix du sang et des larmes.
- Montez de la mine, descendez des collines, camarades,
- Sortez de la paille les fusils, la mitraille, les grenades;
- Ohé les tueurs, à la balle et au couteau tuez vite !
- Ohé saboteur, attention à ton fardeau, dynamite !
- C'est nous qui brisons les barreaux des prisons, pour nos frères,
- La haine à nos trousses, et la faim qui nous pousse, la misère.
- Il y a des pays où les gens aux creux des lits font des rêves
- Ici, nous, vois-tu, nous on marche et nous on tue nous on crève
- Ici chacun sait ce qu'il veut, ce qu'il fait quand il passe ;
- Ami, si tu tombes, un ami sort de l'ombre à ta place.
- Demain du sang noir séchera au grand soleil sur les routes
- Chantez, compagnons, dans la nuit la liberté nous écoute.
Unofficial English translation
- Friend, do you hear the crows' dark flight over our plains?
- Friend, do you hear the muffled screams of the country being shackled?
- O-hay patriots, labourers and farmers, the alarm has sounded!
- Tonight the enemy shall know the price of blood and tears.
- Climb up the mine, come down the hills, comrades,
- From the straw unhide the guns, the munitions and the grenades;
- O-hay killers, with bullets and knives kill swiftly!
- O-hay saboteurs, be careful with your burden, of dynamite!
- It is we that break the jail bars, for our brothers,
- Hate is running after us, and hunger drives us, in misery.
- There are countries where people sleep in their beds and dream.
- Here, see, we, we walk and we kill and we die
- Here, each one of us knows what one wants, and what one does when he passes by;
- Friend, if you fall, a friend emerges from the dark to take your place.
- Tomorrow, black blood shall dry out in the sun on the roads
- Sing, companions, for that in the night freedom listens to us.
External link
The Chant des Partisans at:
- University of York (http://www.york.ac.uk/inst/ltc/lfa/Partisan.htm)
- National Federation of Deported and Imprisoned Resistance Fighters and Patriots (http://www.fndirp.asso.fr/chantpartisans.htm)
- French Prime minister (http://www.archives.premier-ministre.gouv.fr/juppe_version1/HIST/PARTISAN.HTM)