Martin Antonenko
A Fixture
- Joined
- Jul 11, 2008
- Messages
- 8,994
"Aux armes, citoyens...!"
On April 25, 1792, the French Capitaine Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle ...
... sits in his quarters in Strasbourg, brooding over a blank sheet of paper.
The new French Republic has just declared war on the Austrian Empire and the deployment of the republican Armée du Rhin (Rhine Army) is imminent.
Captain Rouget wants to write a startling marching song for his troops.
When he gets up from his table after hours, the paper is full, the marching song entitled "Chant de guerre pour l’armée du Rhin" is ready ...:
The author dedicates the marching song to Maréchal Nicolas von Luckner, an originally Bavarian officer who entered French service after the outbreak of the Revolution in 1790, who was appointed Marshal of France by the National Assembly in 1791 and died in Paris in 1794 ...:
Rouget immediately performs the song to his comrades ...:
Not only is it one of the most startling, but also the most famous marching song that has ever been written!
The text reads (in English translation) ...:
"Up, children of the fatherland,
The day of glory has come!
Against us is tyranny
Bloody banner raised.
Do you hear in the fields
These ferocious soldiers roar?
They come up to your arms
To cut the throats of your sons, your companions.
To arms, citizens,
Form your battalions
Let's march, let's march!
Unclean blood
Water our furrows!
What does this horde of slaves want
Of traitors, of conspiratorial kings?
For whom these mean shackles
These long-prepared irons?
French, for us, ah! what shame,
What anger this must arouse!
You dare to think
To lead us into the old bondage!
To arms, citizens,
Form your battalions
Let's march, let's march!
Unclean blood
Water our furrows!
What! Foreign cohorts
Would rule over our homes!
What! These hordes of mercenaries would
Slay our proud warriors!
Great god! With chains on his hands
Our heads would bow to the yoke.
Vile despots would
Determine our fate!
To arms, citizens,
Form your battalions
Let's march, let's march!
Unclean blood
Water our furrows!
Tremors, tyrants and you wicked ones,
Shame of all parties,
Trembles! Your wicked plans
You will finally get paid back!
Everyone is a soldier to fight you
When they fall, our young heroes
The earth begets new ones,
Who are ready to fight against you.
To arms, citizens,
Form your battalions
Let's march, let's march!
Unclean blood
Water our furrows!
French, you noble warriors,
Deal your blows or hold them back!
Spare these sad victims
Who reluctantly arm themselves against us.
But these bloodthirsty despots
But these accomplices of Bouillé,
All these tigers who are merciless
Mear her mother's breast!
To arms, citizens,
Form your battalions
Let's march, let's march!
Unclean blood
Water our furrows!
Holy love for the fatherland,
Guide, support our avenging arms.
Freedom beloved freedom
Fight with your defenders!
Under our flags for victory
Rushes to the aid of the sounds of strong men,
With that your dying enemies
See your victory and our glory!
To arms, citizens,
Form your battalions
Let's march, let's march!
Unclean blood
Water our furrows!
We will continue to tread the path of life
When the older ones won't be there
We'll be their dust there
And find a trace of their virtues.
Rather share her coffin
When they want to survive
We will with sublime pride
Take revenge or follow them.
To arms, citizens,
Form your battalions
Let's march, let's march!
Unclean blood
Water our furrows! "
However, Rouge's song became famous under a completely different name:
Soldiers from Marseille sang it in public for the first time when they entered Paris on July 30, 1792, shortly before the Tuileries Tower ...:
That is why it was commonly called "La Marche des Marseillois" (March of the Marseilles) ...
... and then shortly "La Marseillaise" ...:
On July 14, 1795, the Marseillaise was declared the French national anthem.
It is to this day.
Emperor Napoleon I, however, did not like the Marseillaise at all, after all he was emperor and authoritarian ruler - and in the Rouget hymn there was too much talk for him about "tyrants" who had to be kicked in the dust.
Napoleon even commissioned a rival anthem from Rouget to displace the Marseillaise. Rouget fulfilled the job out of financial difficulties (from which he suffered throughout his life) - but the new anthem was not able to assert itself in the population!
So the little Corsican let the march of his guards play at every opportunity - "La Victoire est a nous!" ("Victory is ours!") ...:
Incidentally, Rouget de Lilse did not make the Marseillaise he wrote rich! In later portraits a rather bitter man looks at us ...:
He, who kept himself afloat with copying and translation work and even had to be in custody for a year in 1826, died on June 26, 1836 at the age of 76 in Choisy-le-Roi.
On April 25, 1792, the French Capitaine Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle ...

... sits in his quarters in Strasbourg, brooding over a blank sheet of paper.
The new French Republic has just declared war on the Austrian Empire and the deployment of the republican Armée du Rhin (Rhine Army) is imminent.
Captain Rouget wants to write a startling marching song for his troops.
When he gets up from his table after hours, the paper is full, the marching song entitled "Chant de guerre pour l’armée du Rhin" is ready ...:

The author dedicates the marching song to Maréchal Nicolas von Luckner, an originally Bavarian officer who entered French service after the outbreak of the Revolution in 1790, who was appointed Marshal of France by the National Assembly in 1791 and died in Paris in 1794 ...:

Rouget immediately performs the song to his comrades ...:


Not only is it one of the most startling, but also the most famous marching song that has ever been written!
The text reads (in English translation) ...:
"Up, children of the fatherland,
The day of glory has come!
Against us is tyranny
Bloody banner raised.
Do you hear in the fields
These ferocious soldiers roar?
They come up to your arms
To cut the throats of your sons, your companions.
To arms, citizens,
Form your battalions
Let's march, let's march!
Unclean blood
Water our furrows!
What does this horde of slaves want
Of traitors, of conspiratorial kings?
For whom these mean shackles
These long-prepared irons?
French, for us, ah! what shame,
What anger this must arouse!
You dare to think
To lead us into the old bondage!
To arms, citizens,
Form your battalions
Let's march, let's march!
Unclean blood
Water our furrows!
What! Foreign cohorts
Would rule over our homes!
What! These hordes of mercenaries would
Slay our proud warriors!
Great god! With chains on his hands
Our heads would bow to the yoke.
Vile despots would
Determine our fate!
To arms, citizens,
Form your battalions
Let's march, let's march!
Unclean blood
Water our furrows!
Tremors, tyrants and you wicked ones,
Shame of all parties,
Trembles! Your wicked plans
You will finally get paid back!
Everyone is a soldier to fight you
When they fall, our young heroes
The earth begets new ones,
Who are ready to fight against you.
To arms, citizens,
Form your battalions
Let's march, let's march!
Unclean blood
Water our furrows!
French, you noble warriors,
Deal your blows or hold them back!
Spare these sad victims
Who reluctantly arm themselves against us.
But these bloodthirsty despots
But these accomplices of Bouillé,
All these tigers who are merciless
Mear her mother's breast!
To arms, citizens,
Form your battalions
Let's march, let's march!
Unclean blood
Water our furrows!
Holy love for the fatherland,
Guide, support our avenging arms.
Freedom beloved freedom
Fight with your defenders!
Under our flags for victory
Rushes to the aid of the sounds of strong men,
With that your dying enemies
See your victory and our glory!
To arms, citizens,
Form your battalions
Let's march, let's march!
Unclean blood
Water our furrows!
We will continue to tread the path of life
When the older ones won't be there
We'll be their dust there
And find a trace of their virtues.
Rather share her coffin
When they want to survive
We will with sublime pride
Take revenge or follow them.
To arms, citizens,
Form your battalions
Let's march, let's march!
Unclean blood
Water our furrows! "
However, Rouge's song became famous under a completely different name:
Soldiers from Marseille sang it in public for the first time when they entered Paris on July 30, 1792, shortly before the Tuileries Tower ...:


That is why it was commonly called "La Marche des Marseillois" (March of the Marseilles) ...

... and then shortly "La Marseillaise" ...:

On July 14, 1795, the Marseillaise was declared the French national anthem.
It is to this day.
Emperor Napoleon I, however, did not like the Marseillaise at all, after all he was emperor and authoritarian ruler - and in the Rouget hymn there was too much talk for him about "tyrants" who had to be kicked in the dust.
Napoleon even commissioned a rival anthem from Rouget to displace the Marseillaise. Rouget fulfilled the job out of financial difficulties (from which he suffered throughout his life) - but the new anthem was not able to assert itself in the population!
So the little Corsican let the march of his guards play at every opportunity - "La Victoire est a nous!" ("Victory is ours!") ...:
Incidentally, Rouget de Lilse did not make the Marseillaise he wrote rich! In later portraits a rather bitter man looks at us ...:

He, who kept himself afloat with copying and translation work and even had to be in custody for a year in 1826, died on June 26, 1836 at the age of 76 in Choisy-le-Roi.
