'War song' for French schools

Mail & Guardian ^ | February 28, 2005 | Kim Willsher

[NCjim]

As a call to arms, few national hymns are as bloody as La Marseillaise. Originally entitled the War Song of the Army of the Rhine, it exhorts citizens of France to take up arms: “Form in batallions, March, march! Let impure blood water our furrows!''

Now, after a 10-year battle, French schoolchildren are to be made to learn the words after a vote by French MPs. The idea is to “transmit to each and every pupil the history of a people united around the values of liberty, equality and fraternity — the history of a people who have never stopped fighting for freedom”, according to the politician behind the proposal.

Jerome Riviere, from the ruling right-of-centre UMP Party, said he wanted to build on a decision two years ago that made insulting the national hymn an offence punishable by a fine of €7 500.

The new measure was passed by the French National Assembly as an amendment to education reforms that have brought mass student demonstrations across France.

La Marseillaise was composed in 1792 by Claude-Joseph Rouget de Lisle, a captain of the Engineers in the Rhine army. France had just declared war on Austria and Prussia and its army was preparing to march on Paris. It became so popular with volunteer army units from Marseilles that it was named after them.

[NCjim]

...the history of a people who have never stopped fighting for freedom

Somehow this does not sound like the French to me...

[Drango]

Right after learning the song all French students will learn 5 different ways to wave a white flag....

[smoothsailing]

[kizzdogg]

LOL! I never saw that before.

[Drango]

La Marseillaise - English lyrics

Arise children of the fatherland
The day of glory has arrived
Against us tyranny's
Bloody standard is raised
Listen to the sound in the fields
The howling of these fearsome soldiers
They are coming into our midst
To cut the throats of your sons and consorts

To arms citizens Form your battalions
March, march
Let impure blood
Water our furrows

What do they want this horde of slaves
Of traitors and conspiratorial kings?
For whom these vile chains
These long-prepared irons?
Frenchmen, for us, ah! What outrage
What methods must be taken?
It is us they dare plan
To return to the old slavery!

What! These foreign cohorts!
They would make laws in our courts!
What! These mercenary phalanxes
Would cut down our warrior sons
Good Lord! By chained hands
Our brow would yield under the yoke
The vile despots would have themselves be
The masters of destiny

Tremble, tyrants and traitors
The shame of all good men
Tremble! Your parricidal schemes
Will receive their just reward
Against you we are all soldiers
If they fall, our young heros
France will bear new ones
Ready to join the fight against you

Frenchmen, as magnanimous warriors
Bear or hold back your blows
Spare these sad victims
That they regret taking up arms against us
But not these bloody despots
These accomplices of Bouillé
All these tigers who pitilessly
Ripped out their mothers' wombs

We too shall enlist
When our elders' time has come
To add to the list of deeds
Inscribed upon their tombs
We are much less jealous of surviving them
Than of sharing their coffins
We shall have the sublime pride
Of avenging or joining them

Drive on sacred patriotism
Support our avenging arms
Liberty, cherished liberty
Join the struggle with your defenders
Under our flags, let victory
Hurry to your manly tone
So that in death your enemies
See your triumph and our glory!

[Drango]

What! These foreign cohorts!
They would make laws in our courts!

[SandRat]

That's not a bad Idea. We should require American children to learn ALL the stanzas of the Star Bangled Banner.

1. Oh, say can you see, by the dawn's early light, What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming? Whose broad stripes and bright stars, through the perilous fight, O'er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming? And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air, Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there. O say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?
   
   
2. On the shore, dimly seen through the mists of the deep, Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes, What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep, As it fitfully blows, now conceals, now discloses? Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam, In full glory reflected now shines on the stream: 'Tis the star-spangled banner! O long may it wave O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.
   
   
3. And where is that band who so vauntingly swore That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion A home and a country should leave us no more? Their blood has wiped out their foul footstep's pollution. No refuge could save the hireling and slave From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave: And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.
   
   
4. Oh! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand Between their loved homes and the war's desolation! Blest with victory and peace, may the heaven-rescued land Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation. Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just, And this be our motto: "In God is our trust." And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

[Bob J]

"the history of a people who have never stopped fighting letting others fight for french freedom."

[Virginia Queen]

Only when it called for them to fight unarmed, helpless aristocrats who could not have fought their way out of a paper bag. It is easy to be brave when your facing the weak and defenseless.

[Capt. Tom]

La Marseillaise was composed in 1792 by Claude-Joseph Rouget de Lisle, a captain of the Engineers in the Rhine army

Gee I thought it was written for a movie. - tom

The situation Rick (Humphrey Bogart) and Victor Laszlo (Paul Henreid) are upstairs in Rick's office, with Laszlo offering to buy the letters of transit. Rick refuses, and in reply to Laszlo's question as to why, Rick tells him to ask his wife.

They then hear German officers singing Die Wacht am Rhein in the main room below. Rick and Laszlo go out on the balcony and look down at the Germans singing. Renault is watching from the bar, his eyebrow raised. Laszlo, listening tight-lipped, finally walks down the steps and goes decisively over to the band, telling them: "Play the Marseillaise! Play it!"

The band members look down, then up toward Rick, who nods to them. Having obtained Rick's approval, the band then begins to play the Marseillaise, and one of the most electrifying scenes in film history unfolds.

[smoothsailing]

[muir_redwoods]

It's a start. Once they learn to talk the talk, maybe they can learn to walk the walk.

For sale: French military rifle, never fired, dropped once.

[Mad Mammoth]

I like this one better:

Let martial note in triumph float
And liberty extend its mighty hand
A flag appears 'mid thunderous cheers,
The banner of the Western land.
The emblem of the brave and true
Its folds protect no tyrant crew,
The red and white and starry blue
Is freedom's shield and hope...
Other nations may deem their flags the best
And cheer them with fervid elation
But the flag of the North and South and West
Is the flag of flags, the flag of Freedom's nation!
Hurrah for the flag of the free!
May it wave as our standard forever,
The gem of the land and the sea,
The banner of the right.
Let despots remember the day
When our fathers with mighty endeavor
Proclaimed as they marched to the fray
That by their might and by their right
It waves forever!

- John Philip Sousa / Stars & Stripes Forever

[infidel29]

...the history of a people who have never stopped fighting for freedom."

I thought these lyrics sounded more French

Artist: Pink Floyd Album: Delicate Sound Of Thunder Title: Run Like Hell (first verse only)

Run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, Run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run. You better make your face up in Your favorite disguise. With your button down lips and your Roller blind eyes. With your empty smile And your hungry heart. Feel the bile rising from your guilty past. With your nerves in tatters When the cockleshell shatters And the hammers batter Down the door. You'd better run. Run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, Run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run.

[doug from upland]

MIDI - SURRENDER

As we make our preparations
To defend this righteous nation
So-called friends, the French, are hiding
Well, that's no surprise at all

It's okay, 'cause they'd surrender
They are not the best defenders
History has shown us clearly
They would surely drop the ball

Why are Frenchmen so pathetic
Is it something that's genetic?
If it looks like there is trouble
It's their mommy they will call

A white flag gets raised right away
There will be no delay
Their tail's between their legs
What can we say

As we save civilization
Just where is that useless nation
So-called friends, the French, are hiding
Well, that's no surprise at all

It's okay, 'cause they'd surrender
They are not the best defenders
History has shown us clearly
They would surely drop the ball

Why are Frenchmen so pathetic
Is it something that's genetic?
If it looks like there is trouble
It's their mommy they will call

A white flag gets raised right away
There will be no delay
Their tail's between their legs
What can we say

[Drango]

Don't laugh, 'cause I don't know music at all, but isn't that the Norta Dame fight song (or parts of it)? Audio files here http://www.marseillaise.org/english/audio.html

[doug from upland]

MIDI - OH, WHAT A BEAUTIFUL MORNING

As we deal with Iraqi transgressions
The French haven't learned Chamberlain's lessons
At one time we thought they were allied with us
Now we don't give a damn if they're hit by a bus

Cheese-eating surrender monkeys…that is what they have become
Cheese-eating surrender monkeys…oui, oui…the French are such scum

Thanks to us they are not speaking German
They are giving new meaning to vermin
At one time we thought they were allied with us
Now we don't give a damn if they're hit by a bus

Cheese-eating surrender monkeys…that is what they have become
Cheese-eating surrender monkeys…oui, oui…the French are such scum

We don't need their wine…they are deluded
Napa Valley's just fine, we've concluded
At one time thought they were allied with us
Not we don't give a damn if they're hit by a bus

Cheese-eating surrender monkeys…that is what they have become
Cheese-eating surrender monkeys…oui, oui…the French are such scum
Oui, oui…the French are such scum

[Strategerist]

Only when it called for them to fight unarmed, helpless aristocrats who could not have fought their way out of a paper bag. It is easy to be brave when your facing the weak and defenseless.

Actually, when the song was writen, they were fighting Spain, England, Prussia, Austria, and Russia...at the same time. And they won.

[CzarNicky]

The should learn the words to Deutschland Deutschland

[Aussie Dasher]

The French marching? Yeah...marching BACKWARDS!!!!

SCREW THE FROGS!