French Songs > Anthem

La Marseillaise
Pour qui ces ignobles entraves, / Ces fers dès longtemps préparés?

Grammar Tags: conditional, imperative, literary subjunctive

L’hymne national de la France (the French national anthem). Hymne masculine gender means: a national anthem. Hymne feminine is what you sing in Church. I need not repeat the basic facts, available in the excellent Wikipédia article.

As for filmic treatments, with apologies to Abel Gance and Jean Renoir, my preference is for the one in Rick’s Café américain.

The demonization of the enemy in the first stanza, and the bloody sentiments contained in the refrain (quite pale, really, beside those of “The Battle Hymn of the Republic”) are corrected to some extent in the fifth stanza (rarely or never sung).

The words and the prosody can be criticized in places, but on the whole they compare favorably with those of “The Star-Spangled Banner.” La Marseillaise is much easier to sing. Most people learn only the first stanza, and you would probably be wise to do the same.

French Lyrics (English Translation Follows)

1 Allons, enfants de la patrie,
Le jour de gloire est arrivé!
Contre nous de la tyrannie
L’étendard sanglant est levé!¹ (bis)
Entendez-vous, dans les campagnes
Mugir ces féroces soldats?
Ils viennent jusque² dans nos bras
Égorger nos fils, nos compagnes!

Aux armes, citoyens! Formez vos bataillons!
Marchons, marchons! Qu’un sang impur abreuve nos sillons!

2 Que veut cette³ horde d’esclaves,
De traîtres, de rois conjurés?⁴
Pour qui ces ignobles entraves,
Ces fers dès longtemps préparés? (bis)
Français, pour nous, ah ! quel outrage,
Quels transports il doit exciter!
C’est nous qu’on ose méditer⁵
De rendre à l’antique esclavage!

Aux armes, citoyens! Formez vos bataillons!
Marchons, marchons! Qu’un sang impur abreuve nos sillons!

3 Quoi!⁶ des cohortes étrangères
Feraient la loi dans nos foyers!⁷
Quoi! ces phalanges mercenaires
Terrasseraient nos fiers guerriers!⁸ (bis)
Grand Dieu! par des mains enchaînées
Nos fronts sous le joug se ploieraient;⁹
De vils despotes deviendraient
Les maîtres de nos destinées!

Aux armes, citoyens! Formez vos bataillons!
Marchons, marchons! Qu’un sang impur abreuve nos sillons!

4 Tremblez, tyrans et vous perfides
L’opprobre de tous les partis,¹⁰
Tremblez! vos projets parricides¹¹
Vont enfin recevoir leurs prix! (bis)
Tout est soldat pour vous combattre,
S’ils tombent, nos jeunes héros,
La terre en produit de nouveaux,
Contre vous tout prets à se battre!

Aux armes, citoyens! Formez vos bataillons!
Marchons, marchons! Qu’un sang impur abreuve nos sillons!

5 Français, en guerriers magnanimes,¹²
Portez ou retenez vos coups!
Epargnez ces tristes victimes,
A regret s’armant contre nous. (bis)
Mais ces despotes sanguinaires,
Mais ces complices de Bouillé,¹³
Tous ces tigres qui, sans pitié,
Déchirent le sein de leur mère!¹⁴

Aux armes, citoyens! Formez vos bataillons!
Marchons, marchons! Qu’un sang impur abreuve nos sillons!

6 Amour sacré de la Patrie,
Conduis, soutiens nos bras vengeurs
Liberté, Liberté chérie,
Combats avec tes défenseurs! (bis)
Sous nos drapeaux que la victoire
Accoure¹⁵ à tes mâles accents,¹⁶
Que tes ennemis expirants
Voient ton triomphe et notre gloire!

Aux armes, citoyens! Formez vos bataillons!
Marchons, marchons! Qu’un sang impur abreuve nos sillons!

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French Lyrics With English Translation

1 Allons, enfants de la patrie, Le jour de gloire est arrivé! Contre nous de la tyrannie L’étendard sanglant est levé! (bis)  Entendez-vous, dans les campagnes Mugir ces féroces soldats? Ils viennent jusque dans nos bras Égorger nos fils, nos compagnes!	1 Let us go, children of the fatherland, The day of glory has arrived! Against us of tyranny The bloody standard is raised!17 (twice) Do you hear, in the countryside, Those fierce soldiers bellowing? They are coming right up to our arms To slit the throats of our wives & children!
Aux armes, citoyens!  Formez vos bataillons! Marchons, marchons!   Qu’un sang impur abreuve nos sillons!	To arms, citizens! Form your battalions! Let’s march, let’s march! Let an impure blood water our furrows!
2 Que veut cette horde d’esclaves, De traîtres, de rois conjurés? Pour qui ces ignobles entraves, Ces fers dès longtemps préparés? (bis) Français, pour nous, ah! quel outrage, Quels transports il doit exciter! C’est nous qu’on ose méditer De rendre à l’antique esclavage!	2 What does this horde of slaves, traitors, And conspiring kings mean to do? For whom are these ignoble chains, These irons prepared long ago? (twice) French persons, for us, ah! what outrage, What transports it must excite! It’s us they dare think Of returning to the ancient slavery!
Aux armes, etc.	To arms, etc.
3 Quoi! des cohortes étrangères Feraient la loi dans nos foyers! Quoi! ces phalanges mercenaires Terrasseraient nos fiers guerriers! (bis) Grand Dieu! par des mains enchaînées Nos fronts sous le joug se ploieraient De vils despotes deviendraient Les maîtres de nos destinées!	3 What! These foreign cohorts think They can make the law in our land? What, these mercenary phalanxes think They can overthrow our proud warriors? (twice) Good God! They think our brows will be bent Beneath the yoke by hands enchained? That vile despots will become The masters of our fates?
Aux armes, etc.	To arms, etc.
4 Tremblez, tyrans et vous perfides L’opprobre de tous les partis, Tremblez! vos projets parricides Vont enfin recevoir leurs prix! (bis) Tout est soldat pour vous combattre, S’ils tombent, nos jeunes héros, La terre en produit de nouveaux, Contre vous tout prets à se battre!	4 Tremble, tyrants, and you, perfidious ones, The shame of all parties; Tremble! Your parricidal plans Are going at last to receive their reward! (twice) Everyone’s a soldier to combat you. If they fall, our young heroes, The earth produces more of them, Completely ready to fight against you!
Aux armes, etc.	To arms, etc.
5 Français, en guerriers magnanimes, Portez ou retenez vos coups! Epargnez ces tristes victimes, A regret s’armant contre nous. (bis) Mais ces despotes sanguinaires, Mais ces complices de Bouillé, Tous ces tigres qui, sans pitié, Déchirent le sein de leur mère!	5 Frenchmen, as generous warriors, Deliver or withhold your blows! Spare those sad victims, Arming against you against their will. (twice) But those bloody despots, Those accomplices of Bouillé, All those tigers that, pitiless, Rend their mother’s bosom…grrr!
Aux armes, etc.	To arms, etc.
6 Amour sacré de la Patrie, Conduis, soutiens nos bras vengeurs ; Liberté, Liberté chérie, Combats avec tes défenseurs! (bis) Sous nos drapeaux que la victoire Accoure à tes mâles accents, Que tes ennemis expirants Voient ton triomphe et notre gloire!	6 Sacred love of the Fatherland, Guide, sustain our avenging arms; Liberty, cherished Liberty, Fight alongside your defenders! (twice) Beneath our banners may victory Come in a hurry to your manly accents; May your enemies, expiring, See your triumph and our glory!
Aux armes, etc.	To arms, etc.

1. Of preposterous inversions an excellent example / These lines 3 and 4 are.[↩]
2. One usually finds jusque combined with à (jusqu’à, from Latin usque ad), but in fact jusque can combine with other prepositions as well: jusque sur, jusque sous, jusqu’en, jusque vers, jusque dans…[↩]
3. “cett-e” – The final e has to be pronounced (and sung), because the “h” of horde is what they call (improperly) an “h aspiré.” Alas, this is not a case of a savvy use of the “e caduc” or “e sourd”, given the rhythm and melody at this point. This e, even when sung, should never be emphasized. (Same problem with the “e” of hord-e.) [↩]
4. The slaves would be the simple soldiers; the traitors would be any émigrés fighting against France; the conspiring kings would be the head of the Austrian Empire and the king of Prussia. (Eventually the “First Coalition,” which lasted until 1797, would include quite a few others.) [↩]
5. qu’on ose méditer / De rendre… A rather clumsy enjambment, if you ask me.[↩]
6. The repeated Quoi! (lines 1 and 3) and the verbs in the conditional (feraient, terrasseraient, se ploieraient, deviendraient) express what the song considers the enormity and absurdity of what France’s enemies think they are going to achieve. See The Conditional: To Report What Somebody Else Has Said.[↩]
7. foyers could mean “homes” (more literally “hearths”), but in the plural it can mean the place where your homes are, i.e., your country or region.[↩]
8. Classical prosody requires that the “e” of Terrasseraient be counted as a syllable, and consequently that the ier of fiers and guerriers be treated as a single syllable (to make up the eight syllables of this octosyllable); but it sounds terrible when you sing it that way: another case of an e caduc having to be emphasized. Tsk![↩]
9. par des mains…se ploieraient – Oh, the joys of inversion![↩]
10. The vous perfides, / Opprobre de tous les partis is referring once again, I presume, to the “traitors,” French who have gone over to the side of the enemy (See stanza 5, note to Bouillé). [↩]
11. Why are their plans parricides? Because…all Europeans should be one happy family? Or is the song still speaking about the traîtres?[↩]
12. At last, in this stanza, the attenuation I promised to the bloodiness of the refrain. The simple soldiers fighting you are victims, not monsters. Be kind to them![↩]
13. François-Claude de Bouillé, †1800. He organized the attempt at flight by the royal family (1791); subsequently, he worked with the First Coalition. Consequently, the chief of the traîtres.[↩]
14. What the French should do to the latters is covered in the refrain (Qu’un sang impur…). [↩]
15. Two more “third-person imperatives”: que la Victoire / Accoure… and Que tes ennemis… / Voient…[↩]
16. “à tes mâles accents” = “to your manly accents.” But just whose manly accents? It can’t be “Liberté,” because as a noun Liberté is feminine and, personified, a woman. It must be “Amour sacré de la Patrie” (Unless Liberté is a virago…).[↩]
17. Or, using a more ordinary English order: “The bloody standard of tyranny is raised against us!”[↩]

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