Le chant du Départ

Victory in song
Opens the gate for us
Freedom guides our steps
From the North to the South
The warrior's trumpet
Has sounded the hour for battle.

Tremble, enemies of France,
Kings drunk on blood and pride.
The sovereign people advance:
Tyrants, go down to your graves.

{Chorus:}
The republic calls us,
Let’s know how to conquer or perish;
A Frenchman must live for her,
For her, a Frenchman must die.
A Frenchman must live for her,
For her, a Frenchman must die.

From our motherly eyes
Don’t fear the tears;
Far from us the cowardly pains!
We must triumph
When you take up arms,
We’ve given you life
Warriors, it’s no longer yours;
All our days belong to the homeland,
She is your mother before us.

{Chorus}

Let the father’s steel arm the hands of the brave;
Think of us on the battlefield;
Consecrate in the blood of kings and slaves
The steel blessed by our elders,
And, bringing back under the cottage
Wounds and virtues,
Come close our eyelids
When the tyrants are no more.

{Chorus}

From Barra, from Viala, fate makes us envious:
They are dead but they have conquered.
The coward, burdened with years, has not known life;
Who dies for the people has lived.
You are valiant, we are too;
Guide us against the tyrants;
Republicans are men,
Slaves are children.

{Chorus}

Go, valiant husbands! The battles are your celebrations
Go, models of warriors!
We will gather flowers to crown your heads,
Our hands will weave your laurels
And, if the temple of Memory
Opens to our victorious spirits,
Our voices will sing your glory,
Our sides will bear your avengers.

{Chorus}

And we, sisters of heroes; we, who know not the bonds
Of marriage’s sweet ties,
If, to unite one day with our destiny,
The citizens make vows,
Let them return to our walls
Beautiful with glory and freedom,
And let their blood in battles
Flow for equality.

{Chorus}

On the steel, before God, we swear to our fathers,
To our wives, to our sisters,
To our representatives, to our sons, to our mothers
To annihilate the oppressors.
In all places, in the deep night
Drowning the infamous royalty,
The French will give the world
Both peace and freedom.

{Chorus}