La semaine sanglante

Except for informers and gendarmes,
We no longer see on the roads,
Only sad old men in tears,
Widows and orphans.
Paris oozes misery,
Even the happy ones are trembling.
The trend is towards war councils,
And the cobblestones are all bloody.

{Chorus:}
Yes, but!
Things are shaking up,
The bad days will end.
And beware! of the revenge,
When all the poor rise up.
When all the poor rise up.

The newspapers of the ex-prefecture,
The pirates, the deranged people,
The upstarts by adventure,
The complacent, the decorated ones,
People from the Stock Exchange and street corners,
Lovers of discarded girls,
Swarm like a bunch of warts,
On the corpses of the defeated.

{to Chorus}

They hunt, they chain, they shoot
All those they randomly pick up.
The mother next to her daughter,
The child in the arms of the old man.
The punishments of the red flag
Are replaced by the terror
Of all the scoundrels of dens,
Servants of kings and emperors.

{to Chorus}

Here we are back to the Jesuits,
To Mac-Mahon, to Dupanloup.
Holy water will rain down,
The collection boxes will make crazy money.
From tomorrow, in celebration
Both Saint Eustache and the Opera
Will compete again,
And the prison will fill up.

{to Chorus}

Tomorrow the mistresses, the courtesans
And the ladies of the fine neighborhoods
Will wear on their collars
Chassepots and drums.
Everything will be in the tricolor,
The daily specials and the ribbons,
While the hero Pandore
Will have our children shot.

{to Chorus}

Tomorrow the police officers
Will flourish on the sidewalk again,
Proud of their service records,
And the pistol on their belt.
Without bread, without work and without weapons,
We will be governed
By informers and gendarmes,
Sword-people and priests.

{to Chorus}

Will the people with the collar of misery
Always be riveted?
Until when will the men of war
Hold the upper hand?
Until when will the Holy Clique
Believe us to be vile cattle?
When will the Republic finally
Stand for Justice and Labor?