Tuesday, April 30, 2013

The Internationale

 
Stand up, damned of the Earth
Stand up, prisoners of starvation
Reason thunders in its volcano
This is the eruption of the end.
Of the past let us make a clean slate
Enslaved masses, stand up, stand up.
The world is about to change its foundation
We are nothing, let us be all.
This is the final struggle
Let us group together, and tomorrow
The Internationale
Will be the human race.
There are no supreme saviors
Neither God, nor Caesar, nor tribune.
Producers, let us save ourselves,
Decree the common salvation.
So that the thief expires,
So that the spirit be pulled from its prison,
Let us fan the forge ourselves
Strike the iron while it is hot.
This is the final struggle
Let us group together, and tomorrow
The Internationale
Will be the human race.
The State oppresses and the law cheats.
Tax bleeds the unfortunate.
No duty is imposed on the rich;
The rights of the poor is an empty phrase.
Enough languishing in custody!
Equality wants other laws:
No rights without duties, she says,
Equally, no duties without rights.
This is the final struggle
Let us group together, and tomorrow
The Internationale
Will be the human race.
Hideous in their apotheosis
The kings of the mine and of the rail.
Have they ever done anything other
Than steal work?
Inside the safeboxes of the gang,
What work had created melted.
By ordering that they give it back,
The people want only their due.
This is the final struggle
Let us group together, and tomorrow
The Internationale
Will be the human race.
The kings made us drunk with fumes,
Peace among us, war to the tyrants!
Let the armies go on strike,
Stocks in the air, and break ranks.
If they insist, these cannibals
On making heroes of us,
They will know soon that our bullets
Are for our own generals.
This is the final struggle
Let us group together, and tomorrow
The Internationale
Will be the human race.
Workers, peasants, we are
The great party of labourers.
The earth belongs only to men;
The idle will go to reside elsewhere.
How much of our flesh have they consumed?
But if these ravens, these vultures
Disappeared one of these days,
The sun will shine forever.
This is the final struggle
Let us group together, and tomorrow
The Internationale
Will be the human race.