helshades:

dammit-sherlock:

i realised just now that non-french people don’t know our anthem and oh guys you’re missing out:

Arise, children of the Fatherland
The day of glory has arrived!
Against us tyranny
Raises its bloody banner (repeat)
Do you hear, in the countryside,
The roar of those ferocious soldiers?
They’re coming right into your arms
To cut the throats of your sons and women!

To arms, citizens!
Form your battalions!
Let’s march! let’s march!
Let an impure blood
Water our furrows! (repeat)

Mmh, I would be more along the lines of:

Arise, children of the homeland
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! (repeat)

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
There we shall find their dust
And the trace of their virtues
We are much less jealous of surviving them
Than of sharing their coffins
We shall have the sublime pride
Of avenging or joining them

Sacred love of the homeland
Drive on, support our avenging arms
Liberty, cherished liberty
Fight 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!

I have a very special fondness for the manly tones of the homeland, I’ll have to admit.