See our red flag wave, Parisians,
Never let it fall!
The enemies are at our gates
And just beyond our wall.
Take up arms, all friends who may,
Build the barricades high,
For now we fight for liberty,
A worthy way to die!
Chorus:
Rise up, rise up, O Communards,
To God ye need not pray,
For we are masters of our fates
And that begins today!
Whatever shall those fates demand
The whole world soon will see,
O Communards, O Communards,
A France forever free!
No Prussian, Bourbon, Bonaparte
Shall evermore rule here,
Nor all the devils of Versailles
Or their master Thiers!
We took the cannons of Monmartre,
We fell'd the damned Vendome,
The gentry fled out to the west,
All Paris is our home!
Chorus
The Common Man shall now prevail
With Woman by his side,
And win the kiss of Liberty
As they duel an evil tide.
So join us all in righteous battle
'Til such battling cease
And then we'll see thro' darksome days
A Paris cloaked in peace!
Chorus
Dedicated to all who perished, whether Communard or no,
during "Bloody Week" - May 21 to 28, 1871
DB/1.2018
I had never heard nor read about the Communards and the "Paris rebellion." It seems to have been an event little mentioned in school and little portrayed in Hollywood or TV. Do you know why?
ReplyDeleteHi Marty! Unfortunately it's been common throughout history for certain events to be treated like mere footnotes against much larger and sometimes better-known conflicts (e.g. the nearly-forgotten Armenian Massacre of 1915 set against the sprawling debacle of World War I), although the Paris Commune revolt followed the mostly obscure Franco-Prussian War of 1870. Many of these secondary events aren't learned of or seriously studied until many years after the fact, if at all. Also unfortunate is that the winners will always write the history books, so of course the Communards bitterly lost their struggle against the murderous conservative troops of Versailles and were nearly forgotten from History until about the 1960s and 70s when the anti-establishment unrest took hold of Parisian youth and they championed the Communards sacrifice. Since then respect and remembrance for the Communards has grown at least in Paris if not in the rest of France.
DeleteYeah, there ought to be some kind of movie made about the Communards, or maybe at least some kind of a miniseries, although I don't think they make too many of those anymore, at least not on the scale of 'Shogun' or 'Masada' or others like them. If you're interested the book I read about the Communards is called "Massacre:The Life and Death of the Paris Commune" by John Merriman (New York: Basic Books 2014). If you read it you'll get a lot more detail about key figures and events, especially during "Bloody Week". I should also mention that the Communards were not totally innocent, either; they also killed people,too,some being Catholic priests, which did not go over at all well with the religious Versailles. But you'll find all that out if you decide to read the book.
I hope I sufficiently answered your question, Marty, and I want to thank you for your interest in my blog. Take care!-Dan