French Revolution 1793

Patriotic Song for the Inauguration of the Busts of Marat and Lepeletier

(Words by Coupigny)


Source: Michel Delon and Paul-Edouard Levayer, Chansonnier Révolutionnaire. Paris, Gallimard, 1989;
Translated: for marxists.org by Mitchell Abidor;
CopyLeft: Creative Commons (Attribute & ShareAlike) marxists.org 2008.

Note: Lepeletier de Saint-Fargeau was the first great martyrs of the Revolution, having been assassinated in 1793 for voting for the execution of the King.


Citizens whose virtues
Ancient Rome has consecrated;
Supports of the republic
You GRACCHUS, and you BRUTUS!
Burning with courage,
The French have imitated them;
They are completing your work
By establishing liberty.

For a long time France, enslaved
By crowned brigands,
Saw, under tyranny
Its proud children prostrated.
It said: “I will be free,
I will bring down the oppressors.”
And soon the heroes of the Tiber
Found successors.

Friends firm and faithful
Of reason and law,
Serve forever as models
For the defenders of our rights.
May those in whom the Fatherland
Confided its destiny
Know how to give it their lives
As republican martyrs.

Through the intrepid courage
That had you brave death
Teach timid hearts
The splendor of such a fate.
If Rome’s liberty
Found so many defenders
It’s because the shade of a great man
Still calls for avengers.