The Internationale
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 L'Internationale in the original French. |
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| International anthem of | International Social Democratic Movement International Socialist Movement International Anarchist Movement International Communist Movement International Democratic Movement |
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| Also known as | L'Internationale (French) | ||||||||
| Lyrics | Eugène Pottier, 1871 | ||||||||
| Music | Pierre De Geyter, 1888 | ||||||||
| Adopted | 1890s | ||||||||
| Music sample | |||||||||
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The Internationale (L'Internationale in French) is a famous socialist, communist, social-democratic and anarchist anthem and one of the most widely recognized songs in the world.
The Internationale became the anthem of international socialism. Its original French refrain is C'est la lutte finale/ Groupons-nous et demain/ L'Internationale/ Sera le genre humain. (Freely translated: "This is the final struggle/ Let us group together and tomorrow/ The Internationale/ Will be the human race.") The Internationale has been translated into many of the world's languages. It is sung traditionally with the hand raised in a clenched fist salute. The Internationale is sung not only by communists but also (in many countries) by socialists or social democrats, as well as anarchists.
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[edit] Original French lyrics and copyright
The original French words were written in June 1871 by Eugène Pottier (1816–1887, previously a member of the Paris Commune)[1] and were originally intended to be sung to the tune of La Marseillaise.[2] Pierre De Geyter (1848–1932) set the poem to music in 1888.[3] His melody was first publicly performed in July 1888[4] and became widely used soon after.
In an unsuccessful attempt to save Pierre De Geyter's job as a woodcarver, the 6,000 leaflets printed by Lille printer Bolboduc only mentioned the French version of his family name (Degeyter). In 1904, Pierre's brother Adolphe was induced by the Lille mayor Gustave Delory to claim copyright, so that the income of the song would continue to go to Delory's French Socialist Party. Pierre De Geyter lost the first copyright case in 1914, but after his brother committed suicide and left a note explaining the fraud, Pierre was declared the copyright owner by a court of appeal in 1922.[5]
Pierre De Geyter died in 1932. His music of the Internationale is copyrighted in France until October 2017. The duration of copyright in France is 70 years following the end of the year when the author died, plus (for musical works) 6 years and 152 days to compensate for World War I, and 8 years and 120 days to compensate for World War II respectively.[6] In 2005, Le Chant du Monde, the corporation administering the authors' rights, asked Pierre Merejkowsky, the film director and an actor of Insurrection / résurrection, to pay €1,000 for whistling the song for seven seconds.[7]
However, as the Internationale music was published before 1 July 1909 outside the United States of America, it is in the public domain in the USA.[8] Pierre De Geyter's music is also in the public domain in countries and areas whose copyright durations are authors' lifetime plus 75 years or less. As Eugène Pottier died in 1887, his original French lyrics are in the public domain. Gustave Delory once acquired the copyright of his lyrics through the songwriter G B Clement having bought it from Pottier's widow.[9]
| French lyrics | Literal English translation |
|---|---|
| First stanza | |
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Debout, les damnés de la terre |
Arise, wretched of the earth |
| Second stanza | |
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Il n'est pas de sauveurs suprêmes |
There are no supreme saviours |
| Third stanza | |
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L'état comprime et la loi triche |
The state represses and the law cheats |
| Fourth stanza | |
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Hideux dans leur apothéose |
Hideous in their self-glorification |
| Fifth stanza | |
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Les rois nous saoulaient de fumées |
The kings make us drunk with their fumes, |
| Sixth stanza | |
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Ouvriers, paysans, nous sommes |
Labourers, peasants, we are |
[edit] Translations into other languages
The Internationale in Chinese (traditional Chinese: 國際歌; simplified Chinese: 国际歌; pinyin: Guójìgē), literally the International Song, has several different sets of lyrics. One such version served as the de facto anthem of the Communist Party of China,[10] the national anthem of the Chinese Soviet Republic[11], as well as a rallying song of the students and workers at the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989.[12] Versions of The Internationale in Indian Languages have existed since the 1950s since the translation of the song for the people of the Indian state of Kerala by the legendary actor and social activist Premji for the united Communist Party of India. In the 1980s, more translations appeared, done by Sachidanandan, Mokeri Ramachandran and an unknown translator. The first two were sung by the activists of Janakeeya Samskarikavedi, an organisation connected with CPI(ML), and the third one was for the activists of Students Federation of India or SFI, the student organisation associated with CPI(M).
[edit] Russian lyrics
| English: The Internationale | |||||||||
| Internatsional | |||||||||
| anthem of |  Russian SFSR Soviet Union |
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| Lyrics | Arkady Yakovlevich Kots, 1902 | ||||||||
| Music | Pierre De Geyter, 1888 | ||||||||
| Adopted | 1918 (as anthem of Russian SFSR) 1922 (as anthem of Soviet Union) |
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| Until | 1944 | ||||||||
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The Russian version was initially translated by Aron Kots (Arkady Yakovlevich Kots) in 1902 and printed in London in Zhizn, a Russian émigré magazine. The first Russian version consisted of three stanzas (as opposed to six stanzas in the original French lyrics, and based on stanzas 1, 2 and 6) and the refrain. After the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia, the text was slightly re-worded to get rid of "now useless" future tenses - particularly the refrain was reworded (the future tense was replaced by the present, and the first person plural possessive pronoun was introduced). In 1918, the chief-editor of Izvestia, Yuri Steklov, appealed to Russian writers to translate the other three stanzas and in the end, the song was expanded into six stanzas[13]. In 1944 the Soviet Union adopted the Hymn of the Soviet Union as its national anthem. Prior to that time, the Internationale served as the principal musical expression of allegiance to the ideals of the October Revolution and the Soviet Union. (The Internationale continued to be recognized as the official song of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, and the post-1919 Soviet version is still used by the Communist Party of the Russian Federation.) The three stanzas by Kots were as follows:
| Russian translation | Latin alphabet transliteration | Literal English translation |
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| First stanza | ||
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Вставай, проклятьем заклеймённый, Припев: |: Это есть наш последний |
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Arise, you branded by a curse, |
| Second stanza | ||
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Никто не даст нам избавленья: |
Nikto ne dast nam izbavlen'ya |
No one will grant us deliverance, |
| Third stanza | ||
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Лишь мы, работники всемирной |
Lish' my, rabotniki vsemirnoy |
Only we, the workers of the world-wide |
[edit] English lyrics
The traditional British version of The Internationale is usually sung in three verses, while the American version, authored by Charles Hope Kerr with five verses, is usually sung in two.[14][15] The American version is sometimes sung with the phrase "the internationale", "the international soviet", or "the international union" in place of "the international working class". In English, the traditional workers' pronunciation is not an imitation of the French [ɛ̃tɛʀnasjɔnal(ə)], but rather [ɪntɚnæʃəˈnæli] (rhyming with "alley" or "valley").
The English versions are known to be notoriously difficult to sing, as the lyrics may appear sometimes forced and unnatural. British musician Billy Bragg, after talking to the American folk singer and activist Pete Seeger, agreed that the old lyrics were "archaic and unsingable". Bragg composed revised verses for the song, based on the British version. The recording was released on his album The Internationale along with reworkings of other socialist songs. A full, six-stanza translation can be found on the Wikisource page on The Internationale.
| British/Irish Translation | Billy Bragg's Revision[16] | American version |
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| First stanza | ||
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Arise, ye workers from your slumber, |
Stand up, all victims of oppression, |
Arise, you prisoners of starvation! |
| Second stanza | ||
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No more deluded by reaction, |
Let no one build walls to divide us, |
We want no condescending saviors |
| Third stanza | ||
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No saviour from on high delivers, |
And so begins the final drama, |
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[edit] Instrumental recordings
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[edit] See also
- Anarchism and the arts for further details on expression of anarchist themes through art.
- Pierre De Geyter
- The Internationale, an album by Billy Bragg featuring Bragg's rewritten lyrics to the song.
[edit] Other language versions
- The Internationale in Bengali
- The Internationale in Chinese
- The Internationale in Urdu/Hindi
- The Internationale in Filipino
[edit] References
- ^ The Guardian, Australia. "The International". first paragraph. http://www.geocities.com/capitolhill/7078/inter.txt.
- ^ David Walls, Sonoma State University. "Billy Bragg's Revival of Aging Anthems: Radical Nostalgia or Activist Inspiration?". http://www.sonoma.edu/users/w/wallsd/smm-aging-anthems.shtml#_ednref15.
- ^ The Guardian, Australia. "The International". ninth paragraph. http://www.geocities.com/capitolhill/7078/inter.txt.
- ^ The Guardian, Australia. "The International". 11th paragraph. http://www.geocities.com/capitolhill/7078/inter.txt.
- ^ The Guardian, Australia. "The International". http://www.geocities.com/capitolhill/7078/inter.txt.
- ^ Arts. L123-1, L123-8, and L123-9 in Chapter III of Title II of Book I of the Intellectual Property Code of France and its French version; see [1] for commentary.
- ^ (French) Le Monde and Zalea TV.
- ^ Peter B. Hirtle. "Copyright Term and the Public Domain in the United States". http://www.copyright.cornell.edu/training/Hirtle_Public_Domain.htm.
- ^ The Guardian, Australia. "The International". 16th paragraph. http://www.geocities.com/capitolhill/7078/inter.txt.
- ^ (Chinese) Xinhua Net: http://news.xinhuanet.com/politics/2008-01/28/content_7511238.htm
- ^ (Chinese) People's Daily: History of Chinese national anthems in a hundred years
- ^ Modern History Sourcebook: The Internationale
- ^ A.V. Lunacharskiy(ed). "The International (in Russian)". Fundamental'naya Elektronnaya Biblioteka. http://feb-web.ru/feb/litenc/encyclop/le4/le4-5401.htm.
- ^ David Walls, Sonoma State University. "Billy Bragg's Revival of Aging Anthems: Radical Nostalgia or Activist Inspiration?". http://www.sonoma.edu/users/w/wallsd/smm-aging-anthems.shtml#_ednref20.
- ^ The Internationale in 82 languages
- ^ Billy Bragg: Albums: The Internationale
[edit] External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: The Internationale |
- A documentary on the Internationale.
- (Russian) Another large collection of downloadable recordings
- Communist propaganda clip with the Internationale as background music (Albanian and Russian)
- Downloadable recordings in more than 40 languages
- Piano arrangements and orchestral MIDI file of The Internationale
- The Internationale in 86 languages
- Turkish Edition-Lyrics and more
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