"The Internationale"[a] is aninternationalanthem that has been adopted as the anthem of variousanarchist,communist,socialist, andsocial democratic movements.[1][2] It has been a standard of thesocialist movement since the late nineteenth century, when theSecond International adopted it as its official anthem. The title arises from the "First International", an alliance of workers, which held a congress in 1864. The author of the anthem's lyrics,Eugène Pottier, a member of the French branch of the organization, attended this congress.[3][4] Pottier's text was later set to an original melody composed byPierre De Geyter, a member of theParti Ouvrier Français (French Workers Party) in Lille in industrial northern France.
The song in its original French version was written in June 1871 byEugène Pottier, a member of theFirst International andParis Commune, after the Commune had been crushed by the French army on 28 May but before Pottier fled first to Britain and then later (1873-1881) to the United States.[5][6] Pottier intended it to be sung to the tune of "La Marseillaise".[7][8][9] The song was reputedly sung to theMarseillaise at Pottier's burial in November 1887.[10] Only the following year, the melody to whichThe Internationale is usually sung, was composed byPierre De Geyter for the choir "La Lyre des Travailleurs" of theFrench Worker's Party in his hometown ofLille, and the first performed there in July 1888.[7][11][12]De Geyter had been commissioned byGustave Delory the future mayor of Lille, who had received the text from a young socialist teacher,Charles Gros.[13][12][12]
Pottier wrote an earlier version of the song in September 1870, to celebrate theThird Republic declared after the defeat of theSecond French Empire by Prussia and the abdication of Napoleon III, and to honor theFirst International; this version was reprinted in 1988, the centennial of Degeyter's musical setting, by the historian of Commune song,Robert Brécy.[14][15] Contemporary editions published by Boldoduc (Lille) in 1888, by Delory in 1894, and by Lagrange in 1898 are no longer locatable, but the text that endures is the one authorized by Pottier for hisChants Révolutionnaires, published by hisCommunard colleagueJean Allemane in April 1887, before Pottier's death in November, and reprinted in Pottier'sCollected Works.[16] This version, along with a facsimile reprint of De Geyter's score and translations into English and other languages, also appears in the only English-language selection of Pottier's works, edited byLoren Kruger.[17]
Pottier's lyrics contain one-liners that became very popular and found widespread use as slogans; other lines such as "Ni Dieu, ni César, ni tribun" ("Neither God, nor Caesar, nor tribune") were already well-known in the workers' movement. The success of the song is connected to the stability and widespread popularity of theSecond International. Like the lyrics, the music by De Geyter was relatively simple and down to earth, suitable for a workers' audience.[18]
Debout, les damnés de la terre Debout, les forçats de la faim La raison tonne en son cratère C'est l'éruption de la fin Du passé faisons table rase Foule esclave, debout, debout Le monde va changer de base Nous ne sommes rien, soyons tout
Refrain : 𝄆 C'est la lutte finale Groupons-nous, et demain L'Internationale Sera le genre humain. 𝄇
Il n'est pas de sauveurs suprêmes Ni Dieu, ni César, ni tribun Producteurs, sauvons-nous nous-mêmes Décrétons le salut commun Pour que le voleur rende gorge Pour tirer l'esprit du cachot Soufflons nous-mêmes notre forge Battons le fer quand il est chaud.
Refrain
L'État opprime et la loi triche L'impôt saigne le malheureux Nul devoir ne s'impose au riche Le droit du pauvre est un mot creux C'est assez, languir en tutelle L'égalité veut d'autres lois Pas de droits sans devoirs dit-elle Égaux, pas de devoirs sans droits.
Refrain
Hideux dans leur apothéose Les rois de la mine et du rail Ont-ils jamais fait autre chose Que dévaliser le travail ? Dans les coffres-forts de la bande Ce qu'il a créé s'est fondu En décrétant qu'on le lui rende Le peuple ne veut que son dû.
Refrain
Les rois nous saoulaient de fumées Paix entre nous, guerre aux tyrans Appliquons la grève aux armées Crosse en l'air, et rompons les rangs S'ils s'obstinent, ces cannibales À faire de nous des héros Ils sauront bientôt que nos balles Sont pour nos propres généraux.
Refrain
Ouvriers, paysans, nous sommes Le grand parti des travailleurs La terre n'appartient qu'aux hommes L'oisif ira loger ailleurs Combien de nos chairs se repaissent Mais si les corbeaux, les vautours Un de ces matins disparaissent Le soleil brillera toujours.
Refrain
Arise, wretched of the earth Arise, convicts of hunger Reason thunders in its crater This is the eruption of the end Of the past let us wipe the slate clean Slave masses, arise, arise The world is about to change its foundation We are nothing, let us be everything
Chorus: 𝄆 This is the final struggle Let us gather together, and tomorrow The Internationale Will be the human race. 𝄇
There are nosupreme saviors Neither God, norCaesar, nortribune. Producers, let us save ourselves, Decree on the common welfare That the thief return his plunder, That the spirit be pulled from its prison Let us fan the forge ourselves Strike the iron while it is hot
Chorus
The state represses and the law cheats The tax bleeds the unfortunate No duty is imposed on the rich "Rights of the poor" is a hollow phrase Enough languishing in custody Equality wants other laws: No rights without obligations, it says, And as well, no obligations without rights
Chorus
Hideous in their self-deification Kings of the mine and rail Have they ever done anything other Than steal work? Into the coffers of that lot, What work creates has melted In demanding that they give it back The people wants only its due.
Chorus
The kings intoxicate us with gunsmoke, Peace among ourselves, war to the tyrants! Let the armies go on strike, Guns in the air, and break ranks If these cannibals insist In making heroes of us, Soon they will know our bullets Are for our own generals
Chorus
Laborers, peasants, we are The great party of workers The earth belongs only to men The idle will go reside elsewhere How much of our flesh they feed on, But if the ravens and vultures Disappear one of these days The sun will shine always
In a successful attempt to save Pierre De Geyter's job as a woodcarver, the 6,000 leaflets printed by Lille printer Boldoduc only mentioned the French version of his family name (Degeyter).[19][12]The second edition published by Delory named Pierre's brother Adolphe as the composer.[20]With neither money nor representation, Pierre De Geyter lost his first lawsuit over this in 1914 and did not gain legal recognition of authorship until 1922 when he was 74.[20][8][11]His brother had in the meantime died by suicide in 1916, leaving a note to Pierre explaining the fraud and stating that Delory had manipulated him into claiming authorship; and Delory had inscribed on Adolphe's tombstone "Ici repose Adolphe Degeyter, l'auteur deL'Internationale" ("Here lies Adolphe De Geyter, the authour ofThe Internationale".[20]Despite thisdying declaration, historians in the 1960s such as Daniel Ligou were still contending that Adolphe was the author.[20]
In 1972, "Montana Edition", owned byHans R. Beierlein, bought the rights to the song for 5,000Deutschmark, first for the territory ofWest Germany, then inEast Germany, then worldwide. East Germany paid Montana Edition 20,000 DM every year for its rights to play the music. Pierre De Geyter died in 1932, causing the copyrights to expire in 2002.[21] Luckhardt's German text is the public domain since 1984.
As "The Internationale" music was published before 1 July 1909 outside the United States, it is in thepublic domain in the United States.[22] As of 2013, Pierre De Geyter's music is also in the public domain in countries and areas whosecopyright durations are authors' lifetime plus 80 years or less.[23] Due to France's wartime copyright extensions (prorogations de Guerre),SACEM claimed that the music was still copyrighted in France until October 2014.[24] The "Internationale" is now also in the public domain within France.
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 Jean-Baptiste Clement having bought it from Pottier's widow.[25]
There have been a very wide variety of translations of the anthem. In 2002, Kuznar notes that the nature of these translations has varied widely. Many have been closely literal translations with variations solely to account for rhyme and meter but others have been done to encode different ideology perspectives and or toupdate contents to adapt the lyrics to relevant more contemporary issues.[26]
The first English version has been attributed to the author Eugène Pottier himself, produced apparently after he fled the fall of the Paris Commune in June 1871 for temporary exile in Britain (until 1873, when he went on to the United States).[27] The first U.S. translation was by Charles Hope Kerr who heard it in De Geyter's setting in Lille in 1894 and published it as a pamphlet that year: it was later reproduced inSongs of theIWW, first published in 1909 and has been reprinted by Kerr's publishing house into the 21st century.[28][29] The first of many Italian versions signed by E. Bergeret, identified asEttore Marroni, in 1901.[30] Dutch communist poetHenriette Roland Holst translated it into Dutch, with "Ontwaakt, verworpenen der aarde" ('Wake up, all who are cast away') at about the same time. By the time of the1910 International Socialist Congress in Copenhagen, versions had appeared in 18 different languages, including a Danish one by A. C. Meyer, which was sung at the end of a cantata by 500 singers.[18]
The Russian version was initially translated byArkady Kots in 1902 and printed in London inZhizn, a Russian émigré magazine. The first Russian version had only threestanzas, based on stanzas 1, 2, and 6 of the original, and the refrain. After theBolshevik 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 ofIzvestia,Yuri Steklov, appealed to Russian writers to translate the other three stanzas, which did eventually happen.[31]
Вставай, проклятьем заклеймённый, Весь мир голодных и рабов! Кипит наш разум возмущённый И в смертный бой вести готов. Весь мир насилья мы разрушим До основанья, а затем Мы наш, мы новый мир построим, – Кто был ничем, тот станет всем.
Припев: 𝄆 Это есть наш последний И решительный бой; С Интернационалом Воспрянет род людской! 𝄇
Никто не даст нам избавленья: Ни бог, ни царь и не герой! Добьёмся мы освобожденья Своею собственной рукой. Чтоб свергнуть гнёт рукой умелой, Отвоевать своё добро, – Вздувайте горн и куйте смело, Пока железо горячо!
Припев
Довольно кровь сосать, вампиры, Тюрьмой, налогом, нищетой! У вас – вся власть, все блага мира, А наше право – звук пустой ! Мы жизнь построим по-иному – И вот наш лозунг боевой: Вся власть народу трудовому! А дармоедов всех долой!
Припев
Презренны вы в своём богатстве, Угля и стали короли! Вы ваши троны, тунеядцы, На наших спинах возвели. Заводы, фабрики, палаты – Всё нашим создано трудом. Пора! Мы требуем возврата Того, что взято грабежом.
Припев
Довольно королям в угоду Дурманить нас в чаду войны! Война тиранам! Мир Народу! Бастуйте, армии сыны! Когда ж тираны нас заставят В бою геройски пасть за них – Убийцы, в вас тогда направим Мы жерла пушек боевых!
Припев
Лишь мы, работники всемирной Великой армии труда, Владеть землёй имеем право, Но паразиты – никогда! И если гром великий грянет Над сворой псов и палачей, – Для нас всё так же солнце станет Сиять огнём своих лучей.
Припев
Вставай, проклятьемъ заклеймённый, Весь миръ голодныхъ и рабовъ! Кипитъ нашъ разумъ возмуёщнный И въ смертный бой вести готовъ. Весь миръ насилья мы разрушимъ До основанья, а затѣмъ Мы нашъ, мы новый миръ построимъ, – Кто былъ ничѣмъ, тотъ станетъ всемъ.
Припѣвъ: 𝄆 Это есть нашъ послѣдній И рѣшительный бой; Съ Интернаціоналомъ Воспрянетъ родъ людской! 𝄇
Никто не дастъ намъ избавленья: Ни богъ, ни царь и не герой! Добьёмся мы освобожденья Своею собственной рукой. Чтобъ свергнуть гнётъ рукой умѣлой, Отвоевать своё добро, – Вздувайте горнъ и куйте смело, Пока желѣзо горячо!
Припѣвъ
Довольно кровь сосать, вампиры, Тюрьмой, налогомъ, нищетой! У васъ – вся власть, все блага мира, А наше право – звукъ пустой ! Мы жизнь построимъ по-иному – И вотъ нашъ лозунгъ боевой: Вся власть народу трудовому! А дармоѣдовъ всѣхъ долой!
Припѣвъ
Презрѣнны вы въ своёмъ богатствѣ, Угля и стали короли! Вы ваши троны, тунеядцы, На нашихъ спинахъ возвели. Заводы, фабрики, палаты – Всё нашимъ создано трудомъ. Пора! Мы требуемъ возврата Того, что взято грабежомъ.
Припѣвъ
Довольно королямъ въ угоду Дурманить насъ въ чаду войны! Война тиранамъ! Миръ Народу! Бастуйте, арміи сыны! Когда жъ тираны насъ заставятъ Въ бою геройски пасть за нихъ – Убійцы, въ васъ тогда направимъ Мы жерла пушекъ боевыхъ!
Припѣвъ
Лишь мы, работники всемірной Великой арміи труда, Владѣть землёй имѣемъ право, Но паразиты – никогда! И если громъ великій грянетъ Надъ сворой псовъ и палачей, – Для насъ всё такъ же солнце станетъ Сіять огнёмъ своихъ лучей.
Припѣвъ
Vstavaj prokljatjem zaklejmjonnyj, Ves' mir golodnyh i rabov! Kipit naš razum vozmuščjonnyj I v smertnyj boj vesti gotov. Ves' mir nasil'ja my razrušim Do osnovan'ja, a zatem My naš my novyj mir postroim, Kto byl ničem tot stanet vsem!
Pripev: 𝄆 Eto jest' naš poslednij I rešitel'nyj boj; S Internatsionalom Vosprjanet rod ljudskoj! 𝄇
Nikto ne dast nam izbavlen'ja: Ni bog, ni car' i ne geroj Dob'jomsja my osvobožden'ja Svojeju sobstvennoj rukoj. čtob svergnut' gnjot rukoj umeloj, Otvojevat' svojo dobro, – Vzduvajte gorn i kujte smelo, Poka železo gorjačo!
Pripev
Dovol'no krov' sosat', vampiry, Tjur'moj, nalogom niščetoj! U vas — vsja vlast', vse blaga mira, A naše pravo — zvuk pustoj! My žizn' postroim po inomu- I vot naš lozung bojevoj: Vsja vlast' narodu trudovomu! A darmojedov vseh doloj!
Pripev
Prezrenny vy v svojom bogatstve, Uglja i stali koroli! Vy vaši trony tunejadcy, Na naših spinah vozveli. Zavody, fabriki, palaty – Vsjo našim sozdano trudom. Pora! My trebuyem vozvrata Togo čto vzjato grabežom.
Pripev
Dovol'no, koroljam v ugodu, Durmanit' nas v čadu vojny! Vojna tiranam! Mir Narodu! Bastujte armii syny! Kogda ž tirany nas zastavjat V boju gerojski past' za nih – Ubijcy v vas togda napravim My žerla pušek bojevyh!
Pripev
Liš' my, rabotniki vsemirnoj Velikoj armii truda! Vladet' zemlyot imejem pravo, No parazity — nikogda! I jesli grom velikij grjanet Nad svoroj psov i palačej, Dlja nas vsjo takže solnce stanet Sijat' ognjom svoih lučej. Pripev
Arise, ones who are branded by the curse, All the world's starving and enslaved! Our outraged minds are boiling, Ready to lead us into a deadly fight. We will destroy this world of violence Down to the foundations, and then We will build our new world. He who was nothing will become everything!
Chorus: 𝄆 This is our final and decisive battle; With the Internationale humanity will rise up! 𝄇
No one will grant us deliverance, Not god, nor tsar, nor hero. We will win our liberation, With our very own hands. To throw down oppression with a skilled hand, To take back what is ours — Fire up the furnace and hammer boldly, while the iron is still hot!
Chorus
You've sucked enough of our blood, you vampires, With prison, taxes and poverty! You have all the power, all the blessings of the world, And our rights are but an empty sound! We'll make our own lives in a different way — And here is our battle cry: All the power to the people of labour! And away with all the parasites!
Chorus
Contemptible you are in your wealth, You kings of coal and steel! You had your thrones, parasites, At our backs erected. All the factories, all the chambers — All were made by our hands. It's time! We demand the return Of that which was stolen from us.
Chorus
Enough of the will of kings Stupefying us into the haze of war! War to the tyrants! Peace to the people! Go on strike, sons of the army! And if the tyrants tell us To fall heroically in battle for them — Then, murderers, we will point The muzzles of our cannons at you!
Chorus
Only we, the workers of the worldwide Great army of labor, Have the right to own the land, But the parasites — never! And if the great thunder rolls Over the pack of dogs and executioners, For us, the sun will forever Shine on with its fiery beams.
Dmitry Shostakovich used "The Internationale" twice for the movie soundtrack to the 1936 Soviet movieGirl Friends, once performed by a military-style band when a group of women are preparing for war, and a second time as a solo performance on atheremin.[32]
Nikolai Evreinov's 1920The Storming of the Winter Palace used both "The Internationale" and "La Marseillaise" symbolically in opposition to each other, with the former sung by the "Red platform" proletariat side and the latter sung by the "White platform" government side, the former starting weakly and in disarray but gradually becoming organised and drowning out the latter.[33]
The change of the Soviet Union's national anthem from "The Internationale" to the "State Anthem of the USSR" was a factor in the production of the 1944 movieHymn of the Nations, which made use of an orchestration of "The Internationale" thatArturo Toscanini had already done the year before for a 1943NBC radio broadcast commemorating the twenty-sixth anniversary of theOctober Revolution.[34]
It was incorporated into Verdi'sInno delle nazioni alongside the national anthems of the United Kingdom (already in the original) and the United States (incorporated by Toscanini for a prior radio broadcast of theInno in January of that year) to signify the side of the Allies duringWorld War Two.[34][35]
Toscanini's son Walter remarked that an Italian audience for the movie would see the significance of Arturo being willing to play these anthems and unwilling to playGiovinezza and theMarcia Reale because of his anti-Fascist political views.[34]Alexandr Hackenschmied, the film's director, expressed his view that the song was "ormai archeologico" (nearly archaeological), but this was a countered in a letter by Walter Toscanini toGiuseppe Antonio Borgese, rejecting the objections of Borgese, Hackenschmied, and indeed theOffice of War Information.[36]
At the time, Walter stated that he believed that "The Internationale" had widespread relevance across Europe, and in 1966 he recounted in correspondence that the OWI had "panicked" when it had learned of the Soviet Union's plans, but Arturo had issued an ultimatum that if "The Internationale", "l'inno di tutte le glebe ed i lavoratori di tutto il mondo" (the anthem of the working classes of the whole world) was not included, that if the already done orchestration and performance were not used as-is, then they should forget about distributing the film entirely.[36]
The inclusion of "The Internationale" in the Toscaninis' minds was not simply for the sake of a Soviet Union audience, but because of its relevance to all countries of the world.[37] Although Walter did not consider "The Internationale" to be "good music", he considered it to be (as he stated to the OWI) "more than the hymn of a nation or a party" and "an idea of brotherhood".[37]
It would have been expensive to re-record a new performance of theInno without "The Internationale", and thus it remained in the movie as originally released.[38]Some time during theMcCarthy Era, however, it was edited out of re-released copies, and remained so until a 1988Library of Congress release on video, which restored "The Internationale" to the movie.[38]
Winston Churchill andNational Anthems of the Allies
A similar situation had occurred earlier in the war with theBBC's popular weekly Sunday evening radio broadcast, preceding the Nine O'Clock News, titledNational Anthems of the Allies, whose playlist was all of the national anthems of the countries allied with the United Kingdom, the list growing with each country that Germany invaded.[39][40] After the Germans began their invasion of the Soviet Union on 22 June 1941 (Operation Barbarossa), it was fully expected that "The Internationale", as the anthem of the Soviet Union, would be included in the playlist that day, but to people's surprise it was not, neither that week nor the week after.[40]Winston Churchill, a staunch opponent of communism, had immediately sent word to the BBC viaAnthony Eden that "The PM has issued an instruction to theMinistry of Information that the Internationale ison no account to be played by the B.B.C." (emphasis in the original).[41][42]
Newspapers such as theDaily Express andDaily Mail were sharply critical of theForeign Office, and questions were asked in theHouse of Commons.[43][42] AmbassadorIvan Maisky recorded in his diary a conversation withDuff Cooper on 11 July 1941 where Cooper asked him if the music played afterVyacheslav Molotov's speech on 22 June would be acceptable to the Soviet Union, and he replied that it would not be.[44][45] (The music was Tchaikovsky's1812 Overture.[40]) On the evening of 13 July, the BBC instead played, in Maisky's words, "a very beautiful but little-known Soviet song", which he described as demonstrating "the British Government's cowardice and foolishness".[46][45] Rather than risk offending the Soviet Union by continuing to pointedly refuse to play its national anthem in a radio programme entitledNational Anthems, the BBC discontinued the programme.[41][47] Six months later, on 22 January 1942, Churchill relented and lifted the prohibition.[47][42]
Qu Qiubai revised the translation of the lyrics into Chinese after having attended the Fourth Conference ofComintern in November 1921 and having not been able to join in the spontaneous singing by attendees there of "The Internationale" in their various home languages with their own Chinese rendition because the Chinese attendees did not have a good one.[51]He proceeded, according to the political memoirs of his contemporaries, in 1923 to re-translate the lyrics from the original French at the organ in his cousin's home in Beijing, publishing them inNew Youth, a journal of which he was the editor-in-chief.[52]
This has become part of the cultural narrative of Qu's life, including in a 2001 television dramatisation of events,The Sun Rises from the East, where Qu is depicted as explaining toCai Hesen that the former did not translate the song's title because he wished to make the Chinese version, which used a phonetic rendering of the French name using Chinese words "yingtenaixiongnaier", accessible to a multi-lingual non-Chinese-speaking audience.[52]The television dramatisation included excerpts from the movieLenin in October, a popular movie in China during the time of Mao with scenes that were set to "The Internationale".[53]
Lenin in October was one of several movies from Soviet cinema translated into Chinese in the 1950s that led to the widespread popularity of "The Internationale" in the early years of the PRC.[54]Others includeLenin in 1918, a 1939 movie which came to China in 1951, with "The Internationale" abruptly terminated at the point in the movie that Lenin is shot by an assassin; and the 1952The Unforgettable 1919 which came to China that same year and used "The Internationale" for a mass rally scene involvingJoseph Stalin.[55]
Chinese movies about martyrs to the CCP cause would begin to incorporate the song into pivotal scenes later in the 1950s, this use peaking in the 1960s with inclusion into such movies as the 1965Living Forever in Burning Flames depicting the execution ofJiang Jie.[56]
In the 1956 filmMother, the character Lao Deng, a local revolutionary leader, is depicted singing "The Internationale" on the way to his execution, and in the 1960A Revolutionary Family, the son of the protagonist (in chorus with his fellow prisoners) also sings "The Internationale" on the way to his execution.[57] It would become aleitmotif of Chinese Revolutionary (model) cinema.[58]
Political memoirs ofLi Dazhao's daughter Li Xinghua recount his explaining the lyrics of the song to her, he having encountered it on his travels with Qu in 1923 and during his visit to Moscow the following year.[53]He also encouraged people to sing it during socialist activism training sessions in 1925 and 1926.[53]As with Qu, the song forms part of the cultural narrative of his life, it being the widely accepted account of his execution in 1927 that he sang the song in the last moments of his life.[53]
As with Qu and Li, the song is found in many places in political histories ofCCP leaders and martyrs to its cause, symbolising their socialist ideals, includingZhu De,Zhou Enlai, andDeng Xiaoping.[59]It has also seen continued, and sometimes contradictory, uses over the decades as politics in China have changed, such as (for one example)Chen Yun's use in the 1960s to justify a new agricultural land allocation policy.[60]It has maintained its status as a de facto CCP anthem, and its continued relevance over the decades can be seen in its inclusion in all three of the 1964The East Is Red, the 1984The Song of the Chinese Revolution, and the 2009The Road to Prosperity.[54]
While the song has a wide influence as an adjunct of official ideology, it has also been used in counter-cultural movements, such as the demonstrators in the1989 Tiananmen Square protests singing it during their final retreat.[61]Barbara Mittler maintains that this dual use of "The Internationale" by the government and by people demonstrating against it disproves any hypothesis that "a certain type of music 'depicts' a certain social environment".[62]
"The Internationale" continues to be popular with 21st century Chinese audiences, as exemplified by its reception by audience when sung at the second curtain call of the "Shocking" concert of Liu Han,Liao Changyong, andMo Hualun.[63]
Qu was hired as a translator for students at theCommunist University of the Toilers of the East in Moscow, where he metXiao San in 1922, who had newly arrived from France.[64]There, Xiao was drawn into the performing arts as a vehicle for revolutionary messages and, in conjunction with other students, translated "The Internationale" and several Soviet songs from the original French and Russian into Chinese, separately from Qu's work in Beijing in 1923.[65]Xiao re-worked his translation in 1939, adding to it an explanatory history.[66]Ironically, the translation in the television dramatisationThe Sun Rises from the East that is recited by the character of Qu, is not in reality Qu's translation at all, but is the 1949 official approved translation based upon Xiao's, that is additionally credited toZheng Zhenduo.[67]
The 2004 movieMy Years in France, a biographical film ofDeng Xiaoping, re-framed this history into a dramatic scene, set in 1920s Paris before Xiao leaves for Moscow, in which Zhou Enlai,Liu Qingyang,Zhang Shenfu, and others climb to the top ofNotre Dame to sing "The Internationale" to the accompaniment ofits bell Emmanuel, and the character of Xiao resolves at that point, instead, to translate the song into Chinese.[68]
In addition to the Mandarin version, "The Internationale" also hasCantonese[69] andTaiwanese Hokkien[70] versions, occasionally used by communists or leftists in Hong Kong and Taiwan. The word "Internationale" is not translated in either version. There is also aUyghur version, aSalar version, aTibetan version,[71] aHmong version, aChakhar Mongolian version, aYi version, and aZhuang version translated from the Mandarin Chinese version, used for ethnic minorities in China.
In the first half of the twentieth century, communists, unionists and activists of all races in South Africa sang theInternationale until the Communist Party and even loosely linked associations were suppressed from 1950.[72] Although no Afrikaans translation from the early period has been published, Afrikaans-speaking unionists worked in significant numbers in the garment industry in the 1920s and 1930s, and were introduced to international socialism by union secretary,E. S. Sachs.[73] The Afrikaans translation that is available today, in the wake of the SACP's return to South Africa in 1990, is a distinctly post-apartheid version (2009) by singer-sociologistLiela Groenewald.[74] In this video, Liela Groenewald is accompanied by brown South African musician Mervin Williams; their collaboration reflects the post-apartheid acknowledgement of Afrikaans as the language of a majority of brown (and a few black) in addition to white South Africans. English-speakers have sung a version of the British translation; for information on theZulu version, see the paragraph on Zulu below.[75]
"The Internationale" has been translated into both standards of theArmenian language,Eastern andWestern. The most famous Eastern Armenian translation, published in Moscow in 1928, was made by the revolutionary poetYeghishe Charents, with musical arrangement byRomanos Melikian.[76]
"The Internationale" was first translated to Bengali by the rebel poetKazi Nazrul Islam. Nazrul, who was greatly inspired by the tenets of Socialism and its relevance to India under British colonial occupation, authored numerous poems in Bengali highlighting socio-political issues, including gender and economic inequities, and social justice overall. Around 1927, Nazrul was approached byMuzaffar Ahmad, one of the Founders of theCommunist Party of India, requesting that he translate the celebrated song into Bengali. While it maintains the essential theme of the original (via the English version), Nazrul inserted salient social issues into it within the Indian context. It was also translated byHemanga Biswas[77] andMohit Banerji, that was subsequently adopted byWest Bengal'sLeft Front.[78] Here is the Bengali audio version, performed by Satya Chowdhury.[79]Appended below are the Bengali lyrics written by Kazi Nazrul Islam:[80]
The traditional British version of "The Internationale" is usually sung in three verses, while the American version, written byCharles Hope Kerr with five verses, is usually sung in two.[81][82] 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 renditions, "Internationale" is sometimes sung as/ˌɪntərnæʃəˈnæli/IN-tər-nash-ə-NAL-ee rather than the French pronunciation of[ɛ̃tɛʁnɑsjɔnal(ə)]. In modern usage, the American version also often uses "their" instead of "his" in "Let each stand in his place", and "free" instead of "be" in "Shall be the Human race".
Pete Seeger askedBilly Bragg to sing "The Internationale" with him at the Vancouver Folk Festival in 1989. Bragg thought the traditional English lyrics were archaic and unsingable (Scottish musicianDick Gaughan[83] and formerLabour MPTony Benn[84] disagreed), and composed a new set of lyrics.[85] The recording was released on his albumThe Internationale along with reworkings of other socialist songs.
The English translation of a selection of Pottier's songs and speeches,Beyond the Internationale: Revolutionary Writings, includes, in addition to the traditional British version and Kerr's American version, a1922 version endorsed by the Socialist Labor Party, as well as Bragg's adaptation and one by theWorkers Party of Jamaica.[86]
There were threeFilipino versions of the song. The first was composed byJuan Feleo of thePartido Komunista ng Pilipinas-1930 under the title "Pandaigdigang Awit ng Manggagawa" ('The International Worker's Anthem') which was translated from the English version. The second version was a retranslation of the first two stanzas on the basis of the French original by theCommunist Party of the Philippines. The third version, which introduced the third stanza, was derived from both Chinese and French versions and translated byJose Maria Sison, the CPP's founding chairman.[87]
The best-known and still widespread German-language adaptation was created byEmil Luckhardt in 1896, in response to a commission fromWilhelm Liebknecht, member of theSocialist Party of Germany and one of the leaders of theSecond International after Liebknecht heard the French original in Lille in 1894.[88] Luckhardt translated the first, second, and sixth verses as well as the chorus from the French. Created in the context of the Second Internationale, Luckhardt's text reflects the late 19th-century optimism of the Second International anticipating an imminent revolution.[89]
Apart from Luckhardt's version, there are at least seven other German text variants—each relating to specific historical situations or ideologically divergent socialist, communist and anarchist alignments. In addition to the Luckhardt version mentioned above, there is a version penned by Franz Diederich (1908), and another written by the poetErich Mühsam in 1919,Sigmar Mehring's version (1908) appeared after his 1915 death in a collection of songs of the Paris Commune edited in 1924 by his sonWalter Mehring.[90] In 1937, at which time German socialists and communists were scattered in exile,Erich Weinert, wrote a new version for theThälmann Brigade fighting for the Republicans during theSpanish Civil War, Weinert's version became the standard inEast Germany, where it was reprinted in a 1971 edition containing English, Russian, German and the original French, in commemoration of the centennial of the Paris Commune.[91]
"The Internationale" is used in both Koreas, though it is more commonly used in theNorth. The DPRK uses "The Internationale" in propaganda and music,[92]Party Congresses,[93] and evensports events.[94] InSouth Korea, "The Internationale" has been used by labour unions and protestors, but remains less celebrated. A different set of lyrics, loosely based on the German version, is used in South Korea, while the North Korean version is based on the Soviet Russian version of "The Internationale". In addition, the refrain of the South Korean version is longer and does not repeat.[95]
For the first time,Abolqasem Lahouti, an Iranian poet and songwriter, translated and standardized "The Internationale" intoPersian. It was used as the official anthem of the short livedPersian Socialist Soviet Republic and one of the main anthems of the communistTudeh Party of Iran.[96][97] In addition, after he settled in the Soviet Union, he translated his work intoTajik.
Originally translated toPortuguese byNeno Vasco in 1909 from the French version,[98] a similar version was wildly disseminated during the general strike of 1917 byanarchists andanarcho-syndicalists. A slightly modified version[99] is used various left-wing and far-left parties in Brazil.
There are several Spanish versions, with distinct variations but without any attribution to single authors. The earliest is still sung by the Spanish Communist Party but it was apparently produced around 1910, before the split between Socialist and Communist parties across Europe around 1920.[100][101] This version is also supported by the ruling Communist Party in Cuba.[102] The Mexican version, in contrast, is based on earlier versions of "The Internationale", suggesting that it dates to theMexican Revolution.[100] The Argentine version was associated with theArgentine Socialist Party from 1958 to thejunta of the generals in 1976.[100][103]
In Latin America, "The Internationale" has also been translated into different indigenous languages, includingAymara,Guaraní,Nahuatl,[104] andQuechua.[105]
InKenya, "The Internationale" was translated intoSwahili by theCommunist Party Marxist - Kenya. It was declared the group's anthem[106] during the second national congress in November 2024. Known asWimbo wa Kimataifa, the Internationale, was translated by the then-party chairman,Mwandawiro Mghanga and performed by the party's band and released in a bundled album, together with other revolutionary songs and poems.[107][108]
AYiddish translation of "The Internationale" first appeared in the collectionYidishe folks-lider ('Yiddish Folk Songs') edited byMoshe Beregovski andItzik Feffer. It was published inKyiv, capital of what was then theUkrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, in 1938.[111] Judging from metaphors that the Yiddish shares with theRussian version—both have "mind" or "spirit" boiling rather thanla raison tonne or "reason thunders" in the French[112]—and the translators' location in the Soviet Union, it is likely that they were working from the Russian rather than the original French.
A version of "The Internationale" inZulu,[75] South Africa's most populous language, aired on South African radio in 1990, after theSouth African Communist Party resurfaced after forty years of exile, The translator has not been identified but the Zulu version is likely to have been in circulation at party meetings and similar events since Zulu-speakers joined the SACP in the 1920s.[113][114] The translation may have been penned or authorized byMoses Kotane, who was secretary-general of the SACP from 1939 until his death in exile in 1978. Although heard often on public occasions in the 1990s, such as at the state funeral forJoe Slovo, long-time SACP leader and minister of housing in Nelson Mandela's cabinet, in 1995, it has receded from public airing as the party has lost influence in South Africa.[1][2]
The "anthem"Beasts of England, Beasts of Ireland in the early pages ofGeorge Orwell'sAnimal Farm, has been described as a "parody"[115] or a "reconfiguration"[116] of "The Internationale"; Orwell's text states (as a "humorous introduction") that it was sung as "betweenClementine andLa Cucaracha",[117][116]
William Carlos Williams' poemChoral: The Pink Church alludes to the lyrics of "The Internationale" in order to symbolise Communism, the poem otherwise barely mentioning Communism directly, Williams himself claiming to be "a pink [...]not a red" in a letter discussing the poem.[118]
One ofAleksandr Lebedev-Frontov's most famous works, which hung in the headquarters of theNational Bolshevik Party, is a poster of the FrenchFantomas aiming a pistol at the viewer, subtitled with the first line of the Russian version of "The Internationale".[119]
The Russian poetVladimir Mayakovsky concluded his playMystery-Bouffe with an "Internationale of the Future", set to the tune of the Internationale, but with lyrics describing a complete, perfect classless society as an existing fact.[citation needed]
Even though it stood on the far-right of thepolitical spectrum, the Greek political partyGolden Dawn employed a tune similar to "The Internationale" as its party anthem, the Hymn of the Golden Dawn, with a moremilitaristic and fascistic sound in the style of amilitary march. Its similar melody to a communist song possibly stemmed from the admiration of some of its members, such as Greek MPIlias Panagiotaros, for Soviet leaderJosef Stalin, as a "great personality".[120]
^Pottier, Eugène (1966). Brochon, Pierre (ed.).Oeuvres Complètes [Complete Works]. Paris: François Maspero. p. 101.
^Pottier, Eugène (2024). Kruger, Loren (ed.).Beyond the Internationale: Revolutionary Writing by Eugene Pottier. Chicago: Charles H. Kerr. pp. 1–4.ISBN9780882860329.
^Robert Brécy,Florilège de la Chanson Révolutionnaire, De 1789 au Front Populaire, Éditions Ouvrières, Paris, 1990, page 137.
^Estager, Jacques; Bossi, Georges (1988).L'Internationale: 1888-1988. Paris: Editions sociales. pp. 53–54.ISBN2209060680.
^Pottier, Eugène (1966). Brochon, Pierrre (ed.).Oeuvres Complètes de Eugène Pottier [Complete Works]. Paris: François Maspero. pp. 101–102.
^Pottier, Eugène (2024). Kruger, Loren (ed.).Beyond the Internationale: Revolutionary Writing by Eugène Pottier. Chicago: Charles H. Kerr. pp. 103–117.ISBN9780882860329.
^Roux, Edward (1964).Time Longer Than Rope: A History of the Black Man's Struggle for Freedom in South Africa. University of Wisconsin Press. pp. 139–36.
^Berger, Iris (1992).Threads of Solidarity: Women in South African Industry, 1900-1980. Bloomington IN: Indiana University Press. pp. 103–104.ISBN0253207002.
^Gaughan, Dick."The Internationale".Dick Gaughan's Song Archive. Archived fromthe original on 29 September 2018.I can see no more point in trying to 'modernise' it than I would in repainting the Cistine [sic]Chapel or rewriting Shakespeare's plays.
^Pottier, Eugène (2024). Kruger, Loren (ed.).Beyond the Internationale: Revolutionary Writings. Translated by Kruger, Lorem. Chicago: Charles H. Kerr. pp. 107–117.ISBN9780882860329.
^Ferro, Marc (1996).L'Internationale: Histoire d'un chant de Pottier et Degeyter [The Internationale: History of a Song by Pottier and Degeyter] (in French). Paris: Noésus. p. 37.ISBN2911606027.
^Pottier, Eugene.Beyond the Internationale, 120-121; 128-29.
^Mehring, Walteer, ed. (1924).Französische Revolutionslieder der Pariser Commune [French Revolutionary Songs of the Paris Commune] (in German). Translated by Mehring, Sigmar. Berlin, East (published 1971). pp. 20–21.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
^Pottier, Eugene (1971).Die Internationale [The Internationale] (in German). Translated by Weinert, Erich. Berlin, East: Rütten and Loenig.
^인터나쇼날. urinore1. 30 April 2014.Archived from the original on 18 March 2021. Retrieved5 October 2021 – via YouTube.
^Pottier,Beyond the Internationale, 16, 135-37, 144-46
^Ellis, Stephen; Sechaba, Tsepo (1992).Comrades Against Apartheid: The ANC and the South African Communist Party in Exile. Bloomington IN: Indiana University Press. p. 15.ISBN9780253210623.
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British Pathé (1943)."Salute to the Red Army". YouTube. — aBritish Pathé newsreel including footage of the playing of "The Internationale", excerpts from Eden's speech, and other celebrations around the UK (Turbett 2021, p. 64)
