The Chant des Partisans was the most popular song of the Free French and French Resistance during World War II.
The piece was written and put to melody in London in 1943 after Anna Marly heard a Russian song that inspired her. Joseph Kessel and Maurice Druon wrote the French lyrics. It was performed by Anna Marly, broadcast by the BBC and adopted by the maquis. The lyrics of the song revolve around the idea of a life-or-death struggle for national liberation. After the war the Chant des Partisans was so popular, it was proposed as a new national anthem for France. It became for a short while the unofficial national anthem, next to the official La Marseillaise.
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Lyrics in French:

Montez de la mine, descendez des collines, camarades !
Sortez de la paille les fusils, la mitraille, les grenades.
Ohé, les tueurs à la balle ou au couteau, tuez vite !
Ohé, saboteur, attention à ton fardeau : dynamite...

C'est nous qui brisons les barreaux des prisons
pour nos frères,
La haine à nos trousses et la faim qui nous pousse,
la misère.
Il y a des pays où les gens au creux des lits
font des rêves,
Ici, nous, vois-tu, nous on marche et nous on tue,
nous on crève...
Oui, on crève...

Ici chacun sait ce qu'il veut, ce qu'il fait quand il passe,
Ami, si tu tombes, un ami sort de l'ombre à ta place.
Demain du sang noir séchera au grand soleil
sur les routes,
Chantez, compagnons, dans la nuit la liberté
nous écoute...

Chantez...
Allez, chantez...
Chantez, compagnons !

Interpretation: Anna Marly
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Lyrics in English:

Mate, do you hear the dark flight of the crows over our plains?
Mate, do you hear the muffled clamor of enchained countries?
Hey, partisans, workers and peasants this is the signal
tonight the enemy will know the price of blood and tears...

Join the sabotage, get off the hills, comrades!
Take the rifles, the machine gun, the grenades out of the straws.
Hey, killers, with a bullet or by knife, kill swiftly!
Hey, saboteur, take care of your charge: dynamite...

It's us smashing the prison bars for our brothers,
The hatred on our backs and the hunger that drives us, the misery.
There are countries where people are dreaming deep in their beds,
here, we, you see, we're marching on and we're getting killed, we're getting whacked...
Yes, we're getting whacked...

Here everyone knows what he wants, what he does when it takes place,
Mate, if you go down, a mate out of the shadows takes your place.
Tomorrow black blood will be drying under the sun on the roads,
sing, colleagues, freedom is listening to us in the night...

Sing...
Come on, sing...
Sing, colleagues!

Interpretation: Anna Marly
English Translation: Evan *Lyrics Translations

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