Oh dear oh dear. The last person who ought to be educating the world on the Internationale is Jane Galt who gives “a rather literal translation of the French words over at Asymmetrical Information”:http://www.janegalt.net/blog/archives/005684.html . The first time I sang the Internationale was on Mayday 1978 in Paris when I joined the UNEF contingent on the traditional march. The last time I heard it was when a colleague’s mobile phone rang. She told me, embarrassed, that she’d spent hours programming the tune in and that it had then gone off during a meeting with top university administrators, none of whom would have recognized it but for a BBC documentary about the end of the Soviet Union on the box the night before.
One important thing to get across to an Anglophone audience is that the British and American words are different (what do Australians and Canadians sing, btw?). “Wikipedia”:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internationale has a reasonably accurate version of the British words but starts:
bq. Arise, ye workers from your slumber,
Arise, ye prisoners of want.
The version I learnt had “starvelings” for “workers”, “criminals” for “prisoners” (though I remember that being controversial) and, later in the verse, “conditions” for “tradition”.
Having picked up the the anthem by listening to my comrades, I also misunderstood the next two lines for my first year or so of singing it in English. These are are:
bq. For reason in revolt now thunders,
and at last ends the age of cant!
Yes, you’ve guessed it … I imagined this was a reference to the supersession of Kantianism by the Hegelian dialectic. “… at last ends the age of Kant!” Makes sense, doesn’t it?
{ 35 comments }
abb1 01.26.06 at 1:03 pm
The Marxist doctrine is omnipotent because it is true. It is comprehensive and harmonious, and provides men with an integral world outlook irreconcilable with any form of superstition, reaction, or defence of bourgeois oppression. It is the legitimate successor to the best that man produced in the nineteenth century, as represented by German philosophy, English political economy and French socialism.
Chris Bertram 01.26.06 at 1:08 pm
I’m pretty sure that’s Lenin, “3 sources and component parts” abb1. Correct?
chris y 01.26.06 at 1:13 pm
Of course the most familiar translation into English of “les damnes de la terre” at one time was “The Wretched of the Earth”, which was a title presumably wished on Fanon by a translator who had no idea what he was reading.
abb1 01.26.06 at 1:35 pm
Da, tovarish Bertram. You know you classics, but have you cleaned your revolver?
Actually, I have to admit that having only 3 components is kinda pathetic. The first communist dogma in history – Zoroastrian Mazdakism (the legitimate successor to the best that man produced in the sixth(?) century) – has 4 thru 7 and 12. Now, this is a real dogma.
Kieran Healy 01.26.06 at 2:06 pm
as represented by German philosophy, English political economy and French socialism.
“and American cheese,” he did not add.
Dan Simon 01.26.06 at 2:42 pm
“and American cheese,†he did not add.
He didn’t? Damned discount edition….
Steve 01.26.06 at 3:13 pm
“The Marxist doctrine is omnipotent because it is true.”
Then why is it so impotent in real life?
Steve
Seth Gordon 01.26.06 at 3:46 pm
I am reminded of a parody of The Red Flag that I learned in my youth:
Ray 01.26.06 at 4:01 pm
That sounds like an anarchist version, rather than a parody. The anarchist flag is black (or red and black), and we/they refer to the two wings of socialism as vanguards and bureaucrats.
abb1 01.26.06 at 4:01 pm
No gods, no masters, against all authority!
Urinated State of America (M.A. Cantab) 01.26.06 at 4:05 pm
‘”I imagined this was a reference to the supersession of Kantianism by the Hegelian dialectic. “… at last ends the age of Kant!‒
Didn’t the UK’s Worker’s Revolutionary Party (led by ol’ Gerry ‘Feely’ Healy) once have a headline of “Against Neo-Kantianism”?
Chris Bertram 01.26.06 at 4:34 pm
There are many parodies of the Red Flag:
The workers’ flag is palest pink
Since Gaitskell dipped it in the sink
Now Harold’s done the same as Hugh
The workers’ flag is brightest blue.
Mrs Tilton 01.26.06 at 4:35 pm
Seth,
I am much too old for that sort of thing these days, of course, but must thank you for that nostalgic note. Brought a tear to me cheek, it did.
fjm 01.26.06 at 5:01 pm
In my mis-spent youth I was a member of a Communist (for which read mostly Stalinist) choir in Birminham. I can sing the soprano line in a four part version (have indeed sung it for our hosts in the GDR as part of a GDR/UK friendship tour), and can also manage a passable Nkose Sikelele.
And the parody of the Red Flag I remember is:
The People’s Flag is palest pink
It’s not as red as you might think
But just to prove that we’re sincere
We’ll sing the Red Flag once a year.
I think it was being sung just before the SDP was created.
des von bladet 01.26.06 at 5:02 pm
Ooooh! The last time we sang it, which was aslo the first, was just now. In Frenchy-French (very dated MP3s out there) and Zwedish (easier to singalong with).
Upp till kamp emot kvalen!Sista striden det är,ty Internationalen åt alla lycka bär.
We’re thinking of having a go at Dutch next and then finishing up with the Cherman.
des von bladet 01.26.06 at 5:28 pm
(Oh my brs and my i-tags, long ago.)
The Continental Op 01.26.06 at 6:26 pm
Not only does the English translation of the Internationale differ on the two sides of the Atlantic, here in the U.S., the words traditionally varied among different socialist factions–CP, SWP, etc. The one difference I can recall (though I can’t for the life of me remember which version went with which faction) was in the identification of the agent of liberation:
* The Internationale shall free the human race
* The International Working Class shall free the human race
* The International Union shall free the human race.
Tim 01.26.06 at 6:33 pm
And people think Americans are weird for hanging flags everywhere. It’s what we have because we’re tone-deaf.
Dan K 01.26.06 at 6:57 pm
And Des, of course, the line we never sing in Zwedish, “vi under skatter digna ner,” because, well, you know why.
jayann 01.26.06 at 8:33 pm
The Internationale shall free the human race
“Will unite the human race”.
nick s 01.26.06 at 8:34 pm
Billy Bragg sang the Internationale for us at the Oxford Union in 1992. Wow, that’s a long time ago. And with his accent, the ending of the ‘age of cant’ wasn’t something for young students to hope for.
The parody of The Red Flag that I remember is Spitting Image’s ‘We’ll keep the red rose covered in manure’, dating from when Labour replaced the flag with the rose in its logo.
jayann 01.26.06 at 8:56 pm
Sorry, “unites the human race”.
'As you know' Bob 01.26.06 at 9:43 pm
I assume that everyone here knows that the Internationale can be sung to the tune of “Yankee Doodle Dandy”.
John Landon 01.26.06 at 11:38 pm
I think there should be a return to Kant. Hegel’s dialectic cost us real socialism, and rotted many brains. Kant’s ‘Kingdom of Ends’ is truly utopian/realistic, while the dialectic of Hegel as the avatar of revolution produced naught but wretched muddle.
Daniel 01.27.06 at 2:37 am
“The working class can kiss my arse
I’ve got the foreman’s job at last”
actually, the statement “And people think Americans are weird for hanging flags everywhere. It’s what we have because we’re tone-deaf” has a lot of truth to it; I can’t remember who it was that noted that quite a lot of consequences for American society might have flowed from the fact that The Star Spangled Banner has a significantly wider range of notes than most national anthems and requires a trained singer to sing it properly.
Harald Korneliussen 01.27.06 at 3:00 am
Daniel, the norwegian anthem also has a wide range, so it has a tendency to get a little shrill at the end. I’d thought that would work against exessive nationalism, though, as you feel rather silly when yodeling “og den saganatt som senker” at the top of your lungs.
(btw, The line that the Zwedish do not sing, according to Dan K, is “we who are burdened down with taxes” or something near enough)
stostosto 01.27.06 at 4:03 am
But the Norwegians hang flags everywhere at least as much as the Americans, so Daniel’s conjecture stands.
Bro. Bartleby 01.27.06 at 9:26 am
No wonder all that red romanticism has been swept into the dustbin of history, for one, they could not memorize their own anthem, for two, with such fuzzy and faulty brains, they were blind to the realities of the world around them, and further, what they did experience and observe was discussed and debated among like-minded Marxist who had never read Marx or had not a clue as to what horrific acts were being perpetrated by those who actually did read Marx. Too bad none read Yevgeny Zamyatin.
ajay 01.27.06 at 10:21 am
quite a lot of consequences for American society might have flowed from the fact that The Star Spangled Banner has a significantly wider range of notes than most national anthems and requires a trained singer to sing it properly.
And “God Save the Queen” requires a rabid patriot to sing it at all without being overcome by apathy and distaste.
Worth noting, also, that “The Star-Spangled Banner” and “Jerusalem” have this in common: each song’s first verse can be answered “Yes”. (Or “No”. Depending on taste, patriotism, sensayuma etc.)
Personally I still love the tune of the old Soviet (and now Russian again) anthem, which, apart from anything else, can also be sung with the words from “Stand By Me”.
Urinated State of America (M.A. Cantab) 01.27.06 at 1:15 pm
“Too bad none read Yevgeny Zamyatin.”
Well, an English version of Zamyatin didn’t come until the mid-1940s, and one doubts a Russian-language version was any more easy to get. Besides, Orwell took the themes of “We” and refined them into a much more well known (and more powerful) novel.
abb1 01.27.06 at 1:56 pm
Well, at least Lenin is easy to understand. The guy you discussed here a couple of years ago – Roberto Unger – I got curious and was stupid enough to buy his book – never got beyond page 30; 50 bucks wasted.
I’ll take ravens, vultures, cannibals and the best from the nineteenth century – and you can have your ‘formative contexts’ nonsense.
Bro. Bartleby 01.27.06 at 2:23 pm
Zamyatin:
“True literature can exist only where it is created, not by diligent and trustworthy functionaries, but by madmen, hermits, heretics, dreamers, rebels, and skeptics.”
“There are books of the same chemical composition as dynamite. The only difference is that a piece of dynamite explodes once, whereas a book explodes a thousand times.”
The English version didn’t come until the mid-1940s? … sounds like the U.S. military in Iraq, awaiting the terrorists to publish the English version of what is going on there. And to the terrorist, how about writing some books! Then see if their composition is incentive, that is, in an incinerary way, as opposed to an incendiary way.
Bro. Bartleby
Henry (not the famous one) 01.27.06 at 10:07 pm
Thirty-two posts and not one reference to Jessica Mitford??? Who, as a young girl, thought that the line “It is the final conflict” was “Tis a Fine Old Conflict,” which she used as the title of the second part of her autobiography.
Tom Doyle 01.28.06 at 11:57 pm
continental op: ·
Not only does the English translation of the Internationale differ on the two sides of the Atlantic, here in the U.S., the words traditionally varied among different socialist factions—CP, SWP, etc. The one difference I can recall (though I can’t for the life of me remember which version went with which faction) was in the identification of the agent of liberation
I learned the Internationale here in the US. I knew there were multiple versions, but never heard they were associated with particular factions. Can you identify some supporting authority? I’m not disputing your claim, just interested.
Here’s how I learned it (Can you, or anyone, identify the faction I learned it from, and explain how you figured it out?):
Arise ye victims of starvation!
Arise ye wretched of the earth!
For justice thunders condemnation
A better world’s in birth.
No more tradition’s chains shall bind us.
Arise ye slaves no more in thrall!
The earth shall rise on new foundations,
We have been nought, we shall be all.
Now ’tis the final conflict,
Let each stand in his place.
The International Party
Shall free the human race.
The International Party
Shall free the human race.
Bro. Bartleby 01.29.06 at 12:15 pm
1. Professors of history, or international politics, or music, what do they all have in common?
2. Ask any professor of physics when was the first time they sang the Internationale, and what will be their answer?
3. Do professors of ethics consider French copyright laws when singing the Internationale after late night dinner parties?
4. Do professors of physics attend late night dinner parties?
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