2015-12-10

I would love to have a recording of this song, as soon as possible. In order for the recording to do much good, it needs musicians that play well, and a singer or singers who sing well and whose mother tongue is French. Please release the recording under CC BY and email me a URL to download the recording (but make sure I can download it with JS disabled). I will post it here.)

This is an adaptation of the Marseillaise. That is the only song I know which embodies the uncowed rage and determination that we need now. I have attempted to maintain this spirit while redirecting it towards the great danger to human civilization, which also threatens extinction of most species of life on Earth.

Le chant du 29 novembre 2015 le jour qu'il faut se manifester à Paris pour la défense du climat. Allons enfants de la Mère Terre, Le jour crucial va arriver, À tout règlement réfractaires Sont de puissants États achetés. x2 Entendez-vous sur les chemins Rouler les autos, les camions ? Sans cesse ils carbonisent le monde, Réchauffant nos enfants à leur fin. En lutte, citoyens, Qu'ils nous arrêtent ou non, Marchons, marchons ! Que trop d'émissions Ne brûlent pas nos sillons.

Translation:

Arise, children of Mother Earth, The decisive day is about to arrive. Rejecting any solution Are powerful sell-out states. x2 Do you hear, in the streets, The sound of the cars and the trucks? They fill the air with greenhouse gas, Heating our children to their end. To the struggle, citizens, Whether they stop/arrest us or not, Let's march! So that an excess of emissions does not burn our fields.

I do not try to present the complexity of the issue in 13 lines, but these statements are basically correct.

It may seem an exaggeration to put innocent-seeming cars and trucks in place of the murderous enemy soldiers of the Marseillaise — actually it is an understatement. The cars and trucks (standing for fossil fuel use in general) are far more deadly; global heating is on track to kill hundreds of millions of people.

Heat waves and droughts, made more frequent by global heating, have already caused massive crop failures, in effect burning our fields.

I hope that the spirit of the Marseillaise will inspire us to curb global heating in time to avert total climate mayhem and preserve civilization.

Copyright (c) 2015 Richard Stallman

Verbatim copying and redistribution of this entire page are permitted provided this notice is preserved. The song text in French and English is released under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0.