The Internationale

Introduction

"The Internationale" (French: "L'Internationale") is a left-wing anthem. It has been a standard of the socialist movement since the late nineteenth century, when the Second 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, an anarchist, attended this congress.

The original French refrain of the song is C'est la lutte finale / Groupons-nous et demain / L'Internationale / Sera le genre humain. (English: "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 languages.

"The Internationale" has been celebrated by anarchists, communists, socialists, democratic socialists, and social democrats.

Copyright

The original French words were written in June 1871 by Eugène Pottier (1816–1887, previously a member of the Paris Commune) and were originally intended to be sung to the tune of "La Marseillaise". In 1888 Pierre De Geyter (1848–1932) set the earlier lyrics to a new melody, composed especially for Pottier's lyrics. De Geyter's melody was first publicly performed in July 1888, and soon thereafter Pottier's lyrics became closely associated with, and widely used with, De Geyter's new melody. Thus "The Internationale" gained an identity that was entirely distinct, and no longer in any way directly tied to the French national anthem, the Marseillaise.

In a successful 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 [fr] 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.

In 1972 "Montana Edition", owned by Hans R. Beierlein [de], bought the rights to the song for 5,000 Deutschmark, first for the territory of the former West Germany, then in the former East 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.Luckhardt's German text is public domain since 1984.

As the "Internationale" music was published before 1 July 1909 outside the United States of America, it is in the public domain in the United States. As of 2013, Pierre De Geyter's music is also in the public domain in countries and areas whose copyright durations are authors' lifetime plus 80 years or less. Due to France's wartime copyright extensions (prorogations de guerre), SACEM claimed that the music was still copyrighted in France until October 2014.

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.

Lyrics

法语第一、二、六组歌词以及相应汉语歌词

中文歌词

（一）
起来，饥寒交迫的奴隶！
起来，全世界受苦的人！
满腔的热血已经沸腾，
要为真理而斗争！
旧世界打个落花流水，
奴隶们起来，起来！
不要说我们一无所有，
我们要做天下的主人！

副歌
这是最后的斗争，
团结起来到明天，
英特纳雄耐尔
就一定要实现！
这是最后的斗争，
团结起来到明天，
英特纳雄耐尔
就一定要实现！

（二）
从来就没有什么救世主，
也不靠神仙皇帝！
要创造人类的幸福，
全靠我们自己！
我们要夺回劳动果实，
让思想冲破牢笼！
快把那炉火烧得通红，
趁热打铁才能成功！

副歌

（六）
是谁创造了人类世界？
是我们劳动群众！
一切归劳动者所有，
哪能容得寄生虫？！
最可恨那些毒蛇猛兽，
吃尽了我们的血肉！
一旦把它们消灭干净，
鲜红的太阳照遍全球！

副歌

法语原文

I.
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.
C'est la lutte finale,
Groupons-nous, et demain
L'Internationale,
Sera le genre humain.

II.
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

VI.
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