United for Peace of Pierce County, WA - We nonviolently oppose the reliance on unilateral military actions rather than cooperative diplomacy.

"La Chanson de Craonne" was banned for many years from French airwaves, for reasons that will be obvious.[1] -- It celebrated French soldiers who in May 1917 refused to return to the trenches after the disastrous April-May Chemin des Dames offensive of Gen. Nivelle, in which more than 30,000 French soldiers died and 80,000 were wounded to no good purpose. -- In many of the French Army's 110 divisions, troops mutinied (2,000 in the 41st Division alone; eight other divisions were also severely impacted by mutinies, which usually took the form of refusing to return to the front lines; a total of about 30,000 troops seem to have been involved). -- This resistance to senseless slaughter arising toward the end of World War I's third year was brutally suppressed by Gen. Pétain, who replaced Nivelle. -- Pétain ordered to be executed by firing squad several dozen (25? 26? the number is uncertain) of some 500 soldiers condemned to death. -- Who wrote the song was never discovered, though a reward of a million francs in gold was promised to anyone who would denounce the author. -- The song was sung to the tune of Charles Sablon's "Bonsoir M'amour" by the mutineers, and was preserved by Paul Vaillant-Couturier (1892-1937), a WWI veteran who was also a writer, journalist, and political figure. -- Vaillant-Couturier published the words to the song in a book he co-wrote entitled La Guerre des soldats ('The Soldiers' War'). -- On Nov. 5, 1998, Prime Minister Lionel Jospin said at Craonne that he thought those who had mutinied should be "reintegrated into the nation's collective memory"; his remarks proved controversial. -- "Craonne" is pronounced, locally, like the word 'crâne'. -- Links to a web site with commentary (in French) from a documentary devoted to the song in the 1990s is included below.[2] -- The translation is followed by the French text (as it appears on the French Wikipedia site, where the song is called "one of pacifism's great hymns")....

LA CHANSON DE CRAONNE ('The Song of Craonne' -- pronounced 'crawn')
By Anonymous

When at the end of a week's leave
We're going to go back to the trenches,
Our place there is so useful
That without us we'd take a thrashing.
But it's all over now, we've had it up to here,
Nobody wants to march anymore.
And with hearts downcast, like when you're sobbing
We're saying good-bye to the civilians,
Even if we don't get drums, even if we don't get trumpets
We're leaving for up there with lowered head.

Good-bye to life, good-bye to love,
Good-bye to all the women,
It's all over now, we've had it for good
With this awful war.
It's in Craonne up on the plateau
That we're leaving our skins,
'Cause we've all been sentenced to die.
We're the ones that they're sacrificing

Eight days in the trenches, eight days of suffering,
And yet we still have hope
That tonight the relief will come
That we keep waiting for.
Suddenly in the silent night
We hear someone approach
It's an infantry officer
Who's coming to take over from us.
Quietly in the shadows under a falling rain
The poor soldiers are going to look for their graves

Good-bye to life, good-bye to love,
Good-bye to all the women,
It's all over now, we've had it for good
With this awful war.
It's in Craonne up on the plateau
That we're leaving our hides
'Cause we've all been sentenced to die.
We're the ones that they're sacrificing

On the grands boulevards it's hard to look
At all the rich and powerful whooping it up
For them life is good
But for us it's not the same
Instead of hiding, all these shirkers
Would do better to go up to the trenches
To defend what they have, because we have nothing
All of us poor wretches
All our comrades are being buried there
To defend the wealth of these gentlemen here

Those who have the dough, they'll be coming back,
'Cause it's for them that we're dying.
But it's all over now, 'cause all of the grunts
Are going to go on strike.
It'll be your turn, all you rich and powerful gentlemen,
To go up onto the plateau.
And if you want to make war,
Then pay for it with your own skins.

--
Translated by Mark K. Jensen
Associate Professor of French
Department of Languages and Literatures
Pacific Lutheran University
Tacoma, WA 98447-0003
Phone: 253-535-7219
Web page: http://www.plu.edu/~jensenmk/
E-mail: jensenmk@plu.edu

1917 (published in Raymond Lefebvre and Paul Vaillant-Couturier, La Guerre des soldats [Paris: Flammarion, 1919])

Quand au bout d'huit jours le r'pos terminé
On va reprendre les tranchées,
Notre place est si utile
Que sans nous on prend la pile
Mais c'est bien fini, on en a assez
Personne ne veut plus marcher
Et le cœur bien gros, comm' dans un sanglot
On dit adieu aux civ'lots
Même sans tambours, même sans trompettes
On s'en va là-haut en baissant la tête

- Refrain :
Adieu la vie, adieu l'amour,
Adieu toutes les femmes
C'est bien fini, c'est pour toujours
De cette guerre infâme
C'est à Craonne sur le plateau
Qu'on doit laisser sa peau
Car nous sommes tous des condamnés
Nous sommes les sacrifiés

Huit jours de tranchée, huit jours de souffrance
Pourtant on a l'espérance
Que ce soir viendra la r'lève
Que nous attendons sans trêve
Soudain dans la nuit et le silence
On voit quelqu'un qui s'avance
C'est un officier de chasseurs à pied
Qui vient pour nous remplacer
Doucement dans l'ombre sous la pluie qui tombe
Les petits chasseurs vont chercher leurs tombes

C'est malheureux d'voir sur les grands boulevards
Tous ces gros qui font la foire
Si pour eux la vie est rose
Pour nous c'est pas la même chose
Au lieu d'se cacher tous ces embusqués
Feraient mieux d'monter aux tranchées
Pour défendre leur bien, car nous n'avons rien
Nous autres les pauv' purotins
Tous les camarades sont enterrés là
Pour défendre les biens de ces messieurs là

- Refrain :
Ceux qu'ont le pognon, ceux-là reviendront
Car c'est pour eux qu'on crève
Mais c'est bien fini, car les trouffions
Vont tous se mettre en grève
Ce s'ra vot' tour messieurs les gros
D'monter sur le plateau
Et si vous voulez faire la guerre
Payez-la de votre peau.