More seriously in the spirit of the day...

[pyat]

Folk singer Billy Bragg's modernized and santized verison of The Internationale bothers me. Whereas the orginal is all blood and thunder, his version is all about extending-a-hand and isn't-freedom-nice-when-we-all-share. Those are legitimate feelings, of course, but it is important to remember the time and the spirit that inspired the orginal.

Shall we compare?

The Orignal (Lit. English)
Stand up, wretched of the earth
Stand up, galley slaves of hunger
Reason thunders in its volcano
This is the eruption of the end
Of the past let us wipe the slate clean
Masses, slaves, arise, arise
The world is about to change its foundation
We are nothing, let us be all


Billy Bragg Version
Stand up, all victims of oppression,
For the tyrants fear your might!
Don't cling so hard to your possessions,
For you have nothing if you have no rights!
Let racist ignorance be ended,
For respect makes the empires fall!
Freedom is merely privilege extended,
Unless enjoyed by one and all.

I don't know. To me, "Reason thunders in its volcano" is a lot more exciting than "Don't cling so hard to your possessions." And then in the second verse, he's replaced "There are no supreme saviours / Neither God, nor Caesar, nor tribune" with "Let no one build walls to divide us / Walls of hatred nor walls of stone."

I realize the new version is rather more inclusive and less violent, but... hey, I like my anthems full of old-school blood and guts. Except the Canadian one, which is required by law and tradition to be as bland as possible.

Comments

[the-town-mouse.livejournal.com]

I agree that Bragg's revision is indeed sanitised, but it's also a lot less awkward to sing than the older versions, which don't scan very well. The Wikipedia article (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Internationale) on the song implies that this was his primary motivation for composing his version.

[pyat.livejournal.com]

He also said they were archaic, which is a different kettle of fish altogether. Rule Britannia is also terribly archaic and somewhat hard to sing.

[the-town-mouse.livejournal.com]

Point taken! And I'll admit that for all the smoothness of Bragg's lyrics, the raw imagery of the traditional British and American versions quoted in that article is much more stirring. :)

[pyat.livejournal.com]

Also - Hi! What's new? :)

[the-town-mouse.livejournal.com]

Hi to you too. :)

Oh, I've just been my usual reclusive self, although I have been muddling through life more productively as of late (if such can be said about 'muddling'), hence my talkativeness (if one can call it that) yesterday. I'm tempted to tell you more, but I still feel a mite too self-conscious about exactly where I am in life and what I'm doing to go into much detail about them. But at the very least I can say that I will be around on your journal more often, since I'm obviously welcome. Thanks for that, by the way. :)