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An Irish Marseillaise

Anonymous
Language: English



Related Songs

Marseljeesi
(Anonymous)
Reveille
(Ferdinand Freiligrath)


‎[1848]‎
Testo incluso in “Songs in Irish Emigrant Ballads and Songs”, a cura di Robert L. Wright, 1975‎
Come la contemporanea tedesca Reveille, anche questa canzone fu scritta sull’aria della ‎‎“Marseillaise” di Rouget de l'Isle.‎

Young Ireland Rebellion, 1848, in ‎una stampa inglese dell’epoca. ‎
Young Ireland Rebellion, 1848, in ‎una stampa inglese dell’epoca. ‎



Alla fine degli anni 30 dell’800 alcuni intellettuali irlandesi, tra i quali il parlamentare William ‎Smith O'Brien, il poeta Thomas Davis e gli scrittori John Blake Dillon e Michael Doheny, ‎fondarono un movimento politico culturale nazionalista chiamato “Éire Óg”, “Young Ireland”. Una ‎delegazione di “Young Irelanders” si recò a Parigi qualche tempo prima dell’avvento della Seconda ‎Repubblica, quando la capitale francese era già sotto il controllo degli insorti contro Luigi Filippo ‎ed il suo governo. Tornarono in Irlanda impugnando il tricolore e nel luglio del 1848 si sollevarono ‎contro il dominatore britannico. L’insurrezione, limitata a sole tre contee, non ebbe successo e fu ‎subito stroncata dal durissimo intervento della polizia, la Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC). I leader ‎nazionalisti furono arrestati e deportati nei bagni penali della Terra di Van Diemen, in Australia. ‎Alcuni riuscirono a riparare in Francia e negli USA e diedero poi vita ad organizzazioni come la ‎Fenian Brotherhood e la Irish Republican Brotherhood, protagoniste della guerra d’indipendenza ‎del 1919-21 e zoccolo duro dell’Irish Republican Army (IRA).‎
Rise! Rise! A glorious day is breaking,‎
A bleeding country asks our aid,‎
Our slumbrous slavery forsaking,‎
Throw off the chains our race degrade!‎
Throw off the chains our race degrade!‎
With God and Man our cause sustaining,‎
By weakness we have given too long
The fight unjust unto the strong,‎
We’ ll conquer now, the Right maintaining,‎

Arise! our night is o’er,‎
Rise! rise! from shore to shore.‎
Arise! arise! ere Freedom dies,‎
For them we’ ll starve no more!‎

Columbia! strong angel, aid us,‎
Across the waters hear our cry –‎
Than live the sad serfs they have made us,‎
Far better it were we should die!‎
Far better it were we should die!‎
Alas, for weeping Freedom’s glory,‎
Behold an ancient, war-spent race,‎
Unarmed, unshielded, face to face
With Tyranny, mail-clad and gory.‎

Arise! our night is o’er,‎
Rise! rise! from shore to shore.‎
Arise! arise! ere Freedom dies,‎
For them we’ ll starve no more!‎

Go tell us who are those our masters,‎
That should grace their feast as slaves,‎
Should bear for them all life’s disasters,‎
And, dying, fall in pauper graves!‎
And, dying, fall in pauper graves!‎
Are they spoilers of our nation?‎
Are they the spawn of treacherous foes?‎
Are they the flatterers on our woes,‎
Whose glory is our degradation?‎

Arise! our night is o’er,‎
Rise! rise! from shore to shore.‎
Arise! arise! ere Freedom dies,‎
For them we’ ll starve no more!‎

O, Famine Graves! Whose jaws have caught us,‎
O, Ships that sunk us in the sea,‎
We know the lessons ye have taught us,‎
No more, no more your prey we’ ll be!‎
No more, no more your prey we’ ll be!‎
Who says our toils are never-ending?‎
Who says that we must ever kneel,‎
A People at a Hireling’s heel?‎
Nay, better die our homes defending.‎

Contributed by Bernart - 2013/7/16 - 12:06




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