Le Régiment de Sambre et Meuse | Lyrics [English + Français]

Paroles en français:
1er couplet:
Tous ces fiers enfants de la Gaule
Allaient sans trêve et sans repos
Avec leur fusil sur l'épaule
Courage au cœur et sac au dos,
La gloire était leur nourriture.
Ils étaient sans pain, sans souliers,
Le soir ils couchaient sur la dure
Avec leur sac pour oreiller.

Refrain:
Le régiment de Sambre-et-Meuse
Marchait toujours au cri de liberté
Cherchant la route glorieuse
Qui l'a conduit à l'immortalité.

2e couplet:
Pour nous battre ils étaient cent mille.
À leur tête, ils avaient des rois !
Le général, vieillard débile,
Faiblit pour la première fois.
Voyant certaine la défaite,
Il réunit tous ses soldats
Puis il fit battre la retraite,
Mais eux ne l'écoutèrent pas !

Lyrics in English:
1st verse:
All these proud children of Gaul
Marched forth without respite or rest
With their rifles on their shoulders
Courage in their hearts and packs on their backs
Glory was their nourishment
They had neither bread nor shoes
At night, they slept on the hard ground
With their backpacks as pillows

Chorus:
The regiment of "Sambre et Meuse"
Always marched to the call of "Liberty!"
Seeking the path of glory
That led them to immortality

2nd verse:
To beat us, they were a hundred thousand strong
Leading them, they had kings!
The general, a weak old man,
Faltered for the first time.
Seeing certain defeat,
he gathered all his soldiers
and then he beat the retreat,
But they would not listen to him.

Le Régiment de Sambre et Meuse is a patriotic French poem and song written in 1870 by Paul Cézano and later set to music by Robert Planquette.

Composed in the wake of the Second Empire's fall and the establishment of the Third French Republic it speaks of the exploits of a so-called Regiment of Sambre et Meuse who fight in the Wars of the Revolution against foreign counter-revolutionary forces seeking to put an end to the republic and restore the king. In the complete song/poem the citizen soldiers fight doggedly but are ultimately defeated heroically with the last man choosing death to surrender.

A personal interpretation is that if it were indeed written in 1870 (before the final defeat) it could have been intended to galvanise the French people of the nascent Third Republic to continue the fight against the Prussian invaders and defend the republic by recounting the glories of the past in which they did so. Or otherwise, the subject is an allegory to the defeat of 1871 and is meant to reconcile the feelings of the time and the desire for revenge.

The real Army of Sambre and Meuse which the song is about or borrowing its name from was formed in 1794 and was the most famous army of the French Republic until the advent of Napoleon's Army of the Alps. They fought in the battle of Fleurus and later against the Austrians in the Rhine Campaigns.

The song since has remained one of the most celebrated and popular marching songs of France and is also famous in the US with its usage by the Ohio State University.

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