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Eugène Edine Pottier

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Eugène Pottier

Eugène Édine Pottier (French pronunciation: [øʒɛn pɔtje]; 4 October 1816 – 6 November 1887) was a French revolutionary, poet, song-writer, and freemason. Pottier's most famous work, the revolutionary anthem The Internationale, usually sung in the setting by Pierre De Geyter from 1888,, is much better known than he is, as it has been translated from the original French into many languages, including at least five English versions, as many in Spanish, two in German, three in different dialects each of Chinese and Arabic, and individual versions in languages from Afrikaans, via Bengali, Catalan, Dutch, Esperanto, Finnish, Galician, Hindu, Icelandic, Japanese, Korean, Latvian, Norwegian, Okinawan, Polish, Russian, Swedish, Tamil, Urdu, Vienamese, Yiddish, to Zulu.[1][2]

Life and Work in Paris

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Pottier grew up as the son of a packer but later trained as an industrial textile designer, a profession that he celebrated in a poem called The Exposition, about the Paris Exposition of Industrial Design in 1861.[1][2] He began writing songs already in his teens, inspired by the example of Pierre-Jean de Béranger, whose book he apparently discovered in an armoire.[3] By the time of the French Revolution of 1848 and the brief Second Republic, he wrote and performed many political songs in the company of other worker-songwriters or chansonniers as they were known in French.[4][5]At a time when up to seventy percent of the French population was illiterate, these songs offered political mobilization as well as entertainment to working people, and were often set to familiar tunes to encourage singing along.[6] His songs of this period include titles such as "Etats généraux du travail" [Estates General of Labor] "Liberté, égalité, fraternité, et gaité" (best translated as "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity--and Fun")[7][8]

After the coup by Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte, who called himself Napoleon III, crushed the Second Republic in favor of the Second Empire, Pottier worked as an industrial designer. The Industrial Exposition of 1861 and the spread of the Second Empire Style benefitted artisans such as Pottier who claimed to be the "owner of the best design studio in Paris" at the time.[9][10] Pottier's relative prosperity did not deter him from political activity. As censorship was relaxed after 1867, he joined the French affiliate of the International Workingmen's Association, which had been founded by Karl Marx and others in London in 1864. Pottier's songs from this period, while not as overtly political, still critiqued social and economic injustice, with titles such as "Ce que dit le pain" [What the Bread Says], or environmental destruction "La mort d'un globe" [Death of a World].[11][12] Others reflected his curiosity and engagement with science and industrial innovation in France and the world, in songs such as "La nouvelle ère" [The New Era], which celebrated the first trans-Atlantic telegraphic cable and with it instantaneous contact between Europe and North America.[13][14]

Pottier and the Paris Commune of 1871

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Pottier was elected a member of the Paris municipal council, the Paris Commune, in March 1871. Following the Commune's defeat, in June 1871 he wrote the poem L'Internationale, which became the International Workingmen's Association anthem during its last years (1871–1876), and has been used by most socialist and left-wing political internationals since. Music was later written for the song by Pierre De Geyter. Encyclopedia of Mass Persuasion deems the anthem "one of the best-known propaganda songs since La Marseillaise". After writing the poem, Pottier went into exile but later returned to France, dying penniless.

Fifteen years after the Communards were crushed in blood by the Versaillais (1871), Eugène Pottier dedicated the following hymn to their revolution:[15]

On l'a tuée à coups de chassepot,
A coups de mitrailleuse,
Et roulée avec son drapeau
Dans la terre argileuse.
Et la tourbe des bourreaux gras
Se croyait la plus forte.
Tout ça n'empêche pas, Nicolas
Qu'la Commune n'est pas morte.

An approximate translation of which is:

They killed her with their chassepot,
With their machine guns,
And rolled her with its flag
In the clay.
And the mud of the fat hangmen
thought they had prevailed.
And with all that, Nicolas,
The Commune is not dead.

Vladimir Lenin acknowledged the 25th anniversary of Pottier's death in a 1913 article in Pravda.

During his exile in New York City (1873–1880), Eugène Pottier was received at Les Égalitaires lodge in New York.[16] In his cover letter, he said that Freemasonry "is composed of a group of freethinkers who, having made a clean sweep on tradition and recognizing nothing superior to human reason, consciously dedicate themselves in search of Truth and Justice".[17]

References

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  1. ^ Pottier, Eugène (1966). Brochon, Pierre (ed.). Oeuvres Complètes d'Eugène Pottier [Complete Works of Eugène Pottier] (in French). Paris: François 8Maspero. p. 83.
  2. ^ Pottier, Eugène (1861). Kruger, Loren (ed.). Beyond the Internationale: Revolutionary Writings by Eugène Pottier. Chicago: Charles H. Kerr (published 2024). pp. 62–64. ISBN 9780882860329.
  3. ^ Brochon, Pierre, Introduction, Oeuvres complètes de Eugène Pottier, 8
  4. ^ Pottier, Oeuvres complètes, 43-56
  5. ^ Pottier, Beyond the Internationale, 47-55
  6. ^ DIllaz, Serge (1973). La Chanson française de contestation [The French Political Song] (in French). Paris: Seghers. p. 15.
  7. ^ Pottier, Oeuvres complètes, 46-48
  8. ^ Pottier, Beyond the Internationale, 50-53
  9. ^ Pottier, "Letter to Paul Lafarge," Oeuvres complètes, 217
  10. ^ Pottier, Beyond the Internationale, 29
  11. ^ Pottier, Oeuvres complètes, 85-86, 63-64,
  12. ^ Pottier, Beyond the Internationale, 64-65, 58-59
  13. ^ Pottier, Oeuvres complètes, 80-81
  14. ^ Pottier, Beyond the Internationale, 61-62
  15. ^ Benoît Bréville et Dominique Vidal (August 2011). "Tout ça n'empêche pas, Nicolas..." le Monde Diplomatique. Retrieved 20 January 2012.
  16. ^ La Franc-maçonnerie Jean Massicot (Jean Massicot ed. - 2010)
  17. ^ Demande d’admission d’Eugène Pottier New-York, 2 December 1875
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