Extracts from the newspaper Le Rappel, 7 September 1870,
quoting words spoken to the crowd by Victor Hugo.
I've tried to translate Hugo's powerful words:
Saving Paris is more than saving France.
It's saving the world.
Paris is the actual centre of humanity.
Paris is the sacred city.
Those who attack Paris are carrying out
a mass assault upon the entire human race.
Paris is the capital of civilization.
It is neither a kingdom nor an empire.
It symbolizes the entire human race, past and future.
And do you know why Paris is the city of Civilization ?
Because it's the city of Revolution.
It's saving the world.
Paris is the actual centre of humanity.
Paris is the sacred city.
Those who attack Paris are carrying out
a mass assault upon the entire human race.
Paris is the capital of civilization.
It is neither a kingdom nor an empire.
It symbolizes the entire human race, past and future.
And do you know why Paris is the city of Civilization ?
Because it's the city of Revolution.
Citizens, Paris will triumph,
because she symbolizes the idea of Humanity
and represents the instincts of the People.
because she symbolizes the idea of Humanity
and represents the instincts of the People.
Here is a version of a celebrated song,
Le Temps des cerises, written in 1866
by Jean-Baptiste Clément. This popular song has
always been associated in French history and culture
with the Commune de Paris in 1871.
