"The Partisan" is an anti-fascist anthem about the French Resistance in World War II. The song was composed in 1943 by Russian-born Anna Marly (1917–2006), with lyrics by French Resistance leader Emmanuel d'Astier de La Vigerie (1900–1969), and originally titled "La Complainte du partisan" (English: "The lament of the partisan"). Marly performed it and other songs on the BBC's French service, through which she and her songs were an inspiration to the Resistance. A number of French artists have recorded and released versions of the song since, but it is better recognised globally in its significantly, both musically and in the meaning of its lyrics, different English adaptation by Hy Zaret (1907–2007), best known as the lyricist of "Unchained Melody".
Canadian singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen (1934–2016) recorded his version, using Zaret's adaptation, and released it on his 1969 album Songs from a Room, and as a 7-inch single in Europe. Cohen's version re-popularised the song and is responsible for the common misconception that the song was written by Cohen. It has inspired many other artists to perform, record and release versions of the song, including American Joan Baez (born 1941), on her 1972 album Come from the Shadows, and with the title "Song of the French Partisan", Canadian Buffy Sainte-Marie (born ) and Israeli Esther Ofarim (born 1941).
La Complainte du partisan
Anna Marly was born in Petrograd on October 30, 1917, and after her father was murdered by the Bolsheviks, she escaped with her mother and sister to a Russian colony in Menton, south-eastern France. Her artistic talents were encouraged from an early age; she was taught guitar by Sergei Prokofiev, and by age sixteen, was dancing in the Ballets Russes in Paris. Becoming refugees upon the outbreak of World War II, her Dutch aristocrat husband and she travelled to London, arriving in 1941.
Emmanuel d'Astier de La Vigerie was born in Paris on January 6, 1900, and after studying at the private high school Sainte-Geneviève in Versailles, he joined the École Navale (the French naval academy, in charge of the education of the officers of the French Navy) in 1919. Resigning the navy in 1931, d'Astier began a career in journalism, writing for Marianne and VU. With the outbreak of World War II in 1939, he was mobilised to work at the centre de renseignements maritimes de Lorient (English: maritime information center of Lorient) in north-western France, until the Fall of France in 1940. Refusing the armistice with Germany, he co-founded the Resistance movement La Dernière Colonne (English: the Last Column), publishing counter-propaganda against cooperation with Germany, and worked as an editor of the newspaper La Montagne. After the Last Column was decimated by arrests in 1941, he went into hiding under the pseudonym Bernard. By 1943, after meetings in London with Charles de Gaulle, and in Washington with the United States' President Roosevelt, to secure the formation and recognition of the Free French Forces, he again visited London as the Commissioner for Political Affairs of le Directoire des Mouvements unis de Résistance (English: the Directory of United Resistance Movements).
Jonathan H. King wrote, of d'Astier, in his article "Emmanuel d'Astier and the Nature of the French Resistance" for the Journal of Contemporary History: Few men were at the centre of the Resistance, for the reason that its centre could rarely be defined and was rarely stable. Even fewer would have the necessary literary and verbal self-consciousness to achieve the goals [of subjectively documenting historical reality]. One who was at the centre and who did have this self-consciousness was Emmanuel d'Astier. and that, in his efforts to organise the Resistance, in his own words, d'Astier was seeking the strength of "popular forces, those forces which alone can change our dreams into reality, adventure into history, aesthetics into politics".
It was in London, in 1943, while Marly ran a hostel for French exiles, that she wrote the anti-fascist anthem "La Complainte du partisan", with lyrics by d'Astier, going on to perform it and her other songs on Radio Londres (English: Radio London), the French Resistance radio operated by the Free French Forces, through the British Broadcasting Corporation. It was at this time that she also wrote "The March of the Partisans", with English lyrics by the Russian ambassador's daughter, Louba Krassine. The French exiles, Joseph Kessel and Maurice Druon, also resident in London, translated it into French for play on Radio Londres and it became "Le Chant des Partisans" (English: "Song of the Partisans"), an unofficial French anthem towards the end of the war.
Marly played guitar and Druon and d'Astier whistled the melody while they were writing the song.André Gillois, Histoire secrète des Français à Londres de 1940 à 1944 (Paris: Hachette, 1973), 397. It was performed by Anna Marly, broadcast by the BBC and adopted by the maquis. Marly, Druon, along with Claude Dauphin, and Andre Gillois all regularly whistled the song on the BBC right after Marly's singing.
Marly's songs, singing and whistling on Radio Londres, were an inspiration to the French Resistance and earned her the credit "troubadour of the Resistance" from General de Gaulle, leader of the French Free Forces. D'Astier was to become a Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur (English: Knight of the Legion of Honour), Compagnon de la Libération (English: Companion of the Liberation) and awarded the Croix de Guerre 1939–1945. In Paris, 1945, Raoul Breton published the "La Complainte du partisan" sheet music with lyrics by d'Astier credited to Bernard, his Resistance code name.
Structure, content and context In their examination of the songs of Anna Marly, the Académie de Lyon describe "La Complainte du partisan" as "" (English: "a heartbreaking vision of the commitment of the Resistance members"), and evaluate its structure and the meaning of its words: the song's lyrics are structured as six quatrains; the first and second lines of each is formed with seven syllables, the third line with five syllables and the fourth with six.
In his analysis for the University of Freiburg, Giacomo Bottà describes d'Astier's lyrics as "very straightforward", then continues: A partisan recalls, in the first person, episodes of his life ... each verse narrates a different situation: life on the run, the loss of the family, that of comrades, the killing of an old man who hid partisans, up to the ending. The first five verses (quatrains) depict scenes of Nazi occupied France, the expectation of French people to accept the occupation of their country, and the extraordinary reaction of the Resistance. The first line of the song, "" (English: "The enemy was at my house"), where "my house" can be understood as a reference to France, sets the scene. The second line, "" (English: "I was told 'Resign yourself), references the common resignation of the French people in response to Philippe Pétain's radio address, after the Fall of France, announcing his intention to ask for an armistice with Germany.
In the third and fourth lines, "" (English: "But I could not / And I took my weapon"), d'Astier introduces the notion of resistance, with a risk of death, loss of family, friends and identity and leading a secretive and dangerous life on the run, evoked by the lines "" (English: "I changed name a hundred times / I lost wife and children ... Just yesterday, there were three of us / Now there is only me / And I'm going around in circles / Inside the prison of borders").
The dangers d'Astier describes are countered by the expressions "" (English: "But I have so many friends / And I have the whole of France"), describing the support of the Resistance from the French people. In the final verse, d'Astier expresses his hope and confidence that Resistance will not be futile; "" (English: "The wind blows on the graves") evoking a cleansing wind and "" (English: "Freedom will return / We will be forgotten / We will go into the shadows") expressing the confidence that the actions of the mostly anonymous Resistance will have their desired effect.
Marly performed her song self-accompanied by guitar, and introduced each verse instrumentally while whistling the melody.
Adaptation to English
Born in Manhattan, New York City in 1907, Hy Zaret was best known as a Tin Pan Alley lyricist, whose writing credits include those for "Unchained Melody", "One Meat Ball" and several educational and public service songs. He wrote an English version of "La Complainte du partisan" titled "Song of the French partisan", published by the Leeds Publishing Corporation, New York City, August 11, 1944. Zaret's adaptation includes three of d'Astier's original French verses, with references to (English: "The enemy") changed to (English: "The Germans"), inserted between the penultimate and final English verses. Leonard Cohen used Zaret's adaptation for his creation of "The Partisan", the cover version that popularised the song globally.
Douglas Martin reported for The New York Times that Zaret "loosely translated" the French lyrics, and in his book Passion and Ambivalence: Colonialism, Nationalism, and International Law, author Nathaniel Berman compares excerpts of d'Astier's original French lyrics alongside, what he calls Zaret's English "(mis)translation", and notes that "the two versions reflect very different views"; that Zaret's English suggests that the partisans will "come from the shadows", while the French "", he states as "we will return to the shadow" (emphasis in quote) in English, suggests that the partisans – the Resistance – are "an artifact of the imperialism that dominates [them]", and that "reconciliation of society with its shadows is an illusion".
Alex Young, for Consequence of Sound, describes the differences between the original French and Zaret's English, saying it "downplays the song's historical content – the English lyrics contain no references to France or the Nazi occupation", with an example of literal English translations of the song's first line, "The Germans were at my house" (French: ""), being unheard in his English lyrics. Young goes on to compare the literal English translation of the same verse compared by Berman:
d'Astier's French(as compared by Berman) Zaret's English(as compared by Berman) Literal English translation(as compared by Young) Oh, the wind, the wind is blowing Through the graves the wind is blowing Freedom soon will come Then we'll come from the shadows The wind is blowing on the graves Freedom will come back Everyone will forget us We will return to the shadows
Maurice Ratcliff also noted, in his book Leonard Cohen: The Music and The Mystique, that there are differences between the original French and Zaret's English versions; he comments that Leonard Cohen's "The Partisan" is "substantially Zaret's", and while it does also contain verses sung in the original French, references to "The Germans" in the English verses, "become the more neutral 'soldiers and "the shelter-giving 'old woman' is ' (English: "an old man").
Giacomo Bottà describes Zaret's adaptation as "relatively faithful", while in the Académie de Lyon's evaluation of "La Complainte du partisan", its adaptation and cover versions, they write: (English: The version of Leonard Cohen offers a faithful translation, except the last stanza, which is much more positive: the resistants will come out of the shadows and freedom will return. The resistance fighter is shown more as a hero, who is placed in the light, once freedom has returned). They state that: (English: Cohen was fascinated by this song and wondered, moreover, "if music and writings alone did not overthrow Hitler").
Leonard Cohen's cover version