“Arise you children of the motherland,
The day of glory has arrived!
Against us tyranny
Has raised its bloodied banner,
Do you hear, in the fields
The howling of these fearsome soldiers?
They are coming into your midst
To slit the throats of your sons and consorts!
To arms, citizens!
Form your battalions!
Let us march, let us march!
May impure blood
Soak our fields’ furrows!”
(French and English lyrics — all seven verses’ worth — here.)
The U.S. Navy Band plays it here. And the French Embassy to the United States relates the song’s story — minus the detail that the composer/lyricist, Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle, was a moderate who supported the French monarchy and was thrown into prison after he penned the anthem — here.