It’ll Be Okay

Title

It’ll Be Okay

Description

Popular during the early years of the Revolution, this song’s lively tune and repetitive chorus expressed revolutionaries’ hopefulness about the future. Singers manipulated its malleable lyrics to address a broad range of topical issues.

Date

1790-05-00

Relation

http://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/d/623/

Identifier

623

Transcription

Ca ira

Refrain:
Ah! ça ira, ça ira, ça ira,
Les aristocrates à la lanterne!
Ah! ça ira, ça ira, ça ira,
Les aristocrates on les pendra!

Le despotisme expirera,
La liberté triomphera,
Ah! ça ira, ça ira, ça ira,
Nous n'avons plus ni nobles, ni prêtres,
Ah! ça ira, ça ira, ça ira,
L'égalité partout régnera.
L'esclave autrichien le suivra,
Au diable s'envolera.
Ah! ça ira, Ah! ça ira,
Au diable s'envolera.

Refrain

It'll be okay

Refrain:
Oh. It'll be okay, be okay, be okay,
Hang the aristocrats from on high!
Oh. It'll be okay, be okay, be okay,
The aristocrats, we'll hang 'em all.

Despotism will breathe its last,
Liberty will take the day,
Oh. It'll be okay, be okay, be okay,
We don't have any more nobles or priests,
Oh. It'll be okay, be okay, be okay,
Equality will reign everywhere,
The Austrian slave will follow him,
To the Devil will they fly.
Oh. It'll be okay, be okay, be okay,
To the Devil will they fly.

Refrain

Citation

“It’ll Be Okay,” LIBERTY, EQUALITY, FRATERNITY: EXPLORING THE FRENCH REVOUTION, accessed March 19, 2024, https://revolution.chnm.org/d/623.