Variation on a theme

Die for what you believe in

Words and Music: George Brassens, "Mourir pour des idées" (1972)
English translation: Andrew Kelly

Die for what you believe in, that's the great idea;
I was just about killed for failing to believe it.
All those people who did - that fierce pack of idealists
Howled like wolves after blood and helped me to conceive it.
They converted me quickly and my mischievous spirit
Soon renouncing its error rallied to their cause
With one slight reservation - like a contract clause
Let's die for our beliefs, O.K. if we don't hurry it
O.K., we wait for good old - natural death!

My belief remains fixed - there is no harm in waiting:
Let's reach that other world, but let's go really slow!
If we rush things too much we could find ourselves dying
For the greatest idea that's obsolete when we go.
This whole question's so vexed, there's so much bitterness to it,
When you've given up the ghost and everything is clear,
Have you backed the wrong horse and got the wrong idea?
Let's die for our beliefs, O.K., if we don't hurry it
O.K., we wait for good old - natural death!

How can silver-tongued folk preaching martyrdom's virtues
Manage in their own way to linger here below?
"Die for what you believe in": that's just something they say to
Give them something to live for , they don't want to go.
They're around on all sides, their age is over the limit,
They'll outlive old Methuselah in their ripe old age:
Just imagine them whispering softly from the stage:
Let's die for our beliefs, O.K., if we don't hurry it
O.K., we wait for good old - natural death!

Look at all those sects if you're wanting a sample
Of beliefs that demand the final sacrifice.
Novice victims should get this idea for example,
Which beliefs should they die for, how to make their choice?
They're so similar those beliefs, they differ not one whit;
Wise men, seeing them parading, with their flags unrolled,
Don't like making their minds up - tombstones are so cold!
Let's die for our beliefs, O.K., if we don't hurry it
O.K., we wait for good old - natural death.

Tell me, if it just takes murderous anarchist urges
To put everything right and change things for the better,
Why so many heads rolled during all those great purges
And yet Heaven on Earth has never been unfettered.
Man's great Golden Age never comes, it's always adjourned, it
Seems the Gods ask for more and can't be satisfied;
Death takes over again and Mayhem's glorified.
Let's die for our beliefs, O.K., if we don't hurry it
O.K., we wait for good old - natural death!

You fanatical types, tell me who are you kidding?
Why not try dying first if anyone must go?
Why not live and let live, leave your neighbour in peace when
Life's his simple and only pleasure here below?
Father Time's on the look-out and you've got to admit that
He can do without help to wield his great big scythe.
Stop this dancing on scaffolds - let's get on with life!
Let's die for our beliefs, O.K., if we don't hurry it
O.K., we wait for good old - natural death!