Louis Aragon: The Red Front

Abstract

This is a translation of a propagandist poem. The poem is divided into four sections. The first section describes the corrupt state of capitalist society which has only vaguely heard the rumour of

Unhappy Russia The URSS The URSS or as they say SSSR SS how is it SS SSR SSR oh my dear Just think SSR

like a far-off train. The second section is an exhortation to the proletariat to unchain its forces and to fire on M. Léon Blum. The engine, whose pistons go SS RR and SSR SSR SSR is now nearer. The third section describes the building of the new state, to an accompaniment of the bursting gunfire which ‘adds to the landscape a hitherto unknown gaiety’. The fourth section is exalted, metaphysical exhortation, in which the proletariat is told that

Each of your breathings begets Marx and Lenin in the sky.