Songs of Russia/My Will

by Edelstadt

MY WILL

EDELSTADT

Good friends, when I am dead, bear to my grave
Our banner, freedom’s flag of crimson hue,
Stained with the blood poured from the toilers’ veins.
There ’neath the crimson banner sing to me
My song, “At Strife,” the song of liberty,
That in the hearer’s ear clangs like the chains
Of the enslaved, Christian alike and Jew.

E’en in the grave, O brothers, I shall hear
My song of liberty, my stormy lay;
E’en there shall I shed tears for every slave,
Christian or Jew; and when the swords I hear
Clash in the final battle’s blood and fear,
Then, singing to the people from my grave,
I will inspire their hearts, that glorious day!