Le Radeau de La Méduse

Ahead of her fellow ships The Medusa strayed from its path First secession in a long series With a dire aftermath Stranded far from shore The castaways escaped on crafts Some carried by running oars Others on a hastily built raft Like the waves of the sea beaten by the winds Crashing in their course above the abyss They'd be tormented in a thousand ways between The boards and the sails of the infamous machine Among the woes that struck them And were worthy to relate Was to remember those men Who'd put them there and sealed their fate The raft is hauled by the small fleet Helpless and exposed to deceit They dropped the ropes at the first fright Breaking the bond that kept them tied Maudits par leur nom, leurs visages changés en pierre Comme si la gorgone avait paru devant eux L'hostilité primitive, sur eux se resserre Sous les plus sinistres cieux Twice doomed by mankind, exiled on the seas These branded soldiers were just out of their cells Caught up by the spite of relentless furies Once more prisoners of hell Thirst had soon devoured them, redoubled by the sun's rays Legs and feet were skinned, salt water eating them away The counting of the drowned taken by despair and storms Paced the days spent on this narrow and precarious floor Hunger had them slice the dead flesh of a former friend Feeding with dismay on this omen of their coming end Thrown into the sea, the wounded gave a tragic sight Yet all this was none compared to the violence unleashed at night One by one, nocturnal madness made them slaves Echoes of the fury of the waves Primeval fear filled them with sedition's breath Rising toward them from ocean depths Like the waves of the sea beaten by the winds Crashing in their course above the abyss Out of a hundred, remained only fifteen Saved from the ordeal of the infamous machine Although the woes struck again These living wrecks back on the earth Remember those other men Who rescued them, restored their worth