Le Radeau de La Méduse

Ahead of her fellow ships
The Medusa stayed 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 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 gorgonne 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 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 the 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 this infamous machine
Although the woes struck again
These living wrecks back on the earth
Remember those other men
Who rescued them restored their worth