This is a song written by Jean Baptiste Clément in 1866 and composed by Antoine Renard in 1868.
But it was used by the Commune of Paris in 1871.
Clément dedicated the song to a female ambulance driver who died at the barricades during the Bloody Week of the Commune.
The Commune of Paris was a revolutionary government formed following a rise in working-class radicalism during the Napoleonic War. Up to 20,000 working-class partisans died fighting for the right to live independently of the 3rd Republic. And nearly 45,000 Communards were taken prisoners.
The government had a progressive, anti-religious agenda. They aimed for a separation of church and state, self-policing of the Commune, abolition of child labour, rights for workers to take over a business deserted by its owner, and remission of rent. With a feminist agenda, it had a strong female following, as well as communists, anarchists, reformists and other socialist types. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels’ debates were heavily influenced by the policies and results of the Commune.
Within the song, the cherries are metaphors for the bullet wounds.
The cherry season is a metaphor for what life could be like once economic and social conditions have been improved by a revolution.
The song has become an anthem for many communist and socialist movements, including the French Communist Party.
This is one of the most recorded French song in history since 1895.
Some of the 80 artists who recorded the song include: Fred Gouin (1928), Reda caire (1931), Tino Rossi (1938), Charles Trenet (1942), Yves Montand (1955), Cora Vaucaire (1955), Marcel Mouloudji (1958), Colette Renard (1961), Charles Aznavour (1976), Marc Ogeret (1968), Juliette Greco (1983), Léo Ferré (1988), Demis Roussos (1996), Barbara Hendricks (1996), Leny Escudero (1997), Patrick Bruel (2002), Alain Barrière (2007), Hooverphonic (2008), Noir Désir (2008), Joan Baez (2018), Renaud (2022)
Quand nous chanterons le temps des cerises
Et gai rossignol
et merle moqueur
Seront tous en fête
Les belles auront la folie
en tête
Et les amoureux du soleil au cœur
Quand nous chanterons le temps des cerises
Sifflera bien mieux le merle moqueur
Mais il est bien court le temps des cerises
Où l’on s’en va deux cueillir en rêvant
Des pendants d’oreilles
Cerises d’amour
aux robes pareilles
Tombant sous la feuille en gouttes de sang
Mais il est bien court le temps des cerises
Pendants de corail qu’on cueille en rêvant
Quand vous en serez au temps des cerises
Si vous avez peur des chagrins d’amour
Évitez les belles
Moi qui ne crains pas les peines cruelles
Je ne vivrai pas sans souffrir un jour
Quand vous en serez au temps des cerises
Vous aurez aussi des
peines d’amour
J’aimerai toujours le temps des cerises
C’est de ce temps-là
que je garde au cœur
Une plaie ouverte
Et Dame Fortune, en m’étant offerte
Ne saura jamais calmer
ma douleur
J’aimerai toujours le temps des cerises
Et le souvenir que je garde au cœur
When the cherry season comes
The gay nightingale
and black mockingbird
We’ll be celebrating
The beautiful ones will have follies in their mind
And lovers the sun in their hearts.
When the cherry season comes
The black mockingbird will sing all the better.
But the cherry season is short
When we go to pick them while dreaming
Earrings
Cherries of love
with similar frocks
Falling under the leaf as drops of blood.
But the cherry season is short
Coral pendants that we pick whilst dreaming
When the cherry season comes
If you fear heartache,
Avoid the beautiful ones.
I, who do not fear cruel punishments,
I will not live without suffering another day.
When the cherry season comes,
You will also feel the
heartbreak.
I will always love the cherry season
It is from that time
that I have kept
an open wound in my heart.
And the gift that Lady Luck gave me
Can never shut
my pain.
I will always love the cherry season
And the memory I hold in my heart.
Between the French lyrics 
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