[Verse 1] Florence, 1513, ink and exile combined, Niccolò locked out of office, built a throne inside his mind, He didn't dream of Plato's city, perfect, pure, and far, He wrote the world the way it truly is, not how saints think it are, La politique comme elle est — that's his first command, Forget the should, study the is, that's how you understand. [Chorus] Craint ou aimé, mon ami, choisis bien ton camp, Feared or loved — if you can't hold both, fear's the safer bend, Virtù et fortune, skill against the tide, Le Prince whispers low: survive, don't just abide. [Verse 2] Love is a debt that people pay back whenever they please, Fear's a chain you forge yourself, it doesn't bend or freeze, He's not cheering cruelty on, he's cold, precise, and clear, Better the ruler feared with reason than adored and insecure, Because affection flickers, but dread, dread holds the line, Safer bet when fortune's fickle — that's the cruel design. [Verse 3] Virtù's not virtue like the bishops taught in Latin hall, It's boldness, timing, nerve to pivot when the old plans fall, Fortuna is the river, half the world beyond your grip, Build your levees before autumn, don't just ride the flooding ship, Half of life is chance, he reckoned, half is yours to seize and steer, Master what you can control, then wrestle with the rest, mon cher. [Chorus] Craint ou aimé, mon ami, choisis bien ton camp, Feared or loved — if you can't hold both, fear's the safer bend, Virtù et fortune, skill against the tide, Le Prince whispers low: survive, don't just abide. [Verse 4] But flip the page to Discourses, a different man appears, Praising Rome's republic, forged through centuries of jeers, Nobles push and people shove, and from that friction springs Liberty itself, more durable than any crown of kings, He's not just cynic, he's republican at heart, Conflict kept in bounds by law becomes a kind of art. [Bridge] From Sparta's walls to Cold War halls, realists took his lead, Nations chase their interest first, that's the cutthroat creed, Morgenthau and old Kissinger, they're reading from his page, Power, not utopia, still rules the modern stage, C'est la politique, toujours — l'intérêt avant tout, Study power as it moves, not as you wish it to. [Chorus] Craint ou aimé, mon ami, choisis bien ton camp, Feared or loved — if you can't hold both, fear's the safer bend, Virtù et fortune, skill against the tide, Le Prince whispers low: survive, don't just abide. [Outro] So remember Niccolò, exiled, writing by the flame, Feared or loved, virtù, fortuna — learn to play the game, La politique comme elle est, that's the lesson that remains, Machiavelli's hardest truth still running through our veins.
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