Here in Vancouver, I seriously doubt whether a good portion of the English-speaking population could stumble through O Canada. Then there’s a huge segment of the population here that can’t even stumble through ordering an Egg McMuffin in English, much less singing O Canada in English.
Down south, where there are now in excess of eleven MILLION illegal immigrants from Mexico and many millions who are legal, some of the (mostly pro-illegal immigration) Spanish-speaking folks are trying to promote acceptance of a new version of The Star-Spangled Banner, called “Nuestro Himno” — “Our Anthem” (as opposed, I’m guessing, to “the Perfectly Fine Star Spangled Banner Anthem That The Americans Already Have Had Since Day One”).
An Associated Press story reports that…
the Spanish version rewrites some of the English version. For instance, the second stanza says, “My people keep fighting. It’s time to break the chains.”
Well isn’t that special.
But the Wikipedia says…
[…] A remix is planned to be released in June. It will contain several lines in English that condemn U.S. immigration laws. Among them: “These kids have no parents, cause all of these mean laws … let’s not start a war with all these hard workers, they can’t help where they were born.”
That’s even more special!
Wikipedia seems to be as confused as the rest of us as to how the new Nuestro Himno version currently exists. They lay the Nuestra Himmo version on us and it makes no sense, as even they seem to admit:
First they say:
The translation’s first verse is based very closely on a 1919 translation prepared by Francis Haffkine Snow for the US Bureau of Education. The only changes from this version are a replacement of “no veis” (“don’t you see?”) with “lo veis” (“do you see it?”) and “Fulgor de cohetes, de bombas estruendo” (“the brilliance of rockets, the roar of bombs”) with “Fulgor de la lucha, al paso de la libertad” (“the brilliance of struggle, in step with freedom”).
Then they add:
Nuestro Himno appears to deviate significantly from the original, English version of the Star-Spangled Banner.
Do you see it arising, by the light of the dawn,
That which we hailed so much when the night fell?
Its stars, its stripes were streaming yesterday
In the fierce combat, as a sign of victory,
The brilliance of battle, in step with freedom,
Throughout the night they said: “It will be defended!”
Oh say you! Does it still wave, its starred beauty,
Over the land of the free, the sacred flag?Its stars, its stripes, liberty, we are equal.
We are brothers, it is our anthem.
In the fierce combat, as a sign of victory,
The brilliance of battle… (My people keep fighting!)
…in step with freedom, (Now is the time to break the chains!)
Throughout the night they said: “It will be defended!”
Oh say you! Does it still wave, its starred beauty,
Over the land of the free, the sacred flag?
Well yes that’s a “deviation” alright, inasmuch as they’re totally different in every which way. Wikipedia presents the Star Spangled Banner (first two stanzas pasted here so you can compare with the above version):
O say, can you see, by the dawn’s early light,
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight’s last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars, through the perilous fight,
O’er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming!
And the rockets’ red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there:
O say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?On the shore, dimly seen through the mists of the deep,
Where the foe’s haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o’er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning’s first beam,
In full glory reflected now shines in the stream:
Tis the star-spangled banner! O long may it wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!
President Bush said, in English,
I think people who want to be a citizen of this country ought to learn English and they ought to learn to sing the national anthem in English
And that’s the only thing that makes any sense to me.
(Hat tip to conservativegal)
PTBC was founded by Mr. Johannesen in 2000.
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