A wee bit of Subversive patriotism
Jul. 3rd, 2006 12:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
capri0mniTomorrow is The United States' Day of Celebrating its Own Existence. I'm proud of America, on the whole, even if I'm often ashamed of what its current political leaders have been doing in my name, of late. So here, I will indulge my own patriotic sentiments, but I will be subversive about it.
First, the original poem which became our national anthem. Key's grammar is as boroque as anything I've ever read, so I've put tranlations between the verses in italics. Reciting words without remembering what they mean is hardly patriotic, imnsho.
Oh, 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 thru the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming?
And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.
Oh, 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! Oh long may it wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!
And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion,
A home and a country should leave us no more?
Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps' pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave:
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!
Oh! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved home and the war's desolation!
Blest with victory and peace, may the heav'n rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: "In God is our trust."
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!
Second, the original song that gave us the tune for the anthem -- a British pub song in praise of getting drunk and having sex with goddesses (Just a wee bit more pro-fun, I think): To Anacreon in Heaven (the tune plays automatically when you load the page, and plays on a loop, so you may want to mute, first).
First, the original poem which became our national anthem. Key's grammar is as boroque as anything I've ever read, so I've put tranlations between the verses in italics. Reciting words without remembering what they mean is hardly patriotic, imnsho.
Oh, 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 thru the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming?
And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.
Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?
- (*nudge* "We cheered the flag last night, and caught gimpses through the battle --But is it still there? Is it? I can't tell...")
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! Oh long may it wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!
- ("I think I see the shore, but it's pretty foggy, and I'm not sure. At least the British have stopped bombing ... I see a flag -- but the wind's not strong enough to blow it out straight -- Is it ours, or theirs? Yay! The sun's up! I can see the reflection in the water -- it's Ours! We won (I won't end up in prison for the rest of my life)! *whew!*)
And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion,
A home and a country should leave us no more?
Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps' pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave:
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!
- (So, what happened to the Brits -- who thought they could undo the revolution and turn us back into a bunch of colonists? We killed them -- Every Last One -- even their slaves! *Bwa-ha-ha!* We PWNED Them!)
Oh! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved home and the war's desolation!
Blest with victory and peace, may the heav'n rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: "In God is our trust."
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!
- (And it will be like this in every war we fight (as long as it's a 'just' war, yeah, gotta say that), because God made this country, and God protected it, and in God we trust.)
Second, the original song that gave us the tune for the anthem -- a British pub song in praise of getting drunk and having sex with goddesses (Just a wee bit more pro-fun, I think): To Anacreon in Heaven (the tune plays automatically when you load the page, and plays on a loop, so you may want to mute, first).
no subject
Date: 2006-07-04 01:08 am (UTC)(Also: I was going to correct your spelling of one the words in your introduction, but then a voice in my head told me, 'If it ain't "baroque", don't fix it.')
no subject
Date: 2006-07-04 04:19 am (UTC)oh, and: :::Groan! *eyeroll*:::