National anthem
Last night at DrinkingLiberally, we talked a bit about one of this week’s diversionary tactics news stories—the National Anthem. One of the discussants brought up the reports that Dubya’s recent suggestions on the subject might (perish the thought) be politically motivated, that he had willingly and gleefully sung along with alleged pop star Jon Secada’s rendition of the Anthem en español during the 2000 campaign and even at his first inauguration.
If Anthem-xenophobia is to become part of the American fabric, I believe we need to go all the way. If the Anthem is sullied by translation into a foreign tongue, it must be translated back into the One True Language immediately! We must always have a utility such as Babel Fish at the ready, so that those nasty translations can be reversed. I am fully in agreement with the greatest writer in American history on this subject.
As an aid to others, I offer several such re-translations of the familiar first verse of our National Anthem (you did know, I’m sure, that Key’s song continues on for three more verses beyond the one we attempt to sing before ballgames). Remember, these were done on a computer, so they must be true and accurate and correct.
Comments
hee...Excellent comment on the basic meaninglessness of patriotic songs. May as well get out the typing monkeys to produce them!
I like your idea, yet I have a suggestion ~ the anthem should only be sung in latin ~ seein as this is a christian nation!
Mr. N: I’d like to take the liberty of posting here a comment I made at Jesus’ General about your patriotic endeavor.
“General, Sir: Taking Mr. N in Seattle’s fine work a step further, I decided to translate and retranslate “The Star-Spangled Banner” a few times in the native tongues of some of my (thankfully, white) immigrant ancestors. I put the English version through BabelFish first in Dutch, then put the Dutch translation back into English. Then I took THAT English version and ran it through in German, then retranslated the German version into English. At least that’s what I think I did. Yes, it was exhausting, but I think you’ll find the results quite stirring:
“OH- legends, which you see past early the paddle somewhat, what proud in this way we know, greeted at last shining of the dawns?
Who expanded lines and free ASTRE paid attention by the dangerous fight, regarding the state of emergency doctor, who we flowed this way courageously?
And the red brightness of the rocket, boom, which bursts in an air, gave proof up to the night, which was our marking sign still there.
OH- says does that ASTRE = - spangled flag however nevertheless gulf regarding is the country from rather and the house of courageous?”
I think my grandmother would be proud, since this sounds like the way she usually sang it. ‘course, she drank a lot. Sir!
Latin? That might work for Mel Gibson and his friends, but I think Dr. Dobson would tell you in no uncertain terms that Jesus wrote the Bible in the One True Language, English.
Thank you, MzNicky.
I saw your highly-commendable efforts in The General’s comment thread. I have often thought of ER docs while singing about ramparts. I do have some questions for you, however:
a) Why did you choose the order {English --> Dutch --> English --> German --> English} instead of {English --> German --> English --> Dutch --> English}? Is it that you like your Dutch forebears better than your German side?
b) How would the translation have differed if you’d changed the order?
c) Did you consider cutting out the middleman, say, by going {English --> Dutch --> German --> English}?
For extra credit, you can always attempt a translation of this mid-19th century copy of “Das Star-Spangled Banner” I found in the Library of Congress:
http://www.darrelplant.com/blog_item.php?ItemRef=496
Mr. N: I did it the way I did it because I was just messin’ around and don’t have anything else to do, really. Truth be known, I don’t even have any Dutch ancestors that I know of, and there’s only German on a great-great-grandmother’s side or something; but I wanted to run it through at least two languages just for extra fun, and BabbleFish doesn’t translate into Irish.
I really enjoyed this—also the other attempts. As a long-time SF nut, I’ve often wondered about the translation machines the Star Heroes always have! When I first got access to a computer with a text program with spell-check, the very first thing I did was write a text and change the spell check language from English to first one, then the other and then back to English—gives some wild results. Perhaps this is why MicroSucks no longer offers spell check on extra languages, unless you pay through the nose…
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