ABC News reports the United States Bureau of Education commissioned a Spanish-language version of "The Star Spangled Banner" in 1919:
The bureau called the song "La Bandera de las estrellas." You can find mention of "La Bandera de las estrellas" online at the Library of Congress' Performing Arts Digital Library interactive Web site.
An interactive display of the government-commissioned Spanish-language version is available here.
La bandera de las estrellas / John Stafford Smith [sheet music]Verse
Amanece: ¿no veis, a la luz de aurora,
Lo que tanto aclamamos la noche al caer?
Sus estrellas, sus barras flotaban ayer
En el fiero combate en senal de victoria.
Fulgor de cohetes, de bombas es truendo,
Por la noche decian: "?Se va defendiendo!"
?Oh, decid! ¿Despliega aun su hermosura estrellada,
Sobre tierra de libres, la bandera sagrada?
Verse
En la costa lejana que apenas blanquea,
Donde yace nublada la hueste feroz,
Sobre aquel precipicio que elevase atroz,
?Oh decidme! ¿que es eso quen la brisa ondea?
Se oculta y flamea, en el alba luciendo,
Reflejada en la mar, donde va resplandeciendo.
?Aun alli desplego su hermosura estrellada,
Sobre tierra de libres, la bandera sagrada!
Verse
?Oh asi sea siempre, en lealtad defendamos
Nuestra tierra natal contra el torpe invasor!
A Dios quien nos dio paz, la libertad, y honor,
Nos mantuvo nacion, con fervor bendigamos.
Nuestra causa es el bien, y por eso triumfamos,
Siempre fue nuestro lema: "?En Dios confiamos!"
!Y desplegara asi su hermosura estrellada,
Sobre tierra de libres, la bandera sagrada!
There are four separate Spanish versions of The Star Spangled Banner on the U.S. State Department's Web site.
ABC points out that Library of Congress Web site includes German versions as well.
According to ABC, the logic behind foreign-language versions is that U.S. embassies could use the translations in ceremonies so guests could understand what was being sung.
The ABC story seems intended as a hit piece on senators who expressed displeasure with the new Spanish version of The Star Spangled Banner, trying to embarrass Senator Lamar Alexander of Tennessee:
"We wouldn't recite the pledge in French or German or Russian or Hindi or even Chinese," said Alexander. "And we shouldn't sing the national anthem in Spanish, or any other foreign language. So, in this land of immigrants, let's all sing it together, as one American nation, in our common language, English."
I don't have a problem with translations of The Star Spangled Banner, but I don't think its appropriate to rewrite it in a way that changes the meaning as was done in "Nuestro Himno." It isn't right to call the rewrite a Spanish version of the national anthem.
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Comments: 6
It is interesting how this whole debate is going; we don't even have an official language in our country. I agree with you that it is one thing to merely translate the anthem, and it is another to rewrite it. While "Nuestro Himno" may have questionable claim to the classification of a rewrite, it is a beautiful song that honors our country.
Thank you! It is a joy to know that some persons on the face of our glorious planet (which has deep human troubles) have some sort of an affection for our USA. So much, in fact, that they write words and grand new sounding music to 'our' national anthem.We and 'they' then possibly get room to reflect about some of the messages that are therein. Especially: 'the land of the free and the home of the brave'.
We need reminders to make us think about the DEEP meanings of "free" and "brave". 'Brave' should carry meanings into non-war deliberations and actions, like bringing HUMANE JUSTICE into issues where so many faults seem to have made make LAW hard and unresponsive at times. 'FREE' should speak to the deep issues involved within the most broad ideas we have about the operative meanings of compassionate humanity and JUST actions. We need a vision of Civilized Behaviors and Words and Music may be powerful vehicles to do so.
Dick
than I am about 12 million illegal immigrants.