Tuesday, May 02, 2006

ANTHEM-THINGY, SHMANTHEM-THINGY!!!

Okay, so the bigot.., sorry, I mean 'patriotic Republicans and all right-thinking people' don't like the idea of a Spanish version of the national anthem.

I'm not too hep on it myself.

Reason being that I don't speak Spanish (not that there's anything wrong with that).

So I'll probably sing it in Yiddish.


Star spengld bener
fun Frensis Skat Ki

O zog! konstu zen in likht fun sof nakht,
Vos mir hobn bagrist in demer-shayn mit freyd?
Di shtrayfn, di shtern -- in flaker fun shlakht
Fun di shuts-vent mir hobn mit bang in blik bagleyt.

Un der blits fun raket, un der knal fun kanon
Durkh der nakht gerufn hobn zey: es lebt di fon.
O zog! di fon mit di shtern iz zi nokh tsehelt
Iber land fun fraye un iber heym fun held?

Afn breg, durkh neplen fun yam fartunklt,
Vu dem soynes makhne iz fartayet in shrek,
Vos iz es, in bloz fun laykhtn vintl fartunken,
Ot halb-farborgn, ot af a helft antplekt?
Es iz di fon mit di shtern, o, af lang zey tsehelt
Iber land fun fraye un der heym fun held.

O, azoy vet es tomed zayn, ven frayer mentsh mit gever in hant
Bashitsn vet zayn libe heym kegn farlend fun krig un zayn shnit!
Gebentsht mit zig un frid, zol dos land
Loybn di kraft, vos hot undz als folk farhit!

Undzer kamf iz a gerekhter -- undzer iz der nitsokhn,
Zol zayn undzer gebot: "In got iz undzer bitokhn!"
Un di fon mit di shtern, in zig vet zi zayn tsehelt
Iber land fun fraye un der heym fun held!


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This blog gratefully acknowledges 'Conservative Apikoris', one of the regular commenters on Dovbear's site (http://dovbear.blogspot.com/ ), who appended the Yiddish version underneath this post (http://dovbear.blogspot.com/2006/05/star-spangled-banner-should-only-be.html ), from the comment thread of which I lifted it.

A fine blog. With many fine commenters.

I do not know if Conservative Apikoris has a blog.
If not, he should.

He got it from here:
http://shakti.trincoll.edu/~mendele/vol06/vol06.279

An intro to Mendele is here: http://www.ibiblio.org/yiddish/mendele.html

A fine site for Yiddishisten.

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