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Unfurling New Glory: America's International Anthem


Yervant1

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The Washington Post

May 7, 2006 Sunday

Final Edition

 

Unfurling New Glory: America's International Anthem

 

 

You say, "O say," they say, "O zog!" "O! sagt" "O dites." Let's call

the whole thing a land of immigrants.

 

After Latino pop stars recently recorded "The Star-Spangled Banner"

in Spanish as "Nuestro Himno," President Bush said the song should be

sung in English. But for generations the anthem has been rendered in

the voices of assorted Old Countries. Here are eight published

versions. All together now, with feeling!

 

English: O say, can you see, by the dawn's early light,

What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming?

 

Armenian: Usek gurnak took ter desnel vagh aikoon

Mutunshaghin ain turoshn mer woghtchoonads

 

Yiddish: O zog! konstu zen in likht fun sof nakht,

Vos mir hobn bagrist in demer-shayn mit freyd?

 

Samoan: Aue! se'i e vaai, le malama o ataata mai

Na sisi a'e ma le mimita, i le sesega mai o le vaveao

 

Polish: Ach! czy widac tam, patrzaj w swit bracie moj,

Dumny znak nasz co lsnil wczora gdy gasly zorza?

 

German: O! sagt, koennt ihr seh'n, In des Morgenroths Strahl,

Was so stolz wir im scheidenden Abendroth gruessten?

 

French: O dites, voyez-vous, Dans la lumière du jour

Le drapeau qu'on saluait, À la tombée de la nuit?

 

Spanish: Amanece, lo veis, a la luz de la aurora,

Lo que tanto aclamamos la noche al caer?

 

-- David Montgomery

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The Washington Post

May 7, 2006 Sunday

Armenian: Usek gurnak took ter desnel vagh aikoon

Mutunshaghin ain turoshn mer woghtchoonads

-- David Montgomery

From a bilingual Armenian song book ՀԱՅՐԵՆԻ ԵՐԳԵՐSongs of Armenia published in NY in 1919. The ending song is ASDEGHAHER TROSHAKN, The Star Spangled Banner.

 

ԱՍՏԵՂԱՅԵՌ ԴՐՕՇԱԿՆ

 

Ըսէք, կրնաք դուք տեսնել դեռ վաղ այգուն?

Մըթընշաղին այն դըրօշն մեր ողջունած.

Մեր հսկած բերդին վրայ այն գոռ մարտին մէջ

Աստեղայեռ դրօշն շերտաւոր, գեղածալ:

Ռումբերուն եւ փամփուշտներուն կարմիր բոցերն

Կը ցուցնէին մէջ գիշերուան դրօշն հոն էր:

Ոհ, ըսէք ինձ կը ծածանի դեռ աստղադրօշն?

Հայրենեաց եւ երկրին վրայ քաջ ազատներուն:

 

Then, there is also the translation of the second stanza which I doubt anybody, including me knows.

Could I have rendered a better translation??

Edited by Arpa
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Hey Yervant!

How come we don't see the Fu*kish, :oops: I mean Furkish translation?? :) :)

What's the matter? They don't like our moonless/crescentless flag?

Those qatsordis, their enire existence is dependent on the "FLAG" yet they will not miss the chance to spit on it daily.

They're gonna go to the moon alright!

Edited by Arpa
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Hey Yervant!

How come we don't see the Fu*kish, :oops: I mean Furkish translation?? :) :)

What's the matter? They don't like our moonless/crescentless flag?

They're gonna go to the moon alright!

Everybody knows Furkish is not important, even if it was they could not find any Furkish to translate and find the correct words in the Furkish language.

I just remembered long time ago when the American President met one of the Furkish leaders of the time, they needed of course translators to communicate. Yes you guessed it they brought in an Armenian to do the secret talk translations. The Furkish press was in furor about it.

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Everybody knows Furkish is not important, even if it was they could not find any Furkish to translate and find the correct words in the Furkish language.

I just remembered long time ago when the American President met one of the Furkish leaders of the time, they needed of course translators to communicate. Yes you guessed it they brought in an Armenian to do the secret talk translations. The Furkish press was in furor about it.

Yes Yervant. Why is it that Armenians know Furkish and those furken Furks don’t know Armenain? After all, which comes first the furkish fricken chicken( read hndkahav) or the Armenian Eagle?

I have written about this before, and I did write an angry letter to the printed media about a story that one our illustrious intellectuals had written how she had had a conversation, in Furkish with a fricken Furkish NY taxi driver, and she boasted that she could speak Furkish, and the driver could hardly speak...any language. What other badges of merit do we have to be “proud” of? Why is it that those savages did not learn our Mesropatar Hayots Lezu ( yeah, yeah, that and a million drams may buy you a half a cup of [Turkish] coffee), and we learned their non-existent fricken furkish gobble-di -gook??!!

Edited by Arpa
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Yes Yervant. Why is it that Armenians know Furkish and those furken Furks don’t know Armenain? After all, which comes first the furkish fricken chicken( read hndkahav) or the Armenian Eagle?

I have written about this before, and I did write an angry letter to the printed media about a story that one our illustrious intellectuals had written how she had had a conversation, in Furkish with a fricken Furkish NY taxi driver, and she boasted that she could speak Furkish, and the driver could hardly speak...any language. What other badges of merit do we have to be “proud” of? Why is it that those savages did not learn our Mesropatar Hayots Lezu ( yeah, yeah, that and a million drams may buy you a half a cup of [Turkish] coffee), and we learned their non-existent fricken furkish gobble-di -gook??!!

To answer your first question in a comedic way is, their furkish brain can't handle more than half a language.

To answer your second question in my opinion, it's our fault that others did not learn our language because we're always ready to learn theirs, accomodate and fit to them rather than let them look for us. We very much like to be subservient, we like to preach that we are this and we are that, we like to preach but we never practice it.

I'll give you an example, in Beirut when our grandmas and mothers went to the vegetable markets, the Arab venders knew that our grandmas did not speak Arabic so they started to learn Armenian to get the sales. They would give the price in Armenian and funny enough sometimes in Turkish thinking that they are saying in Armenian. What I'm trying to say is we could have forced others to learn Armenian if they wanted to do business with us. But at the same time we do not have the numbers, small nations are always ignored.

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