The basic gist of your national anthem

[Mississippienne]

In this thread, I described the Polish national anthem as having the basic gist of 'Poland don't start no shit, and Poland don't take no shit.'

That made me think about national anthems in general. They typically have very beautiful and inspiring lyrics, but when you really get down to it, what are they saying? The Star-Spangled Banner, for example, seems to be saying, Dude, please tell me that our flag is still there. I wanna live as a revolutionary, not be executed as a rebel, for reals.

You don't have to limit yourself to your national anthem either, any national anthem is fine.

[Peter Morris]

The gist of the British National Anthem:

Verse 1 - the current monarch is the single most important being in the Universe, except for God.

Verse 2,3,4 - we hate the Scots.

[trupa]

(English version)
Canada, it's where we live and we really like it. God, watch out for it, and we'll watch out for it too.
(French version)
Canada, you can really fight & kick ass, but you're a good Christian too.

My favourite, La Marseillaise (France)
Grab your weapons and slaughter the tainted enemies invading us. They're coming to kill our women & kids.

[Snowboarder Bo]

Cracked.com did an excellent article on national anthems a couple of years ago.

[don't ask]

Rejoice for Australia is geographically really good.
Work hard.

[Superfluous Parentheses]

The Dutch anthem is basically "we're of proud German blood, and we love the king of Spain".

Yes, really.

[Mississippienne]

Originally Posted by Snowboarder Bo

Cracked.com did an excellent article on national anthems a couple of years ago.

I love the translated lyrics from the Romanian national anthem someone posted in the comments. Basically, I love that it's Queen's "Princes of the Universe", only about Romanians instead of Immortals:

Here we are! Born to be kings!
We're the princes of the universe!
Here we belong!
Fighting to survive in a war
with the darkest powers!
And here we are
we're the princes of the universe!
Here we belong
Fighting for survival!
We've come to be the rulers of you all!
I am immortal!
I have inside me blood of kings!
I have no rival!
No man can be my equal!

[Rala]

"Advance Australia Fair" is pretty much "This is a beautiful country and we're all very happy to be here." It's a good message, I think.

[Randy Seltzer]

Originally Posted by Mississippienne

The Star-Spangled Banner, for example, seems to be saying, Dude, please tell me that our flag is still there. I wanna live as a revolutionary, not be executed as a rebel, for reals.

The first verse of the SSB -- the chunk that everybody knows, and that's sung at football games -- is one long question. There's only one bit of ending punctuation in the whole thing, and it's the question mark at the end. I'd say it could be summarized thus:

Shit -- where's the flag??

[wolfman]

Originally Posted by Mississippienne

The Star-Spangled Banner, for example, seems to be saying, Dude, please tell me that our flag is still there. I wanna live as a revolutionary, not be executed as a rebel, for reals.

.

Well the Third verse gets a bit into slaughter and death in a passive voice mobster kind of way. That the flag will be waving over certain things that may happen, we're just sayin'

[Alessan]

Israel:

"Us Jews really really want a country."

[flodnak]

Norway:

Verse 1: This is a rugged country, but it's ours and we love it.
Verses 7 and 8: And we'll fight to defend it.
Verses in between: Memorize this as a handy cheat-sheet for your next history test.

This probably explains why nobody ever sings verses 2 through 6.

[Robot Arm]

Originally Posted by Randy Seltzer

The first verse of the SSB -- the chunk that everybody knows, and that's sung at football games -- is one long question. There's only one bit of ending punctuation in the whole thing, and it's the question mark at the end. I'd say it could be summarized thus:

Shit -- where's the flag??

Well, perhaps, but these days I tend to think of it as a rhetorical question. In which case, the basic gist of the U.S. national anthem is:

C'mon, gimme your best shot.

[Grumman]

Originally Posted by Rala

"Advance Australia Fair" is pretty much "This is a beautiful country and we're all very happy to be here." It's a good message, I think.

That's the current version.

Looking at the original 4th verse, I'd sum it up as "But don't mess with us, or we'll kick your ass so hard they'll hear it in Britain."

[Mosier]

I think the gist of the star spangled banner is "our spirit cannot be broken." The flag is a symbol of the rebellion, which if you haven't heard we're pretty proud of.

[Nava]

Despite the complete lack of lyrics of our national anthem (and of several of our regional anthems), the majority of Spaniards are not mute. Promise.

[Crowbar of Irony +3]

Singapore's one basically means "onward to excellence..." with the implication we should do it as one people. Of course, whether this means unity in spirit, or quashing all dissenssions, depends on the person's personal experiences with the dominating government.

[sandra_nz]

The New Zealand one seems to be saying "God, if anyone tries to take this country from us, help us!"

[Martini Enfield]

Originally Posted by sandra_nz

The New Zealand one seems to be saying "God, if anyone tries to take this country from us, help us!"

I thought it was "We Like being part of the British Empire!"

[Dervorin]

The Indian national anthem more or less boils down to:

Hey, unnamed person (who is probably God), you're pretty well-liked around here, and I will list all the provinces that you're liked in, with some geographical features thereof. Keep up the good work!

[Lars Aruns]

Il Canto degli Italiani (more known as Fratelli d'Italia).

Short version: Italians, it's about bloody time we actually gather together and kick some Austrian arse! They're jerks and bastards, they're eagles with no feathers, robbing and murdering Poles and stuff, and their mercenaries are wimps; we beat them in the past, we can beat them again. So, are you bloody coming or not?

There's a more flowery translation on the linked Wikipedia page.

[Teacake]

I'd sum up the British one more as "Yeah, we like the Queen. Now let's take over the world!"

[Hari Seldon]

The Canadian national anthem: "We stand in goal (oops, I mean on guard) for thee."

[yojimbo]

Ireland. If the tyrants from across the waves come we'll give them a fight.

[Rayne Man]

Originally Posted by yojimbo

Ireland. If the tyrants from across the waves come we'll give them a fight.

Every Saturday night in the Dublin pubs.

[auRa]

The Finnish national anthem basically goes "There's this country up north and we're really rather fond of it. Go Finland, we're all rooting for you!"

[TreacherousCretin]

"Star Spangled Banner" says to me that the American Flag is more sacrosanct than the land it represents.

.

[kidneyfailure]

China:

Get your ass up if you're not willing to let some dude walk all over you. We've got a shitton of people who all are of one heart and we can just walk right into the enemy's gunfire and not even give a shit.

[HazelNutCoffee]

Korea: Pretty mountains! Lovely oceans! Long live Korea!

[kidneyfailure]

Originally Posted by HazelNutCoffee

Korea: Pretty mountains! Lovely oceans! Long live Korea!

North Korea:

We're such a beautiful land and strong people and our culture has been around a long-ass time. Mountains, waves, countryside...we got all that shit, yadda yadda yadda. Korea will always be strong and rich.

Interestingly enough, there wasn't any reference to you-know-who.

[sisu]

We know strange words like girt.

Australia Girt by sea

[dhkendall]

My own personal national anthem goes like this:

"All praise to Mississippienne!
For she can create threads I can really get behind!
For I'm an anthematologist
Considered one of the leading ones in the world
(For some reason, don't ask me why)
Most of my free time is spent studying the anthems of the world
And seeing a Doper view of them
Is just fucking awesome!"

I am a nation of people who can't rhyme.

(You can see my views on over 400 national anthems at nationalanthems.info

[Zsofia]

Originally Posted by TreacherousCretin

"Star Spangled Banner" says to me that the American Flag is more sacrosanct than the land it represents.

.

Well, we used to use "My Country, 'Tis Of Thee", which is "I'm just talkin' bout America! Then we can dig it!" but that was embarrassing 'cause it's filk to "God Save the Queen". We had to come up with another one in a hurry.

[footballisplayedwithyourfeet]

Slovenia's really only says: let's all just get along!!

[matt_mcl]

I love the contrast between the civil and royal anthems of Denmark.

The civil anthem says: "Our country is really pretty, it has lots of trees, the people are good-looking, and Norse goddesses live here."

The royal anthem says: "King Christian beat the shit out of a lot of Swedish people so do not fuck with Margrethe the Second because she will fuck you up!!"

[Sunspace]

Originally Posted by trupa

(English version)
Canada, it's where we live and we really like it. God, watch out for it, and we'll watch out for it too.
(French version)
Canada, you can really fight & kick ass, but you're a good Christian too.

Yeah, I always found the French words disturbing. "Your arms know how to carry the sword and cross"? I am not a Christian, and refuse to bow to their cultural imperialism!

[Floater]

Sweden

The North (no mentioning of the country's name, it was written in a very pan-Scandinavian spirit) with its glorious past is, has always been and will always be, a nice place to live and to die in.

[Malthus]

Not a national, but rather a provincial anthem - I always loved the "message" of Farewell to Nova Scotia.

Basically, our country is sea-bound and dreary but I love it and I'm sad to leave to fight. My brothers are all dead, but they are better off than me - at least they have some peace!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farewell_to_Nova_Scotia

[dhkendall]

Originally Posted by footballisplayedwithyourfeet

Slovenia's really only says: let's all just get along!!

And have a drink!

(Well, the original verses of Preseren's poem say that, they didn't pick one of those lyrics for the anthem. Same with Germany's leaving out the verse about German wine and German women. Sheesh, people!)

[Sunspace]

Originally Posted by Malthus

Not a national, but rather a provincial anthem - I always loved the "message" of Farewell to Nova Scotia.

Basically, our country is sea-bound and dreary but I love it and I'm sad to leave to fight. My brothers are all dead, but they are better off than me - at least they have some peace!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farewell_to_Nova_Scotia

Well, if we want to get into subnational anthems, Ontario's is second only to Small Small World in sheer earworm mind-persistence.

A place to stand/
And a place to grow/
We call this land/
Ontario...

[matt_mcl]

Are Quebecers the only ones whose unofficial anthem doubles as a birthday song?

Originally Posted by Sunspace

Yeah, I always found the French words disturbing. "Your arms know how to carry the sword and cross"? I am not a Christian, and refuse to bow to their cultural imperialism!

Fun tip! If you sing the first two lines in French, the next four in English, and the last two in French, you neatly skip the God-bothering and those troublesome "native land" and "sons command" bits.

[HeyHomie]

Japan: The Emperor is awesome.

[matt_mcl]

Originally Posted by HeyHomie

Japan: The Emperor is awesome.

No, let's go for the full translation, because it's short and made of win: "May your reign last thousands and eights of thousands of generations until pebbles grow into boulders and grow moss."

[UncleRojelio]

Being from Texas, our state song might as well be a national anthem. It pretty much just says Texans are the best and screw you if you aren't from here.

( And no, those stupid bumper stickers declaring how you got here as fast as you could don't help.)

[Mississippienne]

Originally Posted by dhkendall

My own personal national anthem goes like this:

"All praise to Mississippienne!

YES, ALL PRAISE TO ME.

In other news, the Albanian national anthem seems to be saying: Y'wanna know how awesome Albania is? When all other nations are dead and gone, Albania will remain. That's right, ho: ALBANIA IS NUMBER ONE, ALL OTHERS ARE NUMBER TWO OR LOWER.

[kelly5078]

Star-Spangled Banner
Verse 1: Where da fwag? Where da pwetty, pwetty fwag? Where da fwag? Oh! There it is!
Verse 2: More of the same
Verse 3: Fuck England
Verse 4: Yeah, we bad.

[WordMan]

Originally Posted by Mississippienne

The Star-Spangled Banner, for example, seems to be saying, Dude, please tell me that our flag is still there. I wanna live as a revolutionary, not be executed as a rebel, for reals.

Since the SSB is based on an old British drinking song - I always get more of a "our flag is still there - let's drink!" kinda vibe...

[Kolga]

Isn't the gist of all national anthems pretty much "We rock, y'all don't (or at least, not as much as we do)"?

[kelly5078]

Originally Posted by WordMan

Since the SSB is based on an old British drinking song - I always get more of a "our flag is still there - let's drink!" kinda vibe...

Well, the song on which it's based isn't exactly "99 Bottle of Beer on the Wall." It's something Buzz Killington might sing.

[Martini Enfield]

Originally Posted by Mississippienne

In other news, the Albanian national anthem seems to be saying: Y'wanna know how awesome Albania is? When all other nations are dead and gone, Albania will remain. That's right, ho: ALBANIA IS NUMBER ONE, ALL OTHERS ARE NUMBER TWO OR LOWER.

For some reasons, I'm imagining this as being said by Ignignokt and Err from Aqua Teen Hunger Force and it's making me laugh.