Amhrann na bhFiann/A Soldier's song

Hairy Homer

Many people have said they know the Irish National Anthem in Irish, but not in English. I suspect that they, as I, were never taught the English version in school. There's a reason for that: — it's ****e.

Get a load of these words. Bet you never knew there was a word that rhymed with Ireland.

A Soldier's Song
Soldiers are we whose lives are pledged to Ireland
Some have come from a land beyond the wave
Sworn to be free, no more our ancient sireland (Aarrrghhh!!!!)
Will shelter the despot or the slave
Tonight we man the bearna baoil
In Ireland's cause come woe or weal
Mid rifle's roar and cannon's peal
We will sing a soldier's song.


Mind you. Most national anthems are crap, if not verbally, then certainly musically. Of the anthems whose tunes I know, only the Welsh, French, German and South African (the new one, not the old Boer one) have anything to recommend them.

Have you ever heard Advance Australia Fair? Now that has got to be the worst, both lyrically and musically.

Nothing against Australians. I love them to death, but Jesus, what a crap national anthem.

sceptre

Russian anthem kicks ass. No idea who wrote it but it's pretty brilliant.

wrt the American anthem, Bill Bryson has a section in Made in America about it, explaining the origins of the crap poem that makes up the words. (he's actually pretty sarcastic about it)

And afaik a few different countries /regions (not just former/current colonies) use the same tune as God Save the King/Queen.

Here's a nice link to the full Irish anthem words (including the verses). That'll teach the nasty Saxon!

Peadar Kearney (who wrote the anthem words and co-wrote the music) also wrote , er, .Whack Fol the Diddle Bet his mother was proud of that one.:D

stevoslice

Flower of scotland is class,

IrishGuykokoJin

Cambodia and Cost Rica have very good Tunes.

Well I like them.

I've seen the words translated and it doesn't work.


The Problem is the translation, when the original melody n words are translated to English, the Song seems crap.

The English language simply doesn't work with these types of Anthem.

JacquesPompidou

The Translation is intresting but stop it please.

Many people bands, music writers, have tried Translating French and Spanish songs directly into English, but to no avail.
Compared to Italy Brazilians or Spanish The English langauge is less Miditerranean and less Latino and more Germanic.
When many of these songs were translated the tunes lost their style and Rhythm, the English langauge was too flat and harsh for the songs.

English like German is a Dour & Flat language.

TacT

ahh c'mon this is like me trying to enjoy the pathetic voices of the simpsons which are replaced with the originals on french tv! Although I have perfect French, I cannot enjoy the simpsons/south park or anything I've already seen in English on French tv, Why? I dunno, don't ask me to start a philosophical debate with myself, I'll get confused. That would be well beyond the reaches of my primitive grey matter and last time the doctor checked he said it wasn't grey anymore, should I be concerned?

Am I in the right thread?

Jacques - You wouldn't happen to think that english is flat and dour because you grew up learning another language?

Have you tried translating any catchy English tune into one of these oh so beautiful languages? It's just not the same is it?
Oh maybe there language is the flat and dour one? :rolleyes:

Although maybe it is to you, you could explain to me why the leading actor in Miss Saigon said she loved the Irish accent (spoken in English) in a review in one of this mornings/yesterdays papers?

PyjamaMan

Originally posted by Hairy Homer


Sworn to be free, no more our ancient sireland (Aarrrghhh!!!!)

version i have its "no more our ancient island"


"Mid rifle's roar and cannon's peal"
this part is mid "cannons" roar and all our rifles peel

JacquesPompidou

Very very true. I agree most words, idioms, jokes phrases simply don't translate correctly. I'll try to explain what I think on this matter.


As Homer attacks Bart>>> ( Bart choking )saying "Douh why you little..Bart: ughhh"


Spanish translation>>
Homer:
You slimy Little Mongrel....
Bart: Ughhh


Italian:
Homer: Bart I'mma gonna kill you now
Bart: Ughhh

Other Countries simply have a different sense of humour and wouldn't understand "Dough..Why YOU LITTLE **...>>>> Bart in Pain: Ughhh


I hope this post made some sense.

ykt0di9url7bc3

wow, thats like whole worlds of humour that i'll never expierence due to my upbringing


our national anthem is class, but is better left in Irish

Shinji

Although I have perfect French, I cannot enjoy the simpsons/south park or anything I've already seen in English on French tv, Why?

Nothing ever sounds as good dubbed as it did in the original. Obviously this applies to live action - Hong Kong movies are an obvious example, being uniformly awful in dub form - but animation suffers just as much. At the end of the day, when voice actors are doing the recording for an animated series originally, the director of the series is in the studio with them, guiding them on intonation etc the same as a director of a live action show would. When it comes to dubbing into another language, though, the actors tend to be doing it as a quick buck between other work, they show up, read the lines and go home...

po0k

The Russian national anthem kicks serious ass allright.
Tis played in the background of the Operation Flashpoint install routine, with voice overs from Kennedy during the Cuban Missile crisis and a few russian voice-overs too.
Very nice stuff.
Googling for the lyrics right now.

Taking forever for some reason....

po0k

http://www.funet.fi/pub/culture/russian/lyrics/political/SovietUnionNationalAnthem_RedArmyChorus.mp3

http://www.funet.fi/pub/culture/russian/html_pages/soviet.html

Celt

I have the soviet national anthem from the Hunt for Red October.
Rocks.

Belisarius

Russian one is fairly good all right , for a national anthem ,which are hardly riveting at the best of times unless your one of those people who taking Patriotism/nationalism to rediculous extremes , Anyhow someone the guy who wrote it is Alexander V Alexandrov *Serious* , As far as I know it was the Soviet one originally , and was dropped when the USSR dissolved , Only taken back last year because the new one was supposedly naff

Mercury_Tilt

This post has been deleted.

Mossy Monk

i remember that and i think you're 100% correct. my favourite sounding anthem is the Welsh one

cujimmy

Flower of scotland is class,

Although "Flower of Scotland" is not a traditional song, it has been adopted as Scotland's de facto national anthem, along with "Scotland the Brave