Nuestro Himno

The recent controversy over the Spanish translation of the U.S. national anthem is silly. The words aren’t exactly the same, but what do you expect when you translate from one language to another? The sense of the song is still substantially the same. You can listen to it here, and following is a literal translation, with the original English lyrics presented for comparison.

The day is breaking, do you see it? In the light of the dawn? (Oh, say can you see, by the dawn’s early light)
What we so acclaimed at nightfall? (What so proudly we hailed at the twilight’s last gleaming?)
Its stars, its stripes, (Whose broad stripes and bright stars)
Flew yesterday In the fierce battle (Through the perilous fight)
In a sign of victory, (O’er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming)
The glow of battle, in step with liberty (And the rockets’ red glare, the bombs bursting in air)
At night they said: “It’s being defended!” (Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.)
Oh say! The voice of your starry beauty is still unfolding (Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave)
Over the land of the free, the sacred flag? (O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!)

It’s not exactly the same, to be sure, but the main sense of the poem is there. There is the reference to American defenders keeping the flag flying despite incredible odds, and the inspiration of seeing the flag flying despite a blistering military assault. You’ve got to allow some liberties in translation or the resulting work will be cumbersome and ugly.

The second verse of Nuestro Himno goes on to wax poetic about the value of equality. In this sense, it diverges from the inspration that Francis Scott Key felt after seeing the British assault on Fort McHenry repelled in the war of 1812. But, equality is an American virtue and it should be celebrated. I don’t understand why celebrating an American virtue is somehow unpatriotic. I think people are just startled by the idea that the anthem could be sung in a language other than English.

BFD, I say. Sure, I like to hear the anthem belted out by a singer with a big strong voice, like Whitney Houston at the Super Bowl, and of course as an English speaker I’m more comfortable with English lyrics. But that doesn’t mean that alternative arrangements of the song, and even a translation of it into a language other than English, isn’t t just as valid an expression of patriotism. The American national anthem is a symbol of America. It should be for all Americans.