28 April 2006

"Our Anthem": Translating the Star Spangled Banner

My first question is: "They JUST NOW translated the Star Spangled Banner" into Spanish! I actually cannot believe that. But for the sake of argument, let's consider the ramifications.
First there is the whole issue of translating important documents. Mistakes can occur and cause major problems. When the Christian Bible was translated from its original into Latin, the "sins" of Sodom and Gomorrah changed from being bad hosts (not properly welcoming travelers is a cardinal sin across the middle east) to being sexually "deviant". Generations of homosexuals have been beaten, imprisoned and tortured due to a faulty translation. Likewise Mary, mother of Jesus and wife of Joseph was originally described as "young" - NOT a virgin. Then when King James got HIS hands on it... Well, enough said. We must be careful translating important documents.
I CAN understand why some people are opposed to translating the Star Spangled Banner into any other language, ESPECIALLY Spanish. First, it sets a bad precedent. Next some do-gooder liberal will translate the Bill of Rights into Spanish and when all those Mexicans find out they have RIGHTS, well, we'll ALL be in trouble. And then OTHER things might be translated into Spanish. For instance, the Bible. If English is good enough for God its good enough for immigrants. And if someone translated the ORIGINAL books of the Bible, so that immigrants knew what the authors really wanted to say while we all only have a medieval king's version of God's word's translated from a translation of a translation- WE SIMPLY CANNOT ALLOW A "TRANSLATION GAP" in favor of immigrants. They need to learn the same flawed translations WE use.
Secondly translating the Star Spangled Banner into other languages may give a little too much away. The US has a bad reputation worldwide right now because we are seen as violent and warmongers. Once it becomes common knowledge that our national anthem is about war - and that the only other war themed national anthem was that sung by the Germans as they marched to conquer the world in WWII- our problem can only get worse.
SERIOUSLY, I am grateful to anyone who sincerely tries to honor our nation, our traditions and our history. If singing "Our Anthem" in Spanish makes Hispanic immigrants feel the same sense of pride in America that I feel when I sing "the Land of the Free, and the Home of the Brave" this can only be a good thing. Yes, they should learn it in English. But until they can, lets ALL sing together regardless of language.

3 Comments:

Blogger pilgrimchick said...

There is no reason why it should not have been translated into Spanish. Just because there are Spanish folks here in the US DOES NOT MEAN they are ALL illegal immigrants. That, to me, is a HUGE bias--Hispanic automatically equaling illegally in this country. Did we ever think that there are folks here from other countries LEGALLY? And that they deserve to hear and understand the National Anthem like everyone else? In the spirit of America, a place where there are so many languages and cultures combined, it would be a better gesture to translate the anthem into a variety of languages, like Chinese or Portuguese, for example.

30/4/06 19:49  
Blogger Liberal Thought in SW Michigan- NOT Dead Yet! said...

I simply want to agree with you, Siskenyon

19/5/06 18:12  
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