HISTORY THROUGH ANTHEMS
Russian Orthodox Liturgical Music
Bozhe, tsarya khrani! (God Save the Tsar) (1833) (Tsarist anthem)
1812 Overture (Piotr Tchaikovsky, debuted 1882)
La Marseillaise (1792) (French Revolutionary National Anthem; orig. "War Song for the Army of the Rhine")
Arise, children of the Fatherland,
The day of glory has arrived!
Against us the tyranny
The bloodied banner is raised.
The bloodied banner is raised.
Do you hear in the countryside
The roar of those ferocious soldiers?
They come right here among us
To slaughter our sons and wives!
To arms, citizens!
Form your battalions!
Let's march, let's march!
May a tainted blood
Irrigate our furrows!
To arms, citizens!
Form your battalions!
Let's march, let's march!
May a tainted blood
Irrigate our furrows!
What does this horde of slaves,
Of traitors and conspiring kings want?
For whom these vile chains
These long-prepared irons?
These long-prepared irons?
Frenchmen, for us, ah! What an insult,
What fury it must arouse!
It is us they dare plan
To return to the old slavery!
To arms, citizens...
The Internationale (1871 French revolutionary song, translated into Russian in 1902 and published in the Emigration)
Arise ye workers from your slumbers
Arise ye criminals of want
For reason in revolt now thunders
and at last ends the age of cant.
Now away with all your superstitions
Servile masses arise, arise!
We'll change forthwith [or henceforth] the old conditions
And spurn the dust to win the prize.Then come comrades rally
And the last fight let us face
The Internationale
Unites the human race. (repeat).We peasants, artisans and others,
Enrolled amongst the sons of toil
Let's claim the earth henceforth for brothers
Drive the indolent from the soil.
On our flesh for too long has fed the raven
We've too long been the vultures prey.
But now farewell to spirit craven
The dawn brings in a brighter day.Then come comrades rally
And the last fight let us face
The Internationale
Unites the human race. (repeat).No saviour from on high delivers
No trust we have in prince or peer
Our own right hand the chains must shiver
Chains of hatred, greed and fear.
Ere the thieves will out with their booty
And to all give a happier lot.
Each at his forge must do his duty
And strike the iron while its hot.Then come comrades rally
And the last fight let us face
The Internationale
Unites the human race. (repeat).
The Internationale (Billy Bragg version)
The Horst Wessel Song (Nazi anthem, written 1929)
Holy War (Sviashchennaia voina)
Arise huge country arise to the mortal fight
With the dark fascist force with the damned horde
Let noble fury boil up in a wave
There is a national holy war
Let noble fury boil up in a wave
There is a people's holy warWe shall repulse the suffocaters of all ardent ideas
Those tyrants, robbers, torturers of peoples
Let noble fury boil up in a wave
There is a people's holy warThe dark wings dare not fly over our native land
The enemy dare not trample her spacious fields
Let noble fury boil up in a wave
There is a people's holy warThe rotten fascist unclean
We will drive out with a bullet to the forehead
United with mankind we will hammer out a mighty coffin
Let noble fury boil up in a wave
There is a people's holy war
Let noble fury boil up in a wave
There is a people's holy war
God Save the Queen (first pubd 1744)
God Save the Queen (Sex Pistols)
God save the queen, a fascist regime
It made you a moron, a potential H bomb !
God save the queen, she ain't no human being
There is no future in England's dreaming.
Don't be told what you want, don't be told what you need
There's no future no future no future for you
God save the queen, we mean it man
We love our queen, God saves
God save the queen cos tourists are money
And our figurehead is not what she seems
Oh God save history, God save your mad parade
Oh lord God have mercy, all crimes are paid
When there's no future, how can there be sin
We're the flowers in the dustbin
We're the poison in your human machine
We're the future, your future
God save the queen, we mean it man
There is no future in England's dreaming
No future for you no future for me
No future no future for you
And did those feet in ancient time
Walk upon England's mountains green?
And was the holy Lamb of God
On England's pleasant pastures seen?And did the Countenance Divine
Shine forth upon our clouded hills?
And was Jerusalem builded here
Among these dark Satanic mills?Bring me my bow of burning gold:
Bring me my arrows of desire:
Bring me my spear: O clouds unfold!
Bring me my chariot of fire.I will not cease from mental fight,
Nor shall my sword sleep in my hand
Till we have built Jerusalem
In England's green and pleasant land.
And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda (1971)
When I was a young man I carried my pack
And I lived the free life of a rover
From the Murrays green basin to the dusty outback
I waltzed my Matilda all over
Then in nineteen fifteen my country said Son
It's time to stop rambling 'cause there's work to be done
So they gave me a tin hat and they gave me a gun
And they sent me away to the war
And the band played Waltzing Matilda
As we sailed away from the quay
And amidst all the tears and the shouts and the cheers
We sailed off to GallipoliHow well I remember that terrible day
How the blood stained the sand and the water
And how in that hell that they called Suvla Bay
We were butchered like lambs at the slaughter
Johnny Turk he was ready, he primed himself well
He chased us with bullets, he rained us with shells
And in five minutes flat he'd blown us all to hell
Nearly blew us right back to Australia
But the band played Waltzing Matilda
As we stopped to bury our slain
We buried ours and the Turks buried theirs
Then it started all over againNow those that were left, well we tried to survive
In a mad world of blood, death and fire
And for ten weary weeks I kept myself alive
But around me the corpses piled higher
Then a big Turkish shell knocked me arse over tit
And when I woke up in my hospital bed
And saw what it had done, Christ I wished I was dead
Never knew there were worse things than dying.
And no more I'll go waltzing Matilda
To the green bush so far and near
For to hang tent and pegs, a man needs two legs
No more waltzing Matilda for meSo they collected the cripples, the wounded, and maimed
And they shipped us back home to Australia
The legless, the armless, the blind, and insane
Those proud wounded heroes of Suvla
And as our ship pulled into Circular Quay
I looked at the place where me legs used to be
And thank Christ there was nobody waiting for me
To grieve and to mourn and to pity
And the band played Waltzing Matilda
As they carried us down the gangway
But nobody cheered, they just stood and stared
Then they turned their faces awayAnd now every April I sit on my porch
And I watch the parade pass before me
And I see my old comrades, how proudly they march
Reliving the dreams of past glory
And I see the old men, all twisted and torn
The forgotten heroes of a forgotten war
And the young people ask me, "What are they marching for?"
And I ask myself the same question.
And the band plays Waltzing Matilda
And the old men still answer the call
But year after year their numbers get fewer
Some day no one will march there at all.Waltzing Matilda, Waltzing Matilda
Who'll go a waltzing Matilda with me
And their ghosts may be heard as you pass the Billabong
Who'll come-a-waltzing Matilda with me?
O friends, no more these sounds! Let us sing more cheerful songs, more full of joy! Joy, bright spark of divinity, Daughter of Elysium, Fire-inspired we tread Thy sanctuary. Thy magic power re-unites All that custom has divided, All men become brothers Under the sway of thy gentle wings. Whoever has created An abiding friendship, Or has won A true and loving wife, All who can call at least one soul theirs, Join in our song of praise; But any who cannot must creep tearfully Away from our circle. All creatures drink of joy At nature's breast. Just and unjust Alike taste of her gift; She gave us kisses and the fruit of the vine, A tried friend to the end. Even the worm can feel contentment, And the cherub stands before God! Gladly, like the heavenly bodies Which He set on their courses Through the splendor of the firmament; Thus, brothers, you should run your race, As a hero going to conquest. You millions, I embrace you. This kiss is for all the world! Brothers, above the starry canopy There must dwell a loving Father. Do you fall in worship, you millions? World, do you know your creator? Seek him in the heavens; Above the stars must He dwell.
Karel Kryl, Dekuji (Thank You)
God has created, God has created a leafy branch
So I could string a garland
Thank you, thank you for the pain,
That makes me ask why
Thank you for failure
It teaches me diligence
So that I could bring a gift
Even if my strength dwindles
Thank you, thank you, thank you
Thank you, thank you for frailty
That teaches me humility
A humility that I can enjoy
A humility without bondage
For tears, for tears I am thankful
Because they teach me feeling
To people who inform against and in the same time are crying for compassion
Thank you, thank you, thank you
Because of the longing for the beauty
I thank you for ugliness
I thank you that they will fight
- the love and the grudge
Because of the sweetness of falling asleep
I thank you for tiredness
I thank you for lighting the fire
For the bubbling of a spring as well
Thank you, thank you, thank you
Thank you, thank you for thirst
Which revealed weakness
Thank you for torment
Which will improve creation
I thank you that I love
Even if the fear gripped my heart
Thank you Agnus Dei
You haven´t died in vain