The Top 10: Bizarre Lyrics of National Anthems
Bloodthirsty war cries and a 16th century poem in which the first letter of each verse spells out the name of the father of the nation
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Your support makes all the difference.Prompted by the World Cup, Stewart Wood suggested this list and offered the first. There is rather a lot of martial smiting and insulting of enemies, along with other oddities.
1. “Against the cynical malice in the shape / Of neo-colonialism and its petty local servants./ Many gave in and certain others resisted.” Burkina Faso, “Une Seule Nuit”. As Kevin Daly commented, all it’s lacking is: “Also, on some Thursdays it was quite windy / Which was not nice.”
2. “May he sedition hush, / And like a torrent rush, / Rebellious Scots to crush.” As David Sutherland said, “We don’t really need to look much further than our own national anthem for wacky lyrics, do we? I love ‘Frustrate their knavish tricks’ in verse two. Sounds a bit like sorting out a dodgy salesperson.” The final verse about General Wade crushing the Scots, now part of the nation to whom the anthem belongs, was also nominated by John Nicolson and Chris Fry.
3. “Let an impure blood / Water our furrows!” (Qu’un sang impur / Abreuve nos sillons!). The French one is no better, with its unhygienic chorus, nominated by J Skeaping.
4. “Poland has not yet perished.” As Jimmy S Chen pointed out, an unusually defensive opening line to the lyrics dating from 1806. Also namechecks Napoleon in verse two: “Bonaparte has given us the example / Of how we should prevail.”
5. “We knew thee of old, / O, divinely restored, / By the lights of thine eyes, / And the light of thy sword.” First of 158 verses of the Greek national anthem. (They don’t usually sing them all.) Thanks to Paul Ross.
6. “The king of Spain I have always honoured.” The end of the first verse of the Dutch national anthem, nominated by Tom Doran. It is a 16th-century poem in which William of Orange (ancestor of the one who became William III of England), leader of the revolt against the Spanish, struggles with his loyalty. It is an acrostic poem: the first letter of each stanza spells “Willem van Nassov”, an old variant of Nassau, one of his other titles. Thanks to Arieh Kovler.
7. “We are soldiers in revolt for truth / And we have fought for our independence. / When we spoke, nobody listened to us, / So we have taken the noise of gunpowder as our rhythm / And the sound of machine guns as our melody.” Algeria, suggested by John Oxley.
8. “King Christian stood by the lofty mast / In mist and smoke; / His sword was hammering so fast, / Through Gothic helm and brain it passed.” Denmark. The usual, with a Tolkienesque flavour. Denmark has two anthems of equal status: this is the first verse of the royal anthem (English translation by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow). “Note that ‘Gothic’ here refers to the Swedes, after Gothenland in south Sweden,” said Dan Jackson.
9. “The Austrian eagle / Has lost his plumes. / This eagle that drunk the blood / Of Italy and Poland, / together with the Cossack.” Italy, nominated by Tomsk and Alastair Warner. (And the chorus: “Let us form a cohort, We are ready to die! We are ready to die!”)
10. “Diamonds they are pretty / So is your fancy cars / But St Helena island / Is prettier by far.” St Helena has “God Save the Queen” officially, but also “My Saint Helena Island”, said SmChrl. It is “a jaw-dropping country and western pastiche, apparently written by a DJ who’d never been there, but had seen a postcard.” Thanks to the St Helena Island Information Twitter account for the lyrics.
According to Wikipedia, via PD Anderson, four national anthems have no official lyrics: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, San Marino and Spain. “Not that this stopped World Cup commentators noting the lack of enthusiasm among the Spanish team for singing along,” said Chris Bowles.
Next week: It’s the summer holidays, so it’s time for Top 10 Twitter jokes
Coming soon: Places with more famous places named after them, such as Melbourne, from Derbyshire to Australia via British prime minister Lord Melbourne
Your suggestions please, and ideas for future Top 10s, to me on Twitter, or by email to top10@independent.co.uk
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