It’s a wreck as a piece of music, but that’s not the point. Here are the lyrics, in case you want to get all fired up about quasi-socialist governments out to make a buck but not really let their people govern themselves.
The punctuation and capitalization is straight out of the Closing Ceremonies media guide. (They do love their exclamation points.)
“Arise! You who refuse to be born slaves!
“Let’s stand up and fight for liberty and true democracy!
“All the world is facing the change of oppression!
“Everyone who fights for freedom is now crying!
“Arise! Arise! Arise!
“All of us with one heart, with the torch of freedom, March On!
“With the torch of freedom, March On! March On! March On and On!â€
End of anthem.
That’s rich. “Freedom†and “true democracy.†Stop, you’re killing me.
3 responses so far ↓
1 David Kendall // Aug 24, 2008 at 5:08 PM
Actually, that’s quite a loose translation, more to fit the melody (and even that needs a little bit of a stretch) than anything (it’s nigh-on impossible to get an accurate translation of any anthem that also fits the melody). The words “freedom” and “true democracy” don’t appear in the more literal translation at my site on national anthems http://www.nationalanthems.info/cn.htm (but I’m not familiar enough with Chinese to know if they appear in the actual Chinese texts.) It does talk about refusing to be slaves (echoing the same sentiments from the famous Communist song “The Internationale”) which is ironic …
2 Mavis // Aug 24, 2008 at 11:57 PM
Now this is the version I heard as a child on the record album my father brought home !
All the versions at other sites did not sound familiar, but this one is right on!
3 John Zhu // Aug 25, 2008 at 4:49 AM
Here’s the translation from Wikipedia, which, as someone who does read Chinese, is much closer to the original meaning:
Arise! All who refuse to be slaves!
Let our flesh and blood (or perhaps better translated as “our bodies”) become our new Great Wall!
As the Chinese nation faces its greatest peril,
All forcefully expend their last cries.
Arise! Arise! Arise!
Our million hearts beat as one,
Brave the enemy’s fire, March on!
Brave the enemy’s fire, March on!
March on! March on! On!
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