"The Star Spangled Banner"

Hymne américain composé par Francis Scott Key en 1814. Woodrow Wilson demanda à ce qu'il soit joué dans les événements militaires en 1916 mais ne devint hymne national qu'en 1931 suite à une loi votée par le Congrès. Cet hymne national est composé de quatre strophes. En général, seule la première est chantée.


Oh, say can you see by the dawn's early light
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming ?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars thru the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming ?
And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof thru the night that our flag was still there.
Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?


On the shore, dimly seen through the mists of the deep,
Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses ?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,
In full glory reflected now shines in the stream:
'Tis the star-spangled banner! Oh long may it wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.



And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion,
A home and a country should leave us no more!
Their blood has washed out of of their foul footsteps' pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave'
From the terror of flight and the gloom of the grave:
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.



Oh! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved home and the war's desolation !
Blest with victory and peace, may the heav'n rescued land



Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: "In God is our trust."
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

Libre Echange 1998-1999