#892: O Canada
Nov. 4th, 2019 06:11 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lutheranhymnsHow is this a religious song?!?
It asks God to keep our/their land glorious and free, there you go.
How do Canadians feel about this?
Some of them are kind of against it. More controversial is "thy sons," for reasons of sexism; there's even an asterisk in this version that says "our lives" is an alternative, which I think is being more widely used.
Is there another verse in French?
Of course, French-Canadians get annoyed when there isn't a French equivalent.
Is the French translation verbatim?
No, they're pretty loose adaptations, so sometimes (eg at the Vancouver Olympics) people will borrow from both for phrasing. For instance, the last line in the French version is something about "...will protect our homes and our rights." The word for home is "foyers," so the mental image of Canadians trying to protect their front lobbies is pretty amusing.
What else happened at the Vancouver Olympics?
I didn't hear it, but apparently some of my online friends thought that the singer at the opening ceremony messed up the anthem so it sounded more like "O Canda" than "Canada." So whenever they won a gold medal someone would post in chat "Médaille d'OR CANDA."
...That was almost ten years ago, where has the time gone.
Anyway, through another round!
It asks God to keep our/their land glorious and free, there you go.
How do Canadians feel about this?
Some of them are kind of against it. More controversial is "thy sons," for reasons of sexism; there's even an asterisk in this version that says "our lives" is an alternative, which I think is being more widely used.
Is there another verse in French?
Of course, French-Canadians get annoyed when there isn't a French equivalent.
Is the French translation verbatim?
No, they're pretty loose adaptations, so sometimes (eg at the Vancouver Olympics) people will borrow from both for phrasing. For instance, the last line in the French version is something about "...will protect our homes and our rights." The word for home is "foyers," so the mental image of Canadians trying to protect their front lobbies is pretty amusing.
What else happened at the Vancouver Olympics?
I didn't hear it, but apparently some of my online friends thought that the singer at the opening ceremony messed up the anthem so it sounded more like "O Canda" than "Canada." So whenever they won a gold medal someone would post in chat "Médaille d'OR CANDA."
...That was almost ten years ago, where has the time gone.
Anyway, through another round!
