Rule, Britannia!
Wikipedia
Rule, Britannia är en brittisk hymn, ursprungligen ett poem av James Thomson (1700-1748), tonsatt 1740 av Thomas Arne (1710-1778) till maskspelet Alfred. Detta framfördes i Cliveden House, Maidenhead den 1 augusti 1740 inför prinsen av Wales, för att fira minnet av Georg I:s tronbestigning. Melodin blev så populär att den användes symboliskt i "Occasional oratorio" av Georg Friedrich Händel. Sången är översatt till svenska av C. V. A. Strandberg ("Dikter", 3:e uppl. 1854) och Carl Rupert Nyblom (i "Dikter från främmande länder", 1876).
Britannia var romarnas namn på de brittiska öarna.
[redigera] Engelsk Text
When Britain first at Heav'n's command
Arose from out the azure main;
This was the charter of the land,
And guardian angels sang this strain;
Rule, Britannia! Britannia, rule the waves:
Britons never will be slaves.
The nations not so blest as thee,
Shall in their turns to tyrants fall;
While thou shalt flourish great and free,
The dread and envy of them all.
Rule, Britannia! Britannia, rule the waves:
Britons never will be slaves.
Still mor majestic shalt thou rise,
More dreadful from each foreign stroke;
As the loud blast that tears the skies,
Serves but to root thy native oak.
Rule, Britannia! Britannia, rule the waves:
Britons never will be slaves.
Thee haughty tyrants ne'er shall tame,
All their attempts to bend thee down
Will but arouse thy generous flame;
But work their woe, and thy renown.
Rule, Britannia! Britannia, rule the waves:
Britons never will be slaves.
To thee belongs the rural reign;
Thy cities shall with commerce shine;
All thine shall be the subject main,
And every shore it circles thine.
Rule, Britannia! Britannia, rule the waves:
Britons never will be slaves.
The Muses, still with freedom found,
Shall to thy happy coast repair;
Blest Isle! With matchless beauty crowned,
And manly hearts to juide the fair.
Rule, Britannia! Britannia, rule the waves:
Britons never will be slaves.