Rule Britannia

[mancity2012_eamo]

ná tusa

Tá Gaeilge maith agam.
Ach tá a lán caillte agam anois.

 

[ZenHalfTimeCrock]

The Cure did a song called “Killing An Arab”.

Serge Gainsbourg did a song with his daughter which was all about incest. Very weird song, worrying to a degree. But instantly forgettable and if some people like the song, then let them enjoy it.

Am I right in thinking that 'Killing an Arab' was inspired by Camus' The Outsider?

When it comes to Gainsbourg's Lemon Incest, Mick Harvey (formerly of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds) does an excellent version of that song.



Harvey has released 4 albums of Gainsbourg covers, which I am grateful for as I don't speak a word of French. The first - Intoxicated Man - is very good indeed.

With regard to Jerusalem (mentioned a few times in this thread), it's possibly quite a subversive song.

First of all, as far as I know, the 'Satanic Mills' might actually be the churches, which were colluding in the oppression of those who had to work in the actual mills. Although this may seem like something of a stretch, Blake was apparently unimpressed with the Christianity of his day and may have favoured a 'green and pleasant land' based on free love.

This possibility emerges in the third and fourth stanzas, which are full of what appears to be sexual imagery:

Bring me my Bow of burning gold:
Bring me my arrows of desire:
Bring me my Spear: O clouds unfold!
Bring me my Chariot of fire!

I will not cease from Mental Fight,
Nor shall my sword sleep in my hand

All this was explained to me by an English teacher I used to work with. He went to Oxford and was a serious devotee of both Blake and Shakespeare, so his interpretation is probably quite plausible.

Of course, Mark E. Smith was a huge admirer of Blake, and named The Fall after another Camus novel.

 

[Chris in London]

Tá Gaeilge maith agam.
Ach tá a lán caillte agam anois.

Labhraím Gaeilge mhaith freisin.
Ach tá iasc seasaithe agam inné.

 

[mancity2012_eamo]

Labhraím Gaeilge mhaith freisin.
Ach tá iasc seasaithe agam inné.

Iasc seasaithe?
There is a standing fish yesterday?

Interesting.

You know Amhrán na bhFiann was originally written in English and translated to Irish, if that’s any help.

 

[Chris in London]

Iasc seasaithe?
There is a standing fish yesterday?

Interesting.

You know Amhrán na bhFiann was originally written in English and translated to Irish, if that’s any help.

tá do sciorrárthach lán de mo eascanna

 

[mancity2012_eamo]

tá do sciorrárthach lán de mo eascanna

I see. Is this about fishing rights and Brexit?

 

[BlueMoonAcrossThePond]

@OP

 

[better dead than red]

 

[Bill Walker]

The British empire nothing to be proud of. Invade poor countries who cant defend themselves, then enslave them and kill/torture a lot of them.
Great.

 

[BrianW]

Maybe the best solution for a national anthem is just music with no words.