US Anthem in Australian

This one gets me every time

I am Australian
I came from the dreamtime from the dusty red soil plains
I am the ancient heart, the keeper of the flame
I stood upon the rocky shore
I watched the tall ships come
For forty thousand years I'd been the first Australian

I came upon the prison ship bowed down by iron chains.
I cleared the land, endured the lash and waited for the rains.
I'm a settler.
I'm a farmer's wife on a dry and barren run
A convict then a free man I became Australian
I'm the daughter of a digger who sought the mother lode
The girl became a woman on the long and dusty road
I'm a child of the depression
I saw the good times come
I'm a bushy, I'm a battler
I am Australian

Chorus
We are one, but we are many
And from all the lands on earth we come
We share a dream and sing with one voice:
I am, you are, we are Australian
I am, you are, we are Australian

I'm a teller of stories
I'm a singer of songs
I am Albert Namatjira
I paint the ghostly gums
I am Clancy on his horse
I'm Ned Kelly on the run
I'm the one who waltzed Matilda
I am Australian

I'm the hot wind from the desert
I'm the black soil of the plains
I'm the mountains and the valleys
I'm the drought and flooding rains
I am the rock, I am the sky
The rivers when they run
The spirit of this great land
I am Australian

Chorus
We are one, but we are many
And from all the lands on earth we come
We share a dream and sing with one voice:
I am, you are, we are Australian
I am, you are, we are Australian

(pssst...don't forget to credit the writer dadpad )

Soggy Melbourne here! Nice to meet you! (shakes hands)

Like girt save our gracious queen, dadpad?

So many national anthems have that whole jingoistic thing in them, that "We're better than everybody else and we're going to kick the sh*t out of anybody who messes with us" feeling. Like "The Star Spangled Banner". Leads to cockups like the one we're playing out in Iraq now. Maybe every country should have an official anti-anthem that tells you what happens when the whole "give 'em hell" mentality kicks in. Eric Bogle, the singer-songwriter, was a peace activist in Scotland and in Australia, where he migrated thirty years or so ago, and he wrote a great anti-anthem we should all sing:

When I was a young man I carried my pack
And I lived the free life of a rover
From the Murrays green basin to the dusty outback
I waltzed my Matilda all over
Then in nineteen fifteen my country said Son
It's time to stop rambling 'cause there's work to be done
So they gave me a tin hat and they gave me a gun
And they sent me away to the war
And the band played Waltzing Matilda
As we sailed away from the quay
And amidst all the tears and the shouts and the cheers
We sailed off to Gallipoli

How well I remember that terrible day
How the blood stained the sand and the water
And how in that hell that they called Suvla Bay
We were butchered like lambs at the slaughter
Johnny Turk he was ready, he primed himself well
He chased us with bullets, he rained us with shells
And in five minutes flat he'd blown us all to hell
Nearly blew us right back to Australia
But the band played Waltzing Matilda
As we stopped to bury our slain
We buried ours and the Turks buried theirs
Then we started all over again

Now those that were left, well we tried to survive
In a mad world of blood, death and fire
And for ten weary weeks I kept myself alive
But around me the corpses piled higher
Then a big Turkish shell knocked me arse over tit
And when I woke up in my hospital bed
And saw what it had done, I wished I was dead
Never knew there were worse things than dying
For no more I'll go waltzing Matilda
All around the green bush far and near
For to hump tent and pegs, a man needs two legs
No more waltzing Matilda for me

So they collected the cripples, the wounded, the maimed
And they shipped us back home to Australia
The armless, the legless, the blind, the insane
Those proud wounded heroes of Suvla
And as our ship pulled into Circular Quay
I looked at the place where my legs used to be
And thank Christ there was nobody waiting for me
To grieve and to mourn and to pity
And the band played Waltzing Matilda
As they carried us down the gangway
But nobody cheered, they just stood and stared
Then turned all their faces away

And now every April I sit on my porch
And I watch the parade pass before me
And I watch my old comrades, how proudly they march
Reliving old dreams of past glory
And the old men march slowly, all bent, stiff and sore
The forgotten heroes from a forgotten war
And the young people ask, "What are they marching for?"
And I ask myself the same question
And the band plays Waltzing Matilda
And the old men answer to the call
But year after year their numbers get fewer
Some day no one will march there at all

Waltzing Matilda, Waltzing Matilda
Who'll come a waltzing Matilda with me
And their ghosts may be heard as you pass the Billabong
Who'll come-a-waltzing Matilda with me?

The bannana bender is of course correct.

I am Australian written by Bruce Woodley

Have a listen http://users.bigpond.net.au/aussieconnection/chorus.htm

I'd forgotten about Delta murdering the song at the AFL grand final last year. (Thats like the Oz version of superbowl)

......................."HYAM Australian "

Sometimes I wish tazers were leagal in such arguments.

Just listened to "I Am Australian". Now that's what an anthem should say.

Lesson No. 1 - Never, ever dare her to do what no man has done before!

English translation:

Cherry blossoms, cherry blossoms
As far as I can see across the March skyline
The fragrance is carried like the mist or the clouds.
Now, let us go to see them now.

Cherry blossoms, cherry blossoms
As far as I can see across the hills and valleys
Like the mist or the clouds the fragrance is carried
Into the morning sun.

Cherry blossoms, cherry blossoms
They are in full bloom.

*****

Strine translation:

Cherry blossoms, cherry blossoms!
You can't miss the flamin bastards.
The pong is playin havoc with me hay fever
If you wanna take a gander let's get it over with.

Cherry blossoms, damned cherry blossoms!
They're a friggin pestilence!
There's no escapin the bloody mongrels.
Where's me anti-histamine?

Cherry blossoms, miserable cherry bloody blossoms
Yeah, I'll admit lookin at them is not really hard yakka.

*****

I yield the floor to the better poets out there.

Talking of translations, when I looked up the English translation above, I came across this advertisement. (IT IS FOR REAL)

Old English Game Eggs For Sale.
I personally guarantee all eggs to be fresh and fertile.



*****
Username

For years now, whenever I hear final line of "The Ode" - "We will remember them" my mind automatically chimes in "And the band played Waltzing Matilda......"

I remember my great-aunt telling me she got a bill from the army for 7/6d, being the cost of the blanket they buried her only son in. She received that before she received notification that he had been killed.