Honduran National Anthem

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Source: flickr.com.

The "National Anthem of Honduras" (Spanish Himno Nacional de Honduras) was adopted under presidential decree 42 in 1915. The lyrics were written by Augusto Constancio Coello and the music composed by Carlos Hartling. In its entirety, the anthem is a brief chronology of Honduran history. The anthem consists of the chorus and seven verses. But, for official acts, only the chorus and the seventh are sung. The chorus, which is sung before and after the seventh verse, is a description of Honduras' chief national symbols, the flag and the coat of arms. The eighth verse, is a patriotic call to duty to Hondurans to defend the flag and the nation. By the time Hondurans complete their sixth year of elementary education, they will have memorized and been taught the meaning of all eight verses. Unofficially, the anthem is sometimes called "Tu bandera es un lampo de cielo" (Spanish for "Your flag is a splendor of sky") which is also the first line of the chorus.For Graduations in middle school, High school, University, or another type of graduation an exam will be done base on a questionnaire of the National Anthem.

National Anthem of Honduras (English translation)

Verse I

Indian maiden, virgin and beautiful you slept, Of your seas to the resonant song, When lying in your valleys of gold, The bold navigator found you; And on seeing your enrapturing beauty, To the inflowing ideal of your enchantment, The blue hem of your splendid mantle With a kiss of love blessed.

Verse II

From a country where the sun rises, Beyond the blue Atlantic, That man who had dreamt you In search of you he launched to sea. When you raised your pale forehead, In the lively anxiousness of your hope, Under the gentle dome of your sky Already floated a strange banner.

Verse III

It was useless that your beloved Indian Rushed into the fight with ire, Because, covered with his blood, Lempira, In the deep night he sank; And of the heroic deed, in memory, The legend alone has kept A sepulcher in a forgotten place, And the severe profile of a mountain peak.

Verse IV

For three centuries your children heard The imperious mandate of the master; For three centuries your useless complaint In the blue atmosphere was lost But one glorious day your ear Perceived, powerful and distant, That there, far away, over the Atlantic, Indignantly, a lion roared

Verse V

It was France, the free, the heroic, Which in its dreams of centuries slept, Awoke irate to life At the virile protest of Danton: It was France, who sent to the death The head of the consecrated King, And which built up proudly at its side, The altar of the goddess of Reason.

Verse VI

You also, oh my country!, arose From your servile deep sleep; You also showed the world Destroying the infamous shackle. And in your blessed soil, behind the tall Hair of the wild jungle, Like a bird of black feathers, The fleeting colony was lost.

Verse VII

To guard this divine emblem We shall march, oh fatherland, to the death; Our luck will be generous If we die thinking of your love. Defending your holy flag, And shrouded in its glorious folds, There will be many, Honduras, your dead, But all shall fall with honor.

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Anthem_of_Honduras

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