The Star-Spangled Banner

The Star-Spangled Banner (engleski: Barjak iskićen zvijezdama) himna je Sjedinjenih Američkih Država. Stihove je 1814. napisao Francis Scott Key, na glazbu britanskog skladatelja Johna Stafforda Smitha iz 1780. godine. Smithova se skladba izvorno zvala "Anacreontic Song".

Jedna od dvije sačuvane kopije iz 1814. godine

The Star-Spangled Banner, inačica iz 1942. u izvođenju sastava Fred Waring and His Pennsylvanians

Skladba je postala američkom himnom 1931. godine. Izvodi se, između ostalog, prije profesionalnih sportskih priredbi u SAD-u. Možda i najpoznatija izvedba himne ona je Jimija Hendrixa na festivalu u Woodstocku.

Riječi na engleskom

Oh, say can you see, by the dawn's early light,
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars, through the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming?
And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.

O say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

On the shore, dimly seen through the mists of the deep,
Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, now conceals, now discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,
In full glory reflected now shines on the stream:

'Tis the star-spangled banner! O long may it wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion
A home and a country should leave us no more?
Their blood has wiped out their foul footstep's pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave:

And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

Oh! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved homes and the war's desolation!
Blest with victory and peace, may the heaven-rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: "In God is our trust."

And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!