O, Canada
Ton histoire est une épopée des plus brillants exploits.
I have given this anthem the tag “French-Canadian.” Why tag the Canadian national anthem as “French-Canadian”? Because, in its origin, it was an entirely québécois production. It was composed a) at the behest of a French-Canadian Lieutenant-Governor of Québec, b) by a French-Canadian musician, c) with a French text written by a third French-Canadian. (See the Wikipedia article on the subject; see also this Canadian Government page on the composer and the lyricist. See also this even more informative page at AmeriqueFrançaise.org.)
As do most national anthems, this one tickles me with its gloriously vague, vaguely glorious wording. What (Christian) country would these words not apply to?
One does however note a certain balancing of the martial and the devout (épée…croix, valeur…foi)—perhaps meant as a symbol of the joining of the two linguistically different groups of colonizers? …One wonders what the words would have meant in the time and place they were written: 19th-century Québec.
Recordings abound online. Many people perform it, not excepting Céline Dion. This version is perfectly unobjectionable: O Canada
Compléments prépositionnels (or, The Many Uses of De)
In the lyrics to this song, de sometimes has its usual, boring function of linking two nouns together –
- terre de nos aïeux (land of our forefathers)
- une épopée / Des plus brillants exploits (an epic / Of the most brilliant exploits)
– but it also functions together with some past participles. Observe:
- Ton front est ceint de fleurons glorieux (Thy brow is girt with glorious flowerlets)
- Et ta valeur, de foi trempée (And thy valor, tempered with faith)
On these compléments prépositionnels (prepositional phrases used together with a verb form) you can consult Reduction of the Partitive Article Part IV (but it won’t explain very much).
French Lyrics (English Translation Follows)
O, Canada! terre de nos aïeux,
Ton front est ceint de fleurons glorieux.
Car ton bras sait porter l’épée,
il sait porter la croix.1
Ton histoire est une épopée
Des plus brillants exploits.
Et ta valeur, de foi trempée,2
Protégera nos foyers et nos droits,
Protégera nos foyers et nos droits.
French Lyrics With English Translation
| O, Canada! terre de nos aïeux, Ton front est ceint de fleurons glorieux. Car ton bras sait porter l’épée, il sait porter la croix. Ton histoire est une épopée Des plus brillants exploits. Et ta valeur, de foi trempée, Protégera nos foyers et nos droits, Protégera nos foyers et nos droits. |
O, Canada! Land of our forefathers, Thy brow is girt with glorious flowerlets. For thy arm knows how to bear the sword, It knows how to bear the cross. Thy history is an epic Of the most brilliant exploits. And thy valor, tempered with faith, Will protect our hearths and our rights! Will protect our hearths and our rights! |
In the Comments section below, Mr. Bernie Roehl has proposed a less archaizing translation.3 From his several versions I take the following (with slightly different punctuation):
O, Canada! Land of our ancestors,
You wear a garland of glorious flowers,
Because your arm knows how to carry the sword,
And it knows how to carry the cross.
Your history is an epic tale
Of the most brilliant adventures,
And your courage, strengthened by faith,
Will protect our homes and our rights!
Will protect our homes and our rights!
- What events, successive or simultaneous, in the history of Canada should we be thinking of here? ↩
- “Tempered,” in the sense that you harden a sword by dipping the hot metal into cold water. (The chief meaning of the French verb tremper is “to dip in a liquid.”) However, when sung, since “de foi” sounds exactly like “deux fois,” the phrase de foi trempée also sounds like “twice dunked.” ↩
- Regarding the archaisms, if I’m going to use the possessive form “thy,” I really ought to use the “-eth” 3rd-person singular verb ending as well: “For thy brow KNOWETH how to bear the sword, / It KNOWETH how to bear the cross.” ↩
I like the French version better then the English version. It’s more the truth on what this country was founded on.
I have always loved it.
It hasn’t been changed 3 or 4 times to accommodate entitled or special people.
If it were ever accepted to replace the ever changing English version, some would immediately want forefathers removed.
Needless (?) to say, “forefathers” (which occurs only in my [quite literal] translation of the French words [it corresponds to the form aïeux, which is masculine plural], not in the official English words) is meant to include any and all “foremothers.”
“French always uses the masc. plural when there are mixed sexes, so “aiëux” could be interpreted as male and female. I do realize that the word “ancêtres” exists, but I still do not see a need to change the original text.
I like amended gender based lyrics of our national anthem. Now it reflects the heart sound of every Canadian male and female.
How do you see the intended meaning of “Ton front est ceint de fleurons glorieux” Is it similar to a victor’s crown?
Yes. The victor, Canada en l’occurrence, is crowned with a garland.
Great job on the translation!
I have a few suggestions…
I would use “carry” instead of “bear” (since in English, “bear” can mean “endure” which is not what’s intended here.
I would use “Your” instead of the archaic “Thy”. I would use “covered” instead of “girt” for the same reason. I would use “home” instead of “hearth”, again for the same reason. I would use “courage” instead of “valor” for the same reason (or at least use “valour” instead of “valor”, eh?)
The version I grew up with uses “brilliante” instead of the second “glorieux”, which avoids repeating the word.
I would change “forefathers” to “ancestors” or possibly “forebears” since the original word is not gendered as far as I know.
I would change “exploits” to “adventures”, since “exploits” has negative connotations that make us sound like pirates.
And finally, there’s the question of “tempered”. It has two different meanings in English, and I think the one in the original is more like “strengthened” than like “moderated”.
So….
O, Canada! Land of our ancestors,
Your brow is covered with glorious flowers
For your arm knows how to carry the sword,
And it knows how to carry the cross.
Your history is an epic tale
Of the most brilliant adventures.
And your courage, strengthened by faith,
Will protect our homes and our rights!
Will protect our homes and our rights!
I’ve made another pass at it, adjusting where the sentence breaks are and tweaking some things. “Ceint” is really “encircled” (as in “ceinture” meaning “belt”) but I like the image of the garland. The arm and the sword connect to the idea of brilliant adventures more than to the garland (but I could see both alternatives).
I’ve used “strengthened” rather than the more correct “bolstered”, again with an eye towards keeping it accessible to modern audiences.
I’ve also changed “epic” to “epic tale”, since “epic” as a noun really only refers to feature films. Using “epic” as an adjective requires a noun, so I chose “tale”. I’ve heard some people translate épopée as “saga”, but that’s a word that I haven’t heard since… well, since the CBC did “The Forsyth Saga” years ago. :-)
Anyway, here’s another pass…
O, Canada! Land of our ancestors,
You wear a garland of glorious flowers.
Because you arm knows how to carry the sword,
And it knows how to carry the cross,
Your history is an epic tale
Of the most brilliant adventures.
And your courage, strengthened by faith,
Will protect our homes and our rights!
Will protect our homes and our rights!
Thanks for your suggestions and alternate translations (in this and your preceding comment). Your version is, I must say, much more natural than mine, and no doubt for most purposes preferable. My own version is meant to be as revelatory of the French as possible, in both syntax and word choice; also, since this is a national anthem, a genre that tends towards the vague and the grandiose, I have not eschewed old-fashioned choices (“thy,” “brow,” “girt,” “tempered,” “hearths”). Even within those parameters, however, “forefathers” and “thy” are hard to justify and would be better as “ancestors” and “your.”
If you permit, I will incorporate your version into the file.
Yes, please feel free to do so.
A friend pointed out that the second verse should stand by itself (I had joined them), the intent being “since your arm knows how to carry a sword, it (also) knows how to carry a cross”.
So the (final?) version would be…
O, Canada! Land of our ancestors,
You wear a garland of glorious flowers.
Because you arm knows how to carry the sword,
It knows how to carry the cross.
Your history is an epic tale
Of the most brilliant adventures.
And your courage, strengthened by faith,
Will protect our homes and our rights!
Will protect our homes and our rights!
Thanks. – Your friend’s interpretation of lines 3 and 4 is, strictly speaking, possible, but the juxtaposition of the two clauses could also imply complementarity, and that is what I take it to mean: “we are not only good fighters, we are also good Christians.”
Yes, I agree with your interpretation — I think it’s “Since your arm knows how to carry the sword, it also knows how to carry the cross”. It is, after all, the same physical pose. And as you pointed out much earlier, there’s the parallel between sword/cross and courage/faith.
I think the linkage to the preceding line (with its possible reference to a victory wreath) would make sense if it were “Et il sait porter la croix”, but without the “and”. I think the two lines about the sword and the cross are self contained and not (directly) connected to either a victory wreath or to brilliant adventures.
The English lyrics make use of thee and thy so I don’t see why they wouldn’t be appropriate in a translation of the French.
This is a great conversation. I found the English translation by the parliamentary translation bureau:
O Canada!
Land of our ancestors
Glorious deeds circle your brow
For your arm knows how to wield the sword
Your arm knows how to carry the cross;
Your history is an epic
Of brilliant deeds
And your valour steeped in faith
Will protect our homes and our rights,
Will protect our homes and our rights.
http://parl.canadiana.ca/view/oop.debates_HOC2602_11/458?r=0&s=1
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/O_Canada#cite_note-5
Thanks for the additional translation. I very much like “steeped.”
Thanks to Mad Beppo for starting the conversation and to everyone else for sharing their thoughtful suggestions about suitable English translations, traditional and contemporary.
We have to thank those who commissioned the original French-Canadian anthem. It is indeed original in lyrics and music and has stood the test of time.
Hi, I was just wondering if u could give me some info on this line:Ton front est ceint de fleurons glorieux.
Like the history and why people added that to the national anthem
Don’t know anything in particular about this particular line. I take it to be referring to the ancient practice of honoring great athletes or other heroes by crowning them with garlands (of leaves or flowers), such that “Ton front est ceint de fleurons glorieux” is equivalent to saying “You’re the greatest! You have won all the prizes!”
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Thanks!
Has anyone ever wondered how Indigenous peoples in Canada feel about the glorious exploits involving the sword and the cross? I can’t believe this is sung in schools still.
Bonjour/ hi,
Indigenous people might be offended by a few of these lines as might new immigrants as might atheists and non Quebecers.
The English Canadian lyrics have been altered to be inoffensive to all, but Quebec officialdom cares only the for descendants of old Quebec. They seem to be singing about the nation of old Quebec, certainly not about Canada.
I confess I had not considered what the lines “Il sait porter l’épée, / Il sait porter la croix” might imply, or be taken to imply, when viewed from an indigenous perspective. In the worst case, they could seem to be saying: “We’ll slaughter you—unless you act nicely and convert.” Hopefully that is not what the original lyricist meant. (I am inclined to think that the original meaning might rather have been: “We can defend ourselves when required, but like good Christians we can also bear up under adversity if required” [cf. ‘bearing one’s cross’]).
French colonizers of the Ancien Régime (i.e., pre-Revolutionary) are said to have had better dealings on the whole with North American indigenous peoples than other European nations did in the places they colonized (English, Spanish, Portuguese)—such, at any rate, is my vague impression. Can anyone who is well informed about the French implantation in North America comment on both points: How the French interacted with native North Americans, and what these lines of the anthem might actually be referring to?
Fleurons glorieux= fleurs de lys,French
Porter l’épée=military
Porter la croix= catholic religion, suffering
I think you are right about the significance of the “épée” and the “croix.” As for the “fleurons” being fleurs de lys, well, I gather the fleur de lys has, historically, been associated with French Canada (https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/fleur-de-lys), but the idea of lilies, or even stylized fleurs de lys, being used in a garland, seems strange to me. I gather fleurs de lys appear on some tiaras, but Iberian ones (http://orderofsplendor.blogspot.com/2013/02/tiara-thursday-fleur-de-lys-tiara.html). Of course, I suppose a metaphorical brow could be garlanded with any flower that seems symbolically appropriate. Here is the TLFi article on “fleuron”: http://www.cnrtl.fr/definition/fleuron.
Thanks for this. I never really understood the meaning of the French lyrics very well!
Merci beaucoup!
The Acadian French in Nova Scotia got along very well with the Mi’kmaq. They were allies against the English there, and depended on one another. Their was intermarriage between the two, and many if not most Acadians have Mi’kmaq blood in them. But the anthem comes from Quebec it seems. The Quebecois and Natives got along fairly well too, as they were fur trappers. I was told they cooperated regarding this.
Wield your sword has historical and Christian references but today can be figuratively interpreted: We are armed and ready to defend truth and love for our country. If you wield a tool or a weapon, you handle it effectively.
Literally to carry the cross could mean to deal with your burdens and problems. The lyrics of Oh Canada in French allude to the strong possibility they were written by Christians. In the Bible, Jesus carried a cross that has come to be symbolic of the world’s problems.
However the metaphorical meaning that applies to all is that to carry your cross means that you can sacrifice your own gain for the love of another. Sometimes you need to give up what you want to allow others to benefit and feel their needs are being addressed. Self-sacrifice is giving up something you want or something you desire for the greater good or to help others.
Ah so, and do you know where the “cross” really came from? It’s an old symbol invented during the many years of male dominance. And the symbolism is strictly all about male superiority, male sacredness, etc.
Cross: horizontal top short part – penis
Two vertical short parts – testes.
Bottom horizontal part – to hold symbol in processions and religious celebrations.
Very interesting discussion. I’m very traditional and don’t care for all the tampering of the English version at this time. The song as written and adopted is piece of our history.
Thank you. Of course, as I’m sure you realize, all the above attempts at translation are not meant as replacements of the official English lyrics, but simply as accurate renderings of the French.
And wonderful they are! I see no attempt to change lyrics
It has always bothered me that knowing how to hold a sword meant knowing how to hold a cross.
I am a lifelong atheist, and resist religious expressions, but even I know that Christianity is supposed to be a religion of love and peace. If it truly were, it would not glorify the sword as a prerequisite for the cross.
This part of the anthem is shameful.
I think that, in the anthem, bearing a sword and bearing a cross are meant to be essentially contrary alternatives, such that one is not a means to the other. However, I agree that the easy passage between them is disturbing, if, as is certainly possible, “to bear the cross” means to prosetylize. But what if “to bear the cross” simply means to endure suffering? (I really have no idea which interpretation is more likely.)
The French lyrics are more poetic and better express what an anthem should strive to stir at our nation’s emotional centre.