Tu bandera es un lampo de cielo
|
|
"Tu bandera es un lampo de cielo" ("Your Flag Is A Heavenly Light") is the national anthem of Honduras. Adopted the 1915, the words are by Augusto Constancio Coello and the music is by Carlos Hartling.
The Honduran National Anthem is in its entirety a brief Chronology of Honduran history. The history of a tiny but proud country whose modern history, redefined and shaped by Europeans is also influenced by those inhabitants that preceded them. Chief amongst them we find the Maya Civilization, or the Greeks of the new world. Today Hondurans proudly reach back to this Maya heritage and also to the Spanish language, culture and religion heritage to define ourselves as individuals and as a nation.
The national anthem is made of eight verses, the first being the chorus, which is an allegoric description of the Honduran chief national symbols, the Honduran flag and the Honduran coat of arms. The eight verse is a patriotic call to duty to all Hondurans to defend flag and country even if it means paying the ultimate sacrifice, making a pledge that if it were to come to pass all the fallen will do so willingly and with honor. These two verses are the only ones sung at official acts, with the chorus opening, followed by the eighth verse, and a last repetition of the chorus. All Hondurans come to memorize, sing, and understand the meaning of the national anthem in its entirety by the time they exit their sixth grade of elementary education.
A summary of the meaning, not a direct translation, of each of the verses follows:
- Chorus:
Allegoric description of the Honduran Flag and Honduran coat of arms. The Honduran flag is revered and valued because it reminds us of the old federation's flag, our first country, and its five states Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Costa Rica. Like the union flag it has two blue bands with a white one in the middle, with five stars in a rectangular pattern with one in the middle. " Your flag is a swath of (blue) sky, crossed by a block of snow (white), and it can be seen in its sacred background, five (pale) light-blue stars! Central American union runs deep in the honduran collective memory". Two honduran national heroes Jose Cecilio del Valle, and Francisco Morazan dedicated their lives to create our country (the federation) defend it, and in the case of Morazan fought to hold it together to no avail.The remainder of the verse goes on to describe the coat of arms and the meaning of each of its features, two oceans, equilateral triangle (equality), cornucopias meaning abundance, mountains and forests simbolizing our resources, and date of indepence, among others.
- Verse 1:
Describes America, our continent, as Christopher Columbus, the audacious navigator, would have seen her, as a beautiful Indian, virgin (untouched, unspoiled), on all her riches and gold vanes, fast asleep to the murmur of the two oceans that bathed her.
- Verse 2:
Tells us of a country where the sun rises beyond the Atlantic ocean (Spain) and of a man that had dreamt of her (America, the continent) and how to search for her He set out to sea. One day As America, the virgin continent, awoke full of anxiety and wonder it noticed a strange flag( the Spanish flag) already flying under her skies. This is when Christopher Columbus took possession of American lands on behalf of the Spanish Crown. This is Important for Hondurans as the first Mass on the continent mainland was celebrated on what is today Honduran territory, in the Caribbean coast.
- NOTE:
Also, soon after leaving this area, legend has it Columbus expedition was caught in a ferocious storm at sea, and not until they turned what is Cape "Gracias a Dios" were they safe. Columbus credited with saying "Gracias a Dios que hemos salido de estas honduras", translated as "Thank God that we have gotten out of these depths", immediately named our territory (Honduras, which means depths) and the cape (Gracias a Dios, Thanks God!). To this day Honduras is raged by ferocious and lethal storms, most recently Hurricane Mitch in 1998 which killed about 10,000 people, and Huracán Fifi 1974. Two of the deadliest storms in the last two centuries.
- Verse 3:
This verse speaks of how futile the courageous attempts of the native population of the American continent were in resisting Spanish conquest. It remember how our first Honduran hero, an Indian chief named Lempira succumbed in the depths and darkness of night fighting, dying as part of this struggle against the conquerors of our lands. It tells us of how we today know of the legend of Lempira's feats, and the exact geographic location of his death, but not the exact location of his tomb or burial ground. This verse epitomized the Indian struggle against the Spanish.
- Verse 4:
This verse speaks of how for three centuries the new lands were dominated by their masters and how during this time all complains were futile and lost "in the sky" (fell to deaf ears). But one glorious day came when the new lands heard " a powerful lion roaring" over the Atlantic ocean. The winds of change sweeping through Europe had reached the colonies in the American continent.
- Verse 5:
This verse identifies the roaring Lion as France, "it was France, the free, the heroic one?, which was awoken after centuries of sleep by the philosophers of the age of reason. The French revolution professing liberty, equality, and fraternity for all humanity had taken place. The philosopher Danton is credited with being one of those instigating change in France and as result its monarchy being deposed and its king being decapitated, all in the name of [the age of] "reason" . "Reason" reaching an almost godlike standing in that epoch. This event served as inspiration for the new inhabitants of the colonies which embraced them to justify claim to their rights before the Spanish crown.
- Verse 6:
Speaks of the fatherland also embracing revolution and rising up like the other Spanish dominions and breaking off its ties to the Spanish crown. This events were precipitated by Mexico declaring its independence from Spain in 1821. The General Captaincy of Guatemala which was comprised of all of central America (Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica) and Chiapas followed suit declaring indepence as result of popular demands amongst the population. With this, three centuries of Spanish rule came to an end. This gave birth to what are today the five republics of central America as independent and sovereign nations (first joined together as one nation in a federation that only held until 1838 when it disintegrated).
- Verse 7:
A call to arms to defend the national symbols and fatherland, as explain earlier.
Lyrics
- CHORUS:
- Tu bandera es un lampo de cielo
- Por un bloque, de nieve cruzado;
- Y se ven en su fondo sagrado
- Cinco estrellas de pálido azul;
- En tu emblema que mar rumoroso
- Con sus ondas bravías escuda,
- De un volcán, tras la cima desnuda
- Hay un astro, de nítida luz.
- Verse 1
- India virgen y hermosa dormías
- De tus mares al canto sonoro,
- Cuando echada en tus cuencas de oro
- El audaz navegante te halló;
- Y al mirar tu belleza extasiado
- Al influjo ideal de tu encanto,
- La orla azul de tu espléndido manto
- Con su beso de amor consagró.
- Verse 2
- De un país donde el sol se levanta,
- Mas allá del Atlante azulado,
- Aquel hombre que te había soñado
- Y en tu busca a la mar se lanzó.
- Cuando erguiste la pálida frente,
- En la viva ansiedad de tu anhelo,
- Bajo el dombo gentil de tu cielo
- Ya flotaba un extraño pendón.
- Verse 3
- Era inutil que el indio tu amado
- Se aprestara a la lucha con ira,
- Porque envuelto en su sangre Lempira,
- En la noche profunda se hundió;
- Y de la épica hazaña, en memoria,
- La leyenda tan sólo ha guardado
- De un sepulcro el lugar ignorado
- Y el severo perfil de un peñón.
- Verse 4
- Por tres siglos tus hijos oyeron
- El mandato imperioso del amo;
- Por tres siglos tu inútil reclamo
- En la atmosfera azul se perdió;
- Pero un día gloria tu oído
- Percibió, poderoso y distante,
- Que allá lejos, por sobre el Atlante,
- Indignado rugía un León.
- Verse 5
- Era Francia, la libre, la heroica,
- Que en su sueño de siglos dormida
- Despertaba iracunda a la vida
- Al reclamo viril de Dantón:
- Era Francia, que enviaba a la muerte
- La cabeza del Rey consagrado,
- Y que alzaba soberbia a su lado,
- El Altar de la Diosa razón.
- Verse 6
- Tú también, ¡oh mi patria!, te alzaste
- De tu sueño servil y profundo;
- Tú también enseñastes al mundo
- Destrozado el infame eslabón.
- Y en tu suelo bendito, tras la alta
- Cabellera del monte salvaje,
- Como un ave de negro plumaje,
- La colonia fugaz se perdió
- Verse 7
- Por guardar ese emblema divino,
- Marcharemos Oh Patria a la muerte,
- Generosa será nuestra suerte,
- Si morimos pensando en tu amor.
- Defendiendo tu santa bandera
- Y en tus pliegues gloriosos cubiertos,
- Serán muchos, Oh Honduras tus muertos,
- Pero todos caerán con honor.
External link
- MIDI sound file (http://www.hondurasemb.org/anthem.mid)de:Tu bandera es un lampo de cielo