I looked at the translations of some more national anthems,
particularly of those for which the translator can be assumed to be
based on a small corpus. In general, I have to concede that the Irish
have had some terrible luck - most translations aren't as bad as that
one.
However, I still found more evidence that odd translations of national
anthems are result of machine error, not malice. In the translation of
the Icelandic national anthem "Ó, guð vors lands! Ó, lands vors guð!"
to English (which is pretty awful, by the way), it for some reason
translates some full lines with "Hiduplah!" Since I never head that
"English" word before, I googled it, and found out it means "Long
live". In Indonesian. As in the Indonesian national anthem "Hiduplah
Indonesia Raya" - long live great Indonesia.
So, Seán, do some submitters have a very odd sense of humor? Or will
you admit that the translator can come up with weirder and more
surprising translations than you thought? :-D
(Also, I kind of hear echoes of Rick Astley in GT's translation of the
last verse of the Estonian anthem:
Watch the Sun God
my beloved homeland!
He either protect you
and take up a lot of blessing,
never gonna do that for you,
my dear homeland!)
