
May she rest in peace. 願她安息。
73歲的查爾斯王子也以「查爾斯三世」的正式頭銜繼位為英國國王。 在新聞裡一直看到的一句話就是--God save the Queen/King。
那God save the Queen/King是什麼意思呢?
“God Save the King” or “God Save the Queen” is the national or royal anthem in most of the 15 Commonwealth realms, their territories, and the British Crown Dependencies. The lyrics and song titles vary according to the gender of the monarch. For example, “King” in the lyrics is changed to “Queen” when a female monarch is in power.
《天佑國王》(God Save the King)或者《天佑女王》(God Save the Queen),是大英國協王國與英國皇家屬地作為國歌或皇家禮樂所使用的頌歌。歌詞與歌名隨當朝君主的性別而有所改變。例如,女性君主在位時,歌詞中的「國王」則會改成「女王」。
The origins of the British national anthem are not clear. Although the phrase ‘God save the King, Long live the King’ goes back to Saxon times, the verses of the song came much later. What came first was the melody, which itself possibly came from a Tudor plainsong or chant. Dr John Bull, a famed English organist living in Belgian, was found to write the earliest musical manuscript of the song in 1619 .
英國國歌的起源已不可考。雖然「天佑國王,吾王萬歲」這句話可追溯至撒克遜時代,但這首歌的歌詞卻頗為晚出。最先出現的是旋律,可能是都鐸王朝的教堂音樂(素歌,plainsong)或聖歌。現存最早的音樂手稿,則是由居住在比利時的著名英國管風琴家約翰.布爾博士(Dr. John Bull)於1619年前後所撰寫。
歌詞第一段為:
God save our gracious King/Queen! 天佑吾王/后,
Long live our noble King/Queen! 願他/她萬壽無疆,
God save the King/Queen! 天佑國王/女王!
Send him/her victorious, Happy and glorious, 常勝利,沐榮光; 孚民望,心歡暢;
Long to reign over us, God save the King/Queen. 治國家,王運長; 天佑國王/女王!
No matter what your thoughts are on monarchy (as a form of government), let us pay respect to a great queen and the end of an era, and may the king who succeed her follow in her example to provide Britain with stability and strength. God save the king.
無論你對君主制的觀點為何,都讓我們向這位偉大的女王致敬,向一個時代的終結致敬,願繼任的國王以她為榜樣,為英國人民帶來安定與力量。天佑吾王。
Some of you might wonder why it is “God Save the Queen” and not “God Saves the Queen.” The subjunctive mood is used here because the sentence is expressing a hope that God will protect the Queen. The national anthem, God Save the Queen, is therefore used to express a blessing, a wish, and not a statement which states the truth. In fact, many familiar blessing phrases in English are in the subjunctive mood. Consider the phrase, “God bless you”, “Long live the King” or “God be with you” We may find that such phrases are mostly fixed idiomatic expressions.
可能會有一些同學想知道,為什麼是「God Save the Queen」而不是「God Saves the Queen」。這裡其實是用了虛擬語氣,因為這句話表達了希望上帝保護女王的希望。因此,國歌「天佑女王」是一種祝福,一種願望,而非真理的宣示。事實上,在英語裡,有許多我們所熟悉的祝福短語,都是虛擬語氣。好比「上帝保佑你」、「國王萬歲」和「上帝與你同在」,我們可能會發現這些慣用語的表達方式多固定不變。
更多虛擬語氣例句:
https://bit.ly/3eA59ii
https://www.grammarly.com/blog/english-subjunctive-what-is-it/?
https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/getting-in-the-subjunctive-mood