LII

 

Ez al ziran ingelesak, gure arbasoak, ingelesagoak ere

   Beren oinetatik autsa astinduaz, aserrean,

Bere legez Jainkoa gurtzeko,

   Betirako, bazter baten billa joanak.

Ezin ingelesagoak bere aurka egitera

   Ausartu ziranean baño —biotz-gogor,

Erabilgaitz biozkada ori

   Iñork eraman ezin duna ta aske izan,

Idatziaz: “Gizagertakizunen bidean...”

   Orrela, mundu guztiak ikusi zezan

Agintari zuzen guztien indarrak nondik datozten.

   Askatasunaren zuaitza aunditu, aldatu,

Ta zabaldu. Bañan azia, ingelesa.

                                               Amerikatarra naiz,

Gorrotagarri asko ikusi det emen — barkagarri asko,

Bañan Ingeleterra bukatu ta ila dagon munduan,

Mundu orretan, ez det nai bizi.

 

 

 

LII

And were they not English, our forefathers, never more / English than when they shook the dust of her sod / From their feet for ever, angrily seeking a shore / Where in his own way a man might worship his God. / Never more English than when they dared to be / Rebels against her—that stern intractable sense / Of that which no man can stomach and still be free, / Writing: ‘When in the course of human events...’ / Writing it out so all the world could see / Whence come the powers of all just governments. / The tree of Liberty grew and changed and spread, / But the seed was English. / I am American bred, / I have seen much to hate here—much to forgive, / But in a world where England is finished and dead, / I do not wish to live. //  /