So here they are:

quote:

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Joy, Oh ! divine scintillation
Sparkling from Elysium,
With a cheerful animation
Goddess, to thy shrine we come.

These our nations once divided
Now your magic spells unite,
Where your wing does beat around them
Brotherhood and love delight.

With a kiss bestowed on millions
Embraced in fraternity,
Let us build a world of union
And peace for all humanity.

---

The Council of European Ministers officially announced the European Anthem on January 19th 1972 at Strasbourg: the prelude to "The Ode to Joy", 4th movement of Ludwig van Beethoven's 9th symphony.

The first verse is as written by Friedrich von Schiller in German, and had to be rather clumsily translated in order to make it scan with the music. Also, they cleaned it up a little in English: The third and fourth lines actually say

"We enter, drunk with fire [or fiery rapture],
O heavenly one, your holy shrine."

but I guess "cheerful" is the English euphemism for "drunk."

Here's a better translation of the first verse (but it doesn't scan):

quote:

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Joy -- you beautiful spark of the gods,
you, daughter of Paradise --
we approach your heavenly grounds
drunk with fiery passion!

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[ 01 May 2004: Message edited by: Wilfred Day ]

quote:

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Originally posted by Mike Keenan:
A fine choice . . .

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Yes, although it reads a lot better in German, since poetry is notoriously hard to translate.

Which is an interesting bit of symbolism for the expanded EU: the 8 new eastern European member countries are all in the German orbit, bordering Germany or with other good reason to learn German as their second language.