このコーナーでは、シアトル・マリナーズやメジャーリーグ野球観戦について皆さんが知りたいと思う一般的な質問におこたえしています。

試合開始前に歌われるアメリカ国歌の歌詞を教えて下さい。

メジャー・リーグでは試合開始前にアメリカ国歌 『The Star Spangled Banner』 が歌われます。開幕戦やオールスターなどでは有名歌手が歌うこともありますが、その他の試合は地元のコーラス・グループや学生が歌うこともあります。歌詞は普通スクリーンに表示されますので、暗記していなくても歌うことができます。また、歌わない場合も、国歌への敬意を表して起立・脱帽するのが一般的です。

<The Star Spangled Banner>

Oh, say can you see by the dawn's early light
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars thru the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming?
And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof thru the night that our flag was still there.
Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

On the shore, dimly seen through the mists of the deep,
Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,
In full glory reflected now shines in the stream:
'Tis the star-spangled banner! Oh long may it wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion,
A home and a country should leave us no more!
Their blood has washed out of of their foul footsteps' pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave'
From the terror of flight and the gloom of the grave:
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

Oh! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved home and the war's desolation!
Blest with victory and peace, may the heav'n rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: "In God is our trust."
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

また特別な場合には、国歌の前後、または7回途中の 『Take Me Out to the Ball Game』 のかわりに、『God Bless America』 が歌われることもあります。

< God Bless America >

God Bless America,
Land that I love.
Stand beside her, and guide her
Thru the night with a light from above.
From the mountains, to the prairies,
To the oceans, white with foam
God bless America, My home sweet home.

(2002年7月)

※回答内容は掲載時点のものであり、現状とは異なる可能性がありますので、あらかじめご了承ください。