SPANISH LYRICS

¡Oid mortales! el grito sagrado:
¡Libertad, Libertad, Libertad!
Oid el ruido de rotas cadenas:
Ved en trono a la noble Igualdad.
¡Ya su trono dignísimo abrieron
Las provincias unidas del Sud!
Y los libres del mundo responden:
¡Al Gran Pueblo Argentino Salud!
¡Al Gran Pueblo Argentino Salud!
Y los libres del mundo responden:
¡Al Gran Pueblo Argentino Salud!
Y los libres del mundo responden:
¡Al Gran Pueblo Argentino Salud!

CHORUS (three times)

Sean eternos los laureles
Que supimos conseguir.
Coronados de gloria vivamos
O juremos con gloria morir.

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ENGLISH TRANSLATION
 
Mortals! Hear the sacred cry;
Freedom! Freedom! Freedom!
Hear the noise of broken chains.
See noble Equality enthroned.
The United Provinces of the South
Have now displayed their worthy throne.
And the free peoples of the world reply;
We salute the great people of Argentina!
We salute the great people of Argentina!
And the free peoples of the world reply;
We salute the great people of Argentina!
And the free peoples of the world reply;
We salute the great people of Argentina!

CHORUS (three times)

May the laurels be eternal
That we knew how to win.
Let us live crowned with glory,
Or swear to die gloriously.


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Argentina
"Marcha de la Patria" (March of the Fatherland)

Words by:Vicente López y Planes
Music by:José Blas Parera
Adopted:1813

In 1812, Vicente López attended a play about the revolution that brought the
country independence two years earlier, the play concluded with an anthem sung
by the actors. López was inspired to write a proper anthem for the nation
instead of the one presented in the play, and it was approved by the
government. The composer of the music used in the play, Blas Parera, was asked
to compose the music for the anthem despite Parera's objections due to the
anti-Spanish lyrics and himself being a Spaniard. The stately nature of the
music, combined with its long length, make it similar in style to other anthems
of the area, a group of anthems I term "Latin_American_epic_anthems".

In the following years, the anthem underwent many modifications to tone down
the militaristic and anti-Spanish nature of the song. In a presidential decree
in 1900, it was declared that the first and last verses of the anthem as
adopted on March 11, 1813 (rather than the full original nine verses), would be
the official anthem, which remains to this day.
