瑞士會有新國歌嗎？

The Swiss have plenty to be proud about. Their 2）majestic mountains and low taxes. But their Swiss national anthem？ Who’s ever heard of that？

Hubert Sperli： （via translator） I think that’s it’s internationally very well thought of. I once heard a German reporter saying before a ski 3）tournament，“Listen to that anthem. It’s really lovely.”

Hubert Sperli defends each and every verse as if it was his country itself. He’s determined to stop the national anthem being 4）tinkered with. But how popular is the anthem with the Swiss people in general？ We conduct a small survey in Zurich city centre.

Q： （via translator） Do you know the words？

Woman A： （via translator） Of course.

Q： （via translator） How does it go？

Woman B： （via translator） I don’t know it by heart.

Woman A： （via translator） I wrote it down at home.

In fact， the anthem isn’t such a big hit， not like Swiss army knives， Swiss clocks， and watches， and Swiss cheese. There are even Swiss people who think that their anthem is positively out of date.

Man： （via translator） The lyrics were actually written in 1840， and they use images that are no longer in current linguistic usage.

That’s why the Swiss Welfare Society decided to launch a country-wide song contest. And the public were asked to choose their favorite from six new proposals.

But Swiss rock musician Kris von Huoh is skeptical. He likes the fact that the current anthem is so in touch with nature…

Kris： （via translator） It’s about the big things in life， and you don’t have to redefine them all the time. You don’t need to redefine spring. It’s never green. And then there’s something else. A national anthem doesn’t have to be up to date and modern. The opposite， in fact. It has to stand the test of time.

And that’s hard enough in Switzerland. For a long time the Swiss had another national anthem called “Rufst du， mein Vaterland，” but， unfortunately， was set to the same tune as “God Save the Queen，” Britain’s National Anthem.

Man： （via translator） You can imagine that it was a repeated source of confusion at political events， where both Switzerland and Britain were present.

The current anthem wasn’t officially recognised until 1981， long after it was written. Isn’t this move a bit premature？ 5）Musicologist Tomas Yamen has listened to the possible replacements and is quite impressed. Still， he doesn’t think the plan to switch the national anthem will go ahead.

Tomas： （via translator） The Swiss don’t like change， and the process of change， including political change， always takes a very long time.

Hubert Sperli is outraged by the new national anthem proposals.

Hubert： （via translator） They’re party manifestos， party slogans. We don’t need that.

What Switzerland needs and what it doesn’t， that’s usually decided by 6）referendum. In all likelihood， Swiss voters will ultimately get to decide the fate of the country’s anthem.

瑞士有很多值得國人驕傲的事情，包括雄偉的山脈和低稅收制度等。可瑞士的國歌呢？有人聽過嗎？

休伯特·斯佩里：（通過翻譯）我認為這首歌在世界上是受到好評的。我曾經在一場滑雪比賽開始前聽到一個德國記者說：“聽聽那國歌，真優美。”

休伯特·斯佩里就像捍衛自己的祖國一樣捍衛著國歌的每一句歌詞，他下定決心要阻止人們對國歌的無謂修改。可在普通瑞士人心里，國歌的人氣如何呢？我們在蘇黎世市中心做了一個小調查。

問：（通過翻譯）你知道國歌的歌詞嗎？

甲女士：（通過翻譯）當然知道。

問：（通過翻譯）歌詞是什么？

乙女士：（通過翻譯）我背不出來。

甲女士：（通過翻譯）我把它寫下來，放在家里了。

事實上，瑞士國歌并非那么深入人心，人氣還不如瑞士軍刀、瑞士鐘表和瑞士奶酪呢。甚至還有些瑞士人認為他們的國歌顯然過時了。

男士：（通過翻譯）國歌的歌詞其實寫于1840年，而且其中的比喻在現代語言中已不再使用了。

這正是瑞士公益協會決定要在全國范圍內發起國歌選拔賽的原因，他們請公眾從六首候選國歌曲目中選出自己最喜歡的一首。

但是瑞士搖滾歌手克里斯·馮·霍并不看好此事，他喜歡當前國歌與大自然緊密結合這點……

克里斯：（通過翻譯）事關人生中的大事并不需要經常重新定義。你不需要重新定義春天，它從來都不是綠色的。此外還有其他原因。一首國歌不一定要與時俱進，趕時髦。正好相反，它必須經得起時間的考驗。