Talk:O Sweet Saint Martin's Land

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Thanks for this page! I hope you don't mind my taking the liberty of making the entry a bit more encyclopediac by editing the text slightly. (Feel free to discuss here or on my talk page any changes I made).

I am wondering, though, it is mentioned that the song is a bi-national song, that is, serving as the anthem of both the Dutch and French sides of St-Martin. While it seems obvious that it is used on the Dutch side (I get the impression that Fr. Kemps is Dutch, as he was knighted by the Dutch queen), is it proven that this song is also used on the French side as well? It is very rare for French overseas territories to adopt a local anthem of anything other than La Marseillaise (the only exception I know of is French Polynesia, which uses a local song that does not have a Wikipedia article about it yet - but then French Polynesia has a high degree of autonomy, it's also the only French overseas territory that has a local flag to the best of my knowledge as well ... ). --Canuckguy 20:43, 8 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I strongly suggest to remove both the French and Dutch 'translation' from this article. They are clearly internet translations and meaningless in French and Dutch respectively.

Let me prove my point by translating the Dutch chorus (which gives the most absurd result) back into English:

O sweet Holy the Land of martin (or martlet; yes the bird!!!) So bright by beach and get stuck With sailors on the sea and harbours freed Where chains (the type one wears around the neck) of mountains green Diverging in sunlight sheen

Italic: Though some constructions might seem 'acceptable' in English, in Dutch they are wrong.

The same is going on with the French version (O the Land of Martin of sweet Holy …)

Suggestion for improvement of wikipedia: - Let's reserve translations for persons who master the original language sufficiently into their mother tongue only - Advise against internet translations

David.496 (talk) 15:07, 10 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]

"Diefstal" (cognate to thief+steal) is a translation of "theft", which is a translation of "vol" that could be done only by someone who doesn't know English, such as a computer. "Voler" has two meanings: "fly" (the original) and "steal". Pelicans, which are birds, fly. The following text describes a pelican flying, not a pelican stealing or someone stealing a pelican. I don't know Dutch well enough to fix it. Could someone fix it or, as David suggested, take the Dutch translation out? phma (talk) 18:55, 17 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I'll remove the Dutch translations, as they indeed make absolutely no sense. On top of that, I don't think there should be a Dutch translation on this page (in the English Wikipedia) anyway, unless there's a Dutch version that is actually used and/or has any official status. Dinsdagskind (talk) 23:24, 10 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]

My removal immediately got reverted by User:Tato Max. Dinsdagskind (talk) 23:49, 10 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]