Only Forward

作词 : Lassi Kotamaki/Ian Urbina

作曲 : Lassi Kotamaki/Ian Urbina

The quotation is from an ancient Roman play by Seneca.

"An age shall come after many years “

when the ocean will loose the chain of things

and a huge land lie revealed."

In the old book in Seville,

these lines are followed by this one:

"My father fulfilled this prophecy

on October 12 in the Year of Our Lord fourteen hundred and ninety-two."

Today is October 12, nineteen hundred and forty-two.

This is our birthday.

The broadcast is part of the celebration.

It comes to you in the principal American languages,

and you are hearing it in every country of our hemisphere.

Happy birthday, everybody!

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The greatest and anonymous,

the conquistadors, the priests, the prospectors, the traders,

the trappers, the bandeirantes, and the leatherstockings.

Every man of them who moved forward valinatly

into any part of the uncharted darkness of our new world

is a discoverer of American.

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Maybe the unknown can only be explored by men of no imagination,

but I think you need imagination to make the try.

It can't have been pleasant—that first crossing.

Somebody once said that adventure is an attitude taken toward discomfort.

Imagine the first day of that first Atlantic adventure.