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HM Queen Margrethe II of Denmark’s New Year’s Speech, 2006
Below, you will find my translation of HM The Queen’s New Year’s Speech of 2006.
PLEASE NOTE that the present translation is completely unofficial and has thus been neither approved nor even seen by any member of the Royal Danish Court, and that I kindly ask you to therefore bear in mind that this translation is for TRF only. Thank you… and enjoy!
Lasse Pedersen’s translation of:
Her Majesty Queen Margrethe II of Denmark’s New Year’s Speech of 2006
At the commencement of a new year, it is customary to look both back and ahead. Did the past year turn out as we expected it to, or did it take an entirely different form? Were we able to leave the old year’s events behind us, or did it emerge, that they spread their seeds into the new year, that they were merely a beginning of new events? For these are, of course, the facts: Every year bears within itself both a beginning and a continuation. No breaking off is total, nothing new is without roots.
The year now past did in many ways become quite unusual for our country.
We in Denmark are proud of our country, and of what Danes in past and present have accomplished, even though we often try to ironically distance ourselves from our self-complacency. We are not at all sorry to draw attention to ourselves as a nation, and gladly do we receive compliments and attention, and we are not unaccustomed to being held forth as a good example; but suddenly to become the object of agitation and anger, is not something we are used to, let alone expect.
Every country, every people is marked by its culture and its history. This mark is borne by everybody, whether he or she remains at home or travels the world, maybe to settle in an entirely new place. There, in that new place, maybe in an entirely different continent, the traveller will meet a new country and another society, determined by the situation and history of said country, its culture and its customs. The country and the people receiving the travellers will also have to relate to completely new experiences. This, we, here in Denmark, have had to learn as well. Certainly, we have always known that the world is big, but it is when the world steps inside of our own domain that we have to realise how diverse it is, and how different customs and ways of life can be.
To settle in a new place is demanding; it requires making great efforts to get to know all that is new, to learn the language and familiarise oneself with the rhythm of the year, and the course of everyday life. A new framework is set for one’s life, and it will also appear that there are habits and customs, which one needs to change or even give up entirely. No one should expect those who arrive at a new place, at an unknown country, to immediately throw all their inherited goods overboard, as if they were superfluous. That would easily lead to one becoming utterly rootless. If a tree needs to be replanted, it must have a strong network of roots from the beginning; thus, it will be able to draw nourishment from its new place as well, to grow and to thrive.
Here in Denmark, we would rather that everything would pass off smoothly, that the problems, should they appear, would resolve themselves; for we think, of course, that what is natural for us, must be so for all others as well. It is just not that simple. We start to realise that we ourselves have to understand and make an effort to explain, what kinds of values our society is built upon, so that those who have not yet taken deep roots in Denmark, can find their place and their feet within the society, whose citizens they have become. The year past has probably taught us a thing or two, not least about ourselves. We know now better what we stand for, where we neither will nor can yield.
Every year, when New Year’s Eve comes, our thoughts set out on a long voyage to those, who are away from home on this night. Are they sitting all alone, or are they perhaps amongst friends who would like to hear what we usually celebrate do in Denmark; or are they with fellow countrymen in merry company, but yet under distant skies?
Here tonight, a warm greeting shall go out to all Danes, wherever in the world they are; to the Danish minority in South Schleswig as well as to those, who have set out to settle in a foreign country for a shorter or longer period of time. A special greeting goes out to those who must celebrate the coming of the new year at sea. Here, my thoughts are not least for everyone aboard the “Vædderen” on the Galathea Expedition; they take part in bringing hearty greetings from Denmark around the globe.
Tonight, we must also think of the many who, on public duty or with one of the relief organisations, work far from Denmark. They have undertaken tasks which are both difficult and dangerous, whether they be in the nature of humanitarian or military tasks. Their efforts, which they make undismayed and skilfully, fully aware of the responsibility that lies with them, are held in respect. I send to each and every one of them my wishes of a Happy New Year. We are all aware of the fact that their efforts entail a risk of life and health, and it deeply affects us when we must experience the truth of someone having paid the highest price. Tonight, my thoughts go out to all those who have lost a husband, a father, a son or brother or a close friend.
In a year like this, during which The Prince Consort and I have not been quite as much around the Danish realm as in other years, my thoughts have often gone out to the Faroe Islands and Greenland – these faraway parts of land which are ever so close to me and my family. I send my kind New Year’s wishes to the Faroese and Greenlandic societies, and to each individual home.
My New Year’s greeting also go out to the many who, in recent years, have come from afar and have settled here, but still experience Denmark as an unknown country. May the new year make them more familiar with life in Denmark and help them, the elderly as well as the rising generation, to find their feet in Danish society.
When we wish each other a Happy New Year, it is an old practice also to express our thanks for the old year, and in my family, we have a lot to be thankful for. Again this year, my family and I have met a warm involvement in all of our activities, both at larger events and in our everyday life. Here, I am thinking not least of Prince Christians christening nearly a year ago, and of the sympathy which I have personally met in connection with my, on the whole, excellent health.
When we are at the threshold of the new year, we would all like that all the good, all that succeeded in the old year will last and bear fruit whilst we put all the less agreeable behind us. We must not overlook it or pretend that nothing has happened, but use it as an experience which may make us wiser and better equipped to face the vicissitudes of life.
So, on this the last night of the year, I send my warm New Year’s greetings to each and every one in the whole country with thanks for the year past, and with the wish that 2007 will be a good year for our country and for every single one of us. Together with The Prince Consort, I wish a Happy New Year to all.
GOD SAVE DENMARK
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