Kimi ga Yo

Kimi ga Yo  (1880)  Lyrics by Anonymous; Melody by Yoshiisa Oku and Akimori Hayashi, supervised by Hiromori Hayashi (original melody by John William Fenton)

Kimi ga Yo (君が代, "May your reign last forever") is Japan's national anthem, and is also one of the world's shortest national anthems in current use. The lyrics are based on a waka poem written in the Heian period (794-1185), sung to a melody written in the later Meiji era (1868–1945). The current melody was chosen in 1880, replacing an unpopular melody composed eleven years earlier.— Excerpted from Kimigayo on Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Lyrics

君が代は
千代に八千代に
さざれ石の
いわおとなりて
こけのむすまで

Lyrics in Latin alphabet

Kimi ga yo wa
Chiyo ni yachiyo ni
Sazare-ishi no
Iwao to narite
Koke no musu made

Translation

May your reign
Continue for a thousand years, for eternity,
Until pebbles
Grow into boulders
Covered in moss.

Translation by Basil Hall Chamberlain

Thousands of years of happy reign be thine!
Rule on, my Lord, till what are pebbles now,
By age united, to great rocks shall grow,
Whose venerable sides the moss doth line.