Help please!!

[tomatoes]

I have just read THE ENGLISH PATIENT and am wondering about the song Hana sings, Alonson Fon. If anyone knows the translation/significance your help would be much appreciated. Thanks :nod:

[tvanderven]

"Alonson fon!" (53) As a child, Hana had learned this song in a French class in Toronto and stood on a bench to sing it, her left hand on her heart. These invented words suggest a child singing a song in words she does not comprehend. These words mimic the sounds of the opening words of the French national anthem, "La Marseillaise":

Allons enfants de la patrie,
Le jour de gloire est arrivé!

Let's go, children of the fatherland,
The day of glory has arrived!

http://hymne-national.ifrance.com/