“Happy Birthday to You”——Where did that song come from?

生日快乐歌的起源

（对照阅读）

The story of how the song “Happy Birthday to You” came to be, began as a sweet one but later soured. Two sisters, Mildred Hill, a teacher at a kindergarten in Louisville and Dr. Patty Hill, the headmaster of the same school, together wrote a song for the children, named “Good Morning to All”. When Mildred Hill used her musical knowledge, with her sister’s skill in the area of Kindergarten Education, “Good Morning to All” was sure to be a hit.

The sisters published the song in 1893. Thirty-one years later, after Dr. Patty Hill became the head of the Department of Kindergarten Education at Columbia University’s Teacher College, a gentleman by the name of Robert H. Coleman published the song, without the sisters’ knowing. What’s more, he added a second verse, the well-known “Happy Birthday to You”.

Mr. Coleman’s second verse made the song even more popular. At last, the sisters’ first verse “Good Morning to All” had completely been replaced by “Happy Birthday to You”.

After Mildred Hill died in 1916, Patty, together with Jessica, her other sister took Mr. Coleman to court. Finally they took back the song.

生词注释：

sour 变坏，变酸；        hit 巨大成功；       university 大学;        

verse 歌词               court 法庭

关于“祝你生日快乐”一歌是如何产生的故事，一开始是件令人愉快的事，可到后来就变了味，令人扫兴。

事情是这样的：有姐妹俩，一个叫玛德里德·希尔，路易思维尔市幼儿园教师，一个是柏蒂·希尔，该校的校长。姐妹俩一道为儿童们写了一首歌，歌名为“大家早上好”。由于玛德里德的音乐才能并加上她姐姐在幼儿教育方面的经验，“大家早上好”无疑成为一个巨大的成功。
    １８９３年，两姐妹发表了这首歌，３１年后在柏蒂·希尔出任哥伦比亚大学师范学院幼儿教育系主任之后，一个名叫罗伯特·Ｈ·科尔曼的男士未经姐妹俩的许可，私自出版了这首歌。他在这首歌上又加了一段，即大家熟悉的“祝你生日快乐”。
    科尔曼先生增加的第二段歌词使这首歌很快流行起来，最终，姐妹俩的第一段歌词“大家早上好”完全被“祝你生日快乐”所取代。
    玛德里德于１９１６年逝世后，柏蒂与她的另外一个妹妹杰西卡出面将科尔曼告上了法庭。最后她们终于收回了这首歌的著作权。

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