生日快樂故事

『壹』 《生日快樂》背後的故事

There were two sisters named Mildred Hill and Patty Hill. They together wrote a song for children, whose name was "Good morning ,all!" and it was deeply loved by children. 31 years later, Robert Coleman privately published the song without the two sisters' permission and added some words of song to it, namely "Happy birthday" known by all. These words added by Mr Coleman made the song very popular. In the end, the wordswritten by the two sisters fade from people's memory and "Happy birthday" completely replaced the original song "Good morning, all!" of the two sisters. After Mildred Hill died in 1916, Patty and another sister Jessica came forward and accused Mr Coleman to Court. In court, they proved in fact that they owned the right of the tunes and words of this song, and thus maintaining their own legal rights and interests.
有姐妹倆，一個叫瑪德里德·希爾，一個叫柏蒂·希爾。姐妹倆一道為兒童們譜寫了一首歌，歌名為《大家早上好》，這首歌深受兒童喜愛。三十一年以後，羅伯特·科爾曼未經姐妹倆的允許，私自出版了這首歌，並在這首歌後又加上了一段歌詞，即大家熟悉的《生日快樂》。科爾曼先生增加的這段歌詞使這首歌很快流行。最終，姐妹倆寫的歌詞被人們淡忘了，《生日快樂》完全取代了姐妹倆原來的歌曲《大家早上好》。瑪德里德·希爾於1916年逝世後，柏蒂與另一個妹妹傑西卡出面將科爾曼先生告上了法庭。在法庭上，她們用事實證明，實際上她們擁有這首歌曲調的版權，從而維護了自己的合法權益。
祝你學習愉快！^_^

譯者：高力超（貴陽市烏當中學教師）
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