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The National Anthem of
Romania
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"DEŞTEAPTĂ-TE
ROMÂNE!"
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“AWAKEN
THEE, ROMANIAN!”
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Click here to listen The Romanian National Anthem!
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lyrics of the national anthem belong to Andrei Muresan (1816-1863), a
Romantic poet, journalist, translator, a genuine tribune of the times
marked by the 1848 Revolution. The music was composed by Anton Pann
(1796-1854), a poet and ethnographer, a man of great culture, a singer and
author of music textbooks. |
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Deşteaptă-te,
române, din somnul cel de moarte,
În care te-adânciră barbarii de tirani
Acum ori niciodată croieşte-ţi altă soarte,
La care să se-nchine şi cruzii tăi duşmani.
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Awaken thee, Romanian, shake off the deadly slumber
The scourge of inauspicious barbarian tyrannies
And now or never to a bright horizon clamber
That shall to shame put all your nocuous enemies.
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Acum ori
niciodată să dăm dovezi în lume
Că-n aste mâni mai curge un sânge de roman,
Şi că-n a noastre piepturi păstrăm cu fală-un nume
Triumfător în lupte, un nume de Traian.
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It’s now or never to the world we readily proclaim
In our veins throbs and ancestry of Roman
And in our hearts for ever we glorify a name
Resounding of battle, the name of gallant Trajan.
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Înalţă-ţi lata frunte şi caută-n giur de tine,
Cum stau ca brazi în munte voinici sute de mii;
Un glas el mai aşteaptă şi sar ca lupi în stâne,
Bătrâni, bărbaţi, juni, tineri, din munţi şi din câmpii.
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Priviţi, măreţe
umbre, Mihai, Ştefan, Corvine,
Româna naţiune, ai voştri strănepoţi,
Cu braţele armate, cu focul vostru-n vine,
"Viaţa-n libertate ori moarte" strigă toţi.
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Do look imperial shadows, Michael, Stephen, Corvinus
At the Romanian nation, your mighty progeny
With arms like steel and hearts of fire impetuous
It’s either free or dead, that’s what they all decree.
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Pre voi vă
nimiciră a pizmei răutate
Şi oarba neunire la Milcov şi Carpaţi
Dar noi, pătrunşi la suflet de sfânta libertate,
Jurăm că vom da mâna, să fim pururea fraţi.
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O mamă văduvită de la Mihai cel Mare
Pretinde de la fii-şi azi mână d-ajutori,
Şi blastămă cu lacrămi în ochi pe orişicare,
În astfel de pericul s-ar face vânzători.
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De fulgere să piară, de trăsnet şi pucioasă,
Oricare s-ar retrage din gloriosul loc,
Când patria sau mama, cu inima duioasă,
Va cere ca să trecem prin sabie şi foc.
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N-ajunge
iataganul barbarei semilune,
A cărui plăgi fatale şi azi le mai simţim;
Acum se vâră cnuta în vetrele străbune,
Dar martor ne de Domnul că vii nu oprimim.
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N-ajunge
despotismul cu-ntreaga lui orbie,
Al cărui jug de seculi ca vitele-l purtăm;
Acum se-ncearcă cruzii, cu oarba lor trufie,
Să ne răpească limba, dar morţi numai o dăm.
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Români din
patru unghiuri, acum ori niciodată
Uniţi-vă în cuget, uniţi-vă-n simţiri.
Strigaţi în lumea largă că Dunărea-i furată
Prin intrigă şi silă, viclene uneltiri.
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Preoţi, cu crucea-n frunte căci oastea e creştină,
Deviza-i libertate şi scopul ei preasfânt.
Murim mai bine-n luptă, cu glorie deplină,
Decât să fim sclavi iarăşi în vechiul nost'pământ.
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Priests, rise the cross, this Christian army’s liberating
The word is freedom, no less sacred is the end
We’d rather die in battle, in elevated glory
Than live again enslaved on our ancestral land.
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Andrei Muresan’s poem “Un
rasunet”, written and published during the 1848 Revolution, found the adequate
music within a few days, as the anthem was sung for the first time on June 29,
1848 at Ramnicu Valcea (in Wallachia the revolution had broken out on June 11).
The poem became an anthem under the title “Desteapta-te romane” (“Awaken
Thee, Romanian”) and spontaneously earned recognition owing to its energetic
and mobilizing message.
Since 1848 “Desteapta-te romane” has been a song dear to the Romanians,
giving them courage in the crucial moments, during the Independence War
(1877-1878), just as during World War I. In the moments of crisis after August
23, 1944 when, after the state coup, Romania turned against Hitler’s Germany
and then participated in the war along with the Allies, this anthem was
spontaneously sung by everyone and was aired on the national radio, keeping the
whole country on alert.
The same happened on December 22, 1989, at the time of the anti-Communist
revolution; the anthem rose from the streets, accompanying huge masses of
people, dispelling the fear of death and uniting a whole people in the lofty
feelings of the moment. Thus, its institution as a state anthem came by itself,
upon the tremendous pressure of the demonstrators.
The message of the anthem “Desteapta-te romane” is social and national at
the same time; social because it imposes a permanent state of vigil meant to
secure the passing to a new world; national because it gears this awakening to
the historical tradition. The anthem proposes that sublime “now or never,”
present in all national anthems from the paion with which the Greeks fought at
Marathon and Salamina to the French revolutionary Marseillaise. The invocation
of the national fate is the peak a people can reach in its soaring towards the
divine. This “now or never” historically calls upon all vital energies and
mobilizes to the full.
Romania’s national anthem has several stanzas, of which the first four are
sung on ceremonial occasions.
Besides this anthem, the Romanians also have “Hora Unirii” (“The Union
Dance”), written in 1855 by the great poet Vasile Alecsandri (1821-1890) which
was sung a lot on the Union of the Principalities (1859) and on all occasions
when the Romanians aspired to union and harmony among themselves. “Hora Unirii”
is sung on the Romanian folk tune of a slow but energetic round dance joined by
the whole attendance. The round dance (hora) is itself an ancient ritual, symbolizing
spiritual communion, equality and the Romanians’ wish for a common
life.
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