Saturday, December 6, 2008

In English

RISE, Magyar! is the country's call!
The time has come, say one and all:
Shall we be slaves, shall we be free?
This is the question, now agree!
For by the Magyar's God above
We truly swear,
We truly swear the tyrant's yoke
No more to bear!

Alas! till now we were but slaves;
Our fathers resting in their graves
Sleep not in freedom's soil. In vain
They fought and died free homes to gain.
But by the Magyar's God above
We truly swear,
We truly swear the tyrant's yoke
No more to bear!

A miserable wretch is he
Who fears to die, my land, for thee!
His worthless life who thinks to be
Worth more than thou, sweet liberty!
Now by the Magyar's God above
We truly swear,
We truly swear the tyrant's yoke
No more to bear!

The sword is brighter than the chain,
Men cannot nobler gems attain;
And yet the chain we wore, oh, shame!
Unsheath the sword of ancient fame!
For by the Magyar's God above
We truly swear,
We truly swear the tyrant's yoke
No more to bear!

The Magyar's name will soon once more
Be honored as it was before!
The shame and dust of ages past
Our valor shall wipe out at last.
For by the Magyar's God above
We truly swear,
We truly swear the tyrant's yoke
No more to bear!

And where our graves in verdure rise,
Our children's children to the skies
Shall speak the grateful joy they feel,
And bless our names the while they kneel.
For by the Magyar's God above
We truly swear,
We truly swear the tyrant's yoke
No more to bear!


Do you know what is this? It almost sounds better in English, than in Hungarian.

4 comments:

David Blade said...

Petőfi is my favorite poet. This post will be among my nominies for best post:)

Andika said...

:) it is sweet of you

Anonymous said...

Not better.Not in close to the original.The Hungarian language is much more telling, emotional, precisely expressive than English.Linguists used to say "Hungarian is so logical, that it seems to be an artifical language".Teller Ede said "meggyőződésem, hogy ha nem magyarnak születek hanem bármi másnak, csak egy közönséges középiskolai tanárként végzek" Sorry for this voice, but it is my conviction.My motto is "Merni és cselekedni"(Hunyadi János) which sounds "Dare and do" English.Which is more telling "cselekedni" or "do" cselekedni can include achieving, doing, acting..."miserable wretch" means "nyomorult söpredék" rougly, but do you think Andi that it can approach the overwhelmingly expressive "sehonnai, bitang ember"?Sehonnai..such a brilliant aglunitativeness...no English word for it!homless?miserable? Give me a break...
Thank you Andi, you inspired a blogpost...I will write it tomorrow morning...

Andika said...

Glad I helped you :) Well, yes, of yource, no language can sound so nice like Hungarian. I totaly agree with you