170th years ago, on March 15th1848, the young poet and revolutionary Sándor Petőfi read a poem aloud to the gathering crowd in downtown Budapest. By the end of the poem everyone was chanting the refrain together as they began to march around the city, seizing the presses, liberating political prisoners, and declaring the end of Habsburg rule in Hungary.
Liberty and love /These two I must have. / For my love I’ll sacrifice / My life. / For liberty I’ll sacrifice My love.
wrote Sándor Petőfi in one of his famous poems, and indeed he ultimately sacrificed his life for Hungary’s freedom. Having played a leading role in the literary life of the pre-revolutionary era, Petőfi greatest day in his painfully short life came on 15 March 1848.
The talented poet, a member of the so-called radical youth movement the “Youths of March”, was co-author and author, respectively, of the two most important written documents of the revolution: the 12 points (political demands) and his revolutionary poem Nemzeti Dal. Both were presented by Petőfi himself on the front steps of the National Museum on March 15th.
After Petőfi was unable to secure a seat in the post-revolution National Assembly, he decided to join the Hungarian Revolutionary Army and fought under the Polish Liberal General Józef Bem, in the Transylvanian division. He was last seen alive in the Battle of Segesvár (Sighișoara, Romania) on 31 July 1849, where he is presumed to have been killed in the fighting .
In honor of the 170th anniversary of the 1848-49 Revolution and War for Independence, here is Petőfi’s “National Song”, in English and Hungarian:
| Nemzeti dal (Hungarian)
Talpra magyar, hí a haza! Rabok voltunk mostanáig, Sehonnai bitang ember, Fényesebb a láncnál a kard, A magyar név megint szép lesz, Hol sírjaink domborulnak, |
National Song (English)
On your feet now, Hungary calls you! Slaves we have been to this hour, Whoever now his life begrudges The sword shines brighter than the fetters Magyars, once more our name and story And wheresoever we may perish |
1848
Translated by George Szirtes
via babelmatrix.org
featured image via wikimedia