Poetry · A way to begin
Our Language
Limba noastră
Alexei Mateevici · 1917
Opening lines
Limba noastră-i o comoară
În adâncuri înfundată
Un șirag de piatră rară
Pe moșie revărsată.
Our language is a treasure
Buried in the depths,
A string of rare stones
Scattered over the ancestral land.
Translation by Erostrate
Text quoted from ro.wikisource.org
Synopsis
Twelve four-line stanzas that say, one after another, what “our language” is: a treasure buried in the depths, a fire burning in a people roused from a sleep like death, a song, the doina of sorrows, a green leaf, the language of old writings and ancient homilies. The text also shows it rusted, groaning in oblivion, and calls on those who speak it to wash it of its grime and mould so that a new flood of words may spring from it.
Context
The text was written in the summer of 1917, on 17 July according to Adevărul, and read in Chișinău before schoolteachers, before appearing in the newspaper Cuvânt moldovenesc. It never names the language it celebrates and calls it only “our language”. Set to music by Alexandru Cristea, it has been sung since 1994 as the anthem of Moldova, confirmed by the law of 22 July 1995, which keeps stanzas 1, 2, 5, 8 and 12.
Who it is for
Forty-eight lines of Romanian verse, simple and easy to remember; a little history of Bessarabia and of the debate over the name of the language helps in reading them.
Prizes and reception
National anthem of Moldova; Arcadie Suceveanu, president of the Writers' Union, sees it as its author's masterpiece, according to IPN.
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