useless-sloveniafacts: Zdravljica (“A Toast” in English) is a poem of the great France Prešeren. Sin
useless-sloveniafacts: Zdravljica (“A Toast” in English) is a poem of the great France Prešeren. Since 1991 it’s the national anthem of Slovenia (or rather its 7th stanza is) and it was the anthem of Socialist Slovenia (then still within the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia) from 1989 until its independence in 1991 – its adoption as the anthem was one of the first official indicators of change and of the country’s aspirations for independence.It was first written in 1844, but it got its form as we know it in 1846 when Prešeren submitted his poems to the censor before publishing (parts of Zdravljica were scrapped and Prešeren subsequently crossed out the entire poem (as seen in the picture above)). It was published in 1848 following the March revolution.Although it is formally a toast and a carmen figuratum (its verses form a shape) in the shape of a cup, its message is political: it calls for national liberation of Slovenes and for freedom and equality of all nations.The 7th stanza: Živé naj vsi naródi, ki hrepene dočakat’ dan, da, kóder sonce hodi, prepir iz svéta bo pregnan, da rojak prost bo vsak,ne vrag, le sosed bo mejak!In English translation (by Tom Priestly and Henry Cooper): Let’s drink that every nationWill live to see that bright day’s birth When ‘neath the sun’s rotation Dissent is banished from the earth, All will be Kinfolk free With neighbours none in enmity!The entire Zdravljica in Janko Lavrin’s translation can be found here. Translations of the 7th stanza into Hungarian, Italian, German, French, Spanish and Croatian (BCS) can be found here.Zdravljica was musically adapted multiple times. The melody of the anthem is that composed by Stanko Premrl in 1905. You can listen to it below:A rock version from 1987 also exists. -- source link