Hatikvah
Hatikvah (also Hatikva, literally "The hope") is the national anthem of Israel. The text was written by the Galiciann poet Naphtali Herz Imber (1856-1909) in Jassy in 1871 as a nine stanza poem named Tikavatenu ("Our Hope"). It was first editted by the settlers of Rishon LeZion and underwent a number of other changes until 1948. In its modern version, it only has the first stanza and chorus of the original poem. The most important edition in those parts is that the hope is no longer to return to Zion, but to be a free nation in it. The music is based on a theme from Bedřich Smetana's "The Moldau" symphonic poem (part of Má Vlast, "My Country") which in turn is said to be based an old Moldavian folk song ("Cucuruz cu frunza-n sus"). In 1897, at the first Zionist congress, it became the hymn of Zionism; later it was orchestrated by the composer Paul Ben-Haim. On the creation of the state of Israel in 1948, it was proclaimed as the national anthem of Israel.Hatikvah is written in a minor key, one that seems depressing or mournful to many Westerners. However, as the title ("The Hope") would indicate, the mood of the song is uplifting.
Here is the text in Hebrew with accompanying transliteration and translation in English:
|
כל עוד בלבב פנימה
עוד לא אבדה תקותנו, |
Kol od balevav
P'nimah -
Od lo avdah tikvatenu |
So long as within our breasts
Our hopes are not yet lost |
The first line of the chorus, "Our hopes are not yet lost" (עוד לא אבדה תקותנו) has been compared to the opening of the Polish national anthem "Poland is not yet lost" (Jeszcze Polska nie zginęła) and similarities between Zionism and the Polish nationalist movement have been pointed out.
The text of Imber's original poem in Hebrew is included in the external links.