Nad Tatrou sa blýska

Nad Tatrou sa blýska , the Slovak anthem. The song arose in 1844 during a campaign of the students of the Evangelic Lutheran Lyceum of Bratislava to the town of Levoča in protest against the deprival of Ľudovít Štúr by Hungarian authorities (for details see under Ľudovit Štúr). The text has been written by Janko Matúška in 1844 during the campaign, but the melody has been taken from the folk song Kopala studienku (She was sinking a little well). It became popular during the Slovak Volunteer campaigns of 1848/1849. However, it was published in print only in 1851.In 1920 it became part of the Czechoslovak anthem, which consisted of the present-day Czech anthem with the present-day Slovak anthem added at the end. In 1993, it became the national anthem of independent Slovakia.

Text

Nad Tatrou sa blýska

hromy divo bijú.

Zastavme ich bratia,

ved' sa ony stratia,

Slováci ožijú.

To Slovensko naše

posiaľ tvrdo spalo.

Ale blesky hromu

vzbudzujú ho k tomu,

aby sa prebralo.

Literal translation:

There is lightening over the Tatra,

thunders are striking ferociously.

Let us stop them, brothers,

(you will see that) they will disappear,

the Slovaks will revive.

This our Slovakia

has been sleeping for a long time.

But the lightening of the thunder

is rousing it

to wake up.