Israel
התקווה
Hatikvah
Hatikvah
1878
2004
Naftali Herz Imber
Samuel Cohen (based on Moldavian-Romanian folk tune)
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Key Facts
- 1. Hatikvah is played in a minor key, making it one of the very few national anthems worldwide with a melancholic rather than triumphant musical tone.
- 2. At the 1948 declaration of independence, the assembled crowd spontaneously broke into Hatikvah before it had been officially designated as the state anthem.
- 3. The original poem had nine stanzas, but only a modified version of the first stanza and the refrain are used as the anthem, with several key words changed over the decades.
Lyrics
כָּל עוֹד בַּלֵּבָב פְּנִימָה
נֶפֶשׁ יְהוּדִי הוֹמִיָּה
וּלְפַאֲתֵי מִזְרָח קָדִימָה
עַיִן לְצִיּוֹן צוֹפִיָּה
עוֹד לֹא אָבְדָה תִּקְוָתֵנוּ
הַתִּקְוָה בַּת שְׁנוֹת אַלְפַּיִם
לִהְיוֹת עַם חָפְשִׁי בְּאַרְצֵנוּ
בְּאֶרֶץ צִיּוֹן וִירוּשָׁלַיִם
Translations are non-official and intended to convey meaning, not replace originals
Analysis
EditorialWritten in 1878 by Naftali Herz Imber, a poet living in Lviv (then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, now Ukraine). The melody is believed to derive from a 17th-century Italian song, which also influenced Smetana's 'Vltava' (Moldau). The title means 'The Hope,' and the anthem expresses a 2,000-year longing for return to the ancestral homeland.