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Abstract
As with many states, in the case of Slovenia two songs principally contend for the position of national anthem. In this case an apparent ideological gulf masks perhaps a more essential temperamental divide: the bellicose army song versus the happy drinking “all together … ” number. Vacillation between “Zdravljica” (“A Toast”) and “Naprej zastava slave,” (“Forward, Flag of Glory”) might be taken as reflecting the ambivalence with regard to potentially hostile others one reads attributed to Jesus Christ in the gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke: who's not with me is against me/who's not against me is with me. The 1989 adoption of “Zdravljica” (lyrics courtesy of Slovenia's national poet France Prešeren) is strongly suggestive of an outward looking state, one hoping for a place in a cosmopolitan Europe. “Naprej zastava slave” has remained the anthem of the Slovenian army and so is far from being discarded for the purpose of asserting Slovenian national aspirations. Perhaps retaining it in this minor role has been necessary because “Zdravljica” is a song which – at least as it is presently sung – de-emphasises national aspiration to a degree unusual for the anthem genre. In a crossroads of Europe dominated historically by the national (or imperial) aspirations of larger and more powerful political entities, “Zdravljica” is a song which tests the limits of what an anthem can be by holding out a hope of rising above the national.
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Notes
1. For a discussion of various types of anthems, including the self-congratulatory and fighting ones, see Kelen and Pavković (Citation2010).
2. From http://www.preseren.net/slo/3_poezije/13_zdravljica.asp, accessed August 4, 2010.
3. The following is officially recommended translation of the whole poem by Janko Lavrin found on the website of the Government of Slovenia. It is quite a free translation which seems to add words or phrases not found in the original.
The vintage, friends, is over,
And here sweet wine makes, once again,
Sad eyes and hearts recover,
Puts fire into every vein.
Drowns dull care
Everywhere
And summons hope out of despair.
To whom with acclamation
And song shall we our first toast give?
God save our land and nation
And all Slovenes where'er they live,
Who own the same
Blood and name,
And who one glorious Mother claim.
Let thunder out of heaven
Strike down and smite our wanton foe!
Now, as it once had thriven,
May our dear realm in freedom grow.
May fall the last
Chains of the past
Which bind us still and hold us fast!
Let peace, glad conciliation,
Come back to us throughout the land!
Towards their destination
Let Slavs henceforth go hand-in-hand!
Thus again
Will honour reign
To justice pledged in our domain.
To you, our pride past measure,
Our girls! Your beauty, charm and grace!
There surely is no treasure
To equal maidens of such race.
Sons you'll bear,
Who will dare
Defy our foe no matter where.
Our hope now, our to-morrow –
The youths – we toast and toast with joy.
No poisonous blight or sorrow
Your love of homeland shall destroy.
With us indeed
You're called to heed
Its summons in this hour of need.
God's blessing on all nations,
Who long and work for that bright day,
When o'er earth's habitations
No war, no strife shall hold its sway;
Who long to see
That all men free
No more shall foes, but neighbours be.
At last to our reunion –
To us the toast! Let it resound,
Since in this gay communion
By thoughts of brotherhood we're bound
May joyful cheer
Ne'er disappear
From all good hearts now gathered here.
Translated by Janko Lavrin
At www.vlada.si/en/about_slovenia/political_system/national_insignia/, accessed August 4, 2010.
4. Krst na Savici, Uvod. Translation by the authors. http://www.preseren.net/ang/3-1_poezije.asp, accessed July 17, 2013.
5. One of the leading scholars of Prešern, Boris Paternu, sees in “Zdravljica” a “Slovene Marseillaise’ partly because of its occasional fighting tone directed against the enemies (Paternu Citation1977, 244). But in a more recent study another well-known scholar Kos (Citation2007, 129–130) notes that in spite of the fighting tone Zdravljica appears to belong to a quite different kind of poetry from the “Marseillaise.”
6. The anonymous author of “Zdravica ali Zdravljica” on the web site of the self-described nationalist and traditionalist association of societies Hervardi (Citationn.d.). The site also reproduces several manuscript versions of “Zdravljica” arguing that the current version does not correspond to the original intentions of its author.
7. Born in 1913 in Trieste in a Slovene family Boris Pahor spent most of his life in the city teaching and writing in Slovene.
8. Janez Janša, who recently supported the changes in the text, was the minister of defense (1990–1994) in the government which passed the Constitution of 1991 and the Law on anthem of 1994. As minister of defense, he was responsible for establishing “Forward the Flag of Slava/Glory” as the anthem of the defense (later armed) forces of Slovenia.
9. This story about the composition of the anthem was possibly related by Davorin Janko himself.
10. The poem was the first literary text translated from Slovenian into English. For the circumstances of the translation, see Doborovoljec (Citation1951).
11. The text and its translation from SPIN (accessed July 21, 2013). No name of the translator is given on the site.
12. The anthemhood of the song was confirmed by the government Decree on the Insignia of the Slovenian Army, article 6, promulgated in 1995 (Bric Citation2010, 27). See also http://flagspot.net/flags/si%5E.html, accessed July 21, 2013.
13. Translation by the authors.
14. A similar question was facing the president and government of the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) upon its establishment in 1949: how to choose an anthem that would present in an acceptable way the new Germany to those outside of Germany? The Nazis used the first stanza of the nineteenth century national song – and later state anthem – Deutschlandlied – “Deutschland Über Alles.” For that reason the first president of new Germany, Theodor Heuss, was very much against the use of this song. But its first Chancellor, Konrad Adenauer argued that choosing only one – third – stanza which was not used by the Nazis would be acceptable. The third stanza expresses universal as opposed to national values and this, he argued, would make the new Germany acceptable to its new friends and allies:
Unity and justice and freedomFor the German fatherland!
For these let us all strive
Brotherly with heart and hand!
Unity and justice and freedom
Are the pledge of fortune;
Flourish in this fortune's blessing,
Flourish, German fatherland!
Like Zdravljica's seventh, Deutschlandlied's third stanza sings of “brotherhood” – but here this is the brotherhood of Germans, not of all peoples. Although decidedly not cosmopolitan, the third stanza does express the (allegedly) universally desired (and politically correct) values – unity, justice and freedom. Chancellor Adenauer's choice of the third stanza presented the renewed Germany to the international audiences well and, as a traditional national anthem, was widely accepted among the Germans in the West – and later – in East Germany as well (Eyck Citation1995, 175). In a similar way, the choice of “Zdravljica”'s seventh stanza presented to the other states the new and soon-to-be-independent Slovenia as a friendly, convivial nation.
15. The EU's official anthem, Beethoven's “Ode to Joy,” which is based on Friedrich Schiller's lyrics, is played without lyrics. See http://europa.eu/abc/symbols/index_en.htm. For a discussion of the problem of unisonance in the European Union and the “Ode to Joy,” see Žižek (Citation2007).