La Brabançonne


"La Brabançonne" is the national anthem of Belgium. The originally-French title refers to Brabant; the name is usually maintained untranslated in Belgium's other two official languages, Dutch and German.

History

According to legend, the Belgian national anthem was written in September 1830, during the Belgian Revolution, by a young revolutionary called "Jenneval", who read the lyrics during a meeting at the Aigle d'Or café.
Jenneval, a Frenchman whose real name was Alexandre Dechet, did in fact write the Brabançonne. At the time, he was an actor at the theatre where, in August 1830, the revolution started which led to independence from the Netherlands. Jenneval died in the war of independence. François van Campenhout composed the accompanying score, based on the tune of a French song called "L'Air des lanciers polonais", written by the French poet Eugène de Pradel, whose tune was itself an adaptation of the tune of a song, "L'Air du magistrat irréprochable", found in a popular collection of drinking songs called La Clé du caveau and it was first performed in September 1830.
In 1860, Belgium formally adopted the song and music as its national anthem, although the then prime minister, Charles Rogier edited out lyrics attacking the Dutch Prince of Orange.
The ending, pledging loyalty to "Le Roi, la Loi, la Liberté!" is an obvious parallel to the French "Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité" – with the republican sentiment of the original replaced in the Belgian version by the promotion of constitutional monarchy. Actually, a slogan similar to the Belgian one – "la Nation, la Loi, le Roi" – had been used in the early days of the French Revolution, when that revolution was still considered to be aimed toward constitutional monarchy rather than a republic.
The Brabançonne is also a monument by the sculptor Charles Samuel on the Surlet de Chokier square in Brussels. The monument contains partial lyrics of both the French and Dutch versions of the anthem. Like many elements in Belgian folklore, this is mainly based on the French "La Marseillaise" which is also both an anthem and the name of a monument – the sculptural group Departure of the Volunteers of 1792, commonly called La Marseillaise, at the base of the Arc de Triomphe in Paris.

Lyrics

1830 original lyrics

First version (August 1830)

Second version (September 1830)

Third version (1860)

Current version

Various committees were charged with reviewing the text and tune of the Brabançonne and establishing an official version. A ministerial circular of the Ministry of the Interior on 8 August 1921 decreed that only the fourth verse of the text by Charles Rogier should be considered official for all three, French, German and in Dutch. Here below:
;French
;Dutch
;German

Modern short trilingual version

In recent years, an unofficial short version of the anthem is sung during Belgian National Day on 21 July each year, combining the words of the anthem in all three of Belgium's official languages, similar to the bilingual version of "O Canada". The lyrics are from the 4th verse of the anthem.
LanguageNo.LineTranslation
Dutch1O dierbaar België, O heilig land der Vaad'ren,O dear Belgium, O holy land of the fathers –
Dutch2Onze ziel en ons hart zijn u gewijd.Our soul and our heart are devoted to you!
French3À toi notre sang, ô Patrie !With blood to spill for you, O fatherland!
French4Nous le jurons tous, tu vivras !We swear with one cry – You shall live!
German5So blühe froh in voller Schöne,So gladly bloom in beauty full,
German6zu der die Freiheit Dich erzog,Into what freedom has taught you to be,
German7und fortan singen Deine Söhne:And evermore shall sing your sons:
French8Le Roi, la Loi, la Liberté !The King, the Law, the Liberty!
Dutch9Het woord getrouw, dat g' onbevreesd moogt spreken,Faithful to the word that you may speak boldly,
Dutch10Voor Vorst, voor Vrijheid en voor Recht!For King, for Freedom and for Law!
German11Gesetz und König und die Freiheit hoch!To Law and King and Freedom, hail!
French12Le Roi, la Loi, la Liberté !The King, the Law, the Liberty!

2007 Yves Leterme incident

On the 2007 Belgian national day, Flemish politician Yves Leterme, who would become Prime Minister two years later, was asked by a French-speaking reporter if he knew the lyrics of the Belgian national anthem, whereupon he began to sing La Marseillaise, the French national anthem, instead of the Brabançonne. The lyrics are not taught anymore in Belgian schools and many people don't know them. in 2018, the minister of Education proposed to make it mandatory for students to learn the lyrics at school.