Rjana Åužica
Rjana Lužica ( Lower Sorbian variant is called " Rědna Łužyca " ) is the anthem of the Sorbs.
History
On August 24, published in 1827, the then 23 -year-old Sorbian theology student Handrij Zejler, who was to become one of the most important representatives of the Sorbian national rebirth later in the Wendish Preachers Society ( Serbske prědarske towarstwo ) in Leipzig handwritten popular newspaper " Serbska Nowina " a poem entitled " Na sersku Łužicu " ( at the Sorbian Lusatia ). This poem consisted of six stanzas and was first set to music in the same year from Korla Hatas Benjamin ( 1806-1839 ).
After 1844, the poet and the composer Zejler Korla Awgust Kocor had begun their life lasting friendship artists, emerged as a consequence of many common plants, composed Kocor to this text Zejlers in 1845 a new tune. The newly created song was first performed at the seminar organized by Kocor First Sorbian song festival on October 17, 1845 in Bautzen and enjoyed rapidly growing in popularity, so it quickly rose in the sequence to the rank of Sorbian national anthem, in the present, however, only even with two stanzas ( the first and last of the original poem ) is sung.
Hendrich Jordan took care of the transmission of the text in the Lower Sorbian language, a German paraphrase ( which is not reproduced here for copyright reasons ) comes from Kito Lorenc.
The form of the song
The five-line poem is backed by a comprehensive seven bars upbeat tune that is originally in F-sharp minor and eludes any attempts to shape analysis. The supported speed and the predominant minor harmonies give the hymn a the text of the original version Zejlers underlining solemn and melancholy mood.
Legal Status
In the Sorbs ( Wends) Act of the State of Brandenburg and in the Saxon Sorbs Act, the right to the use of the Sorbian Anthem in the Sorbian settlement area is fixed. Rjana Lužica is in both legal texts - in contrast to some county ordinances of the settlement area - but not explicitly mentioned.
Text
The original version of Zejler includes two more verses that bear a clear melancholy undertone and look to the uncertain future of the Sorbian people: