The National Song was written just two days before the start of the revolution and printed together with the Twelve Points - demands the Youths of March, Petőfi included, made of the Austrian monarchy - at the Landerer-Hechenast Press.
The National Song and Twelve Points were distributed before a gathering in front of the Hungarian National Museum called for three o'clock in the afternoon. Petőfi wrote in his diary that there were "some ten thousand" people gathered in front of the museum.
What is certain is that Petőfi gave a speech from the steps of the museum, as did several other revolutionaries, including Pál Vasvári and József Irinyi. It is not sure, however, that he recited the National Song. Recorded statements of witnesses show that Petőfi recited the poem in the Pilvax Café, a meeting place for the Youths of March, as well as for groups of medical students and law students, but there is no record of his recitation of the poem in front of the National Museum, neither by witnesses nor newspapers.
One witness to Petőfi's speech in front of the National Museum was Prince Jenő Zichy, who was 14 years old at the time. Recalling the event when he was 68 years old, Zichy said, "I was a child at the time, but I still hear ringing in my ears today 'rise Hungarian'." "Rise Hungarian" may have been said by Petőfi in his speech, but the words do not appear in the National Song, which begins:
Rise up, Magyar, the country calls!
It's 'now or never' what fate befalls...
Shall we live as slaves or free men?
That's the question - choose your `Amen'!
God of Hungarians,
we swear unto Thee,
We swear unto Thee - that slaves we shall
no longer be!
It's 'now or never' what fate befalls...
Shall we live as slaves or free men?
That's the question - choose your `Amen'!
God of Hungarians,
we swear unto Thee,
We swear unto Thee - that slaves we shall
no longer be!
Translation: Adam Makkai
Source: Múlt-kor
