Inspired by @the-francophobic-french 's tags etc
My favourite song about a very specific situation, from a country's POV:
Dacă România ar putea vorbi, cred c-ar spune cam așa:
Mai am doar 10 zile de trăit.
Să știți, copiii mei, că v-am iubit.
Mai am doar 9 zile, și apoi
Voi fi iar prăbușită în noroi.
Mai am 8 zile-n care să mai strig
Până am să mă întorc din nou în frig!
Mai am doar 7 zile să-i opresc
Pe cei ce fără milă mă jertfesc.
Mai am doar 6 zile să mai sper
Că n-o s-ajung în întunericul de ieri!
Mai am 5 zile și cam asta-i tot;
Să mă ridic de jos n-am să mai pot...
Mai am doar 4 zile să schimb totul,
Căci lacrimile mele-s Mureșul și Oltul!
Mai am 3 zile și nicio minune
Nu va dura mai mult, așa se spune...
Mai am doar 2 zile, din păcate.
Vreau să vă vad iar frate lângă frate.
Mai am o zi și doar un singur dor:
Nu mă lăsați, vă rog, să mor!
If Romania could talk, I think she'd say something like this:
I have only 10 days left to live.
Know, my children, that I've loved you.
I have only 9 days left, and then
I'll be thrust into the mud again¹.
I have 8 days left to shout
Until I go out into the cold once again!
I have only 7 days left to stop
Those who mercilessly sacrifice me².
I have only 6 days left to hope
That I won't end up in the darkness of yesterday!
I have 5 days left, and that's about it;
I will no longer be able to get up from the ground...
I have only 4 days left to change everything,
Because my tears are the Mureș and the Olt³!
I have 3 days left, and no miracle
Will last longer than that, they say...
I have only 2 days left, unfortunately.
I want you see you be brothers again⁴.
I have one day left and only one longing⁵:
Please, don't let me die⁶!
1. The word I translated as thrust, prăbușită, would literally mean crashed (as a plane, or a building would crash), but it's used transitively.
2. Fun fact, the verb for sacrifice used here, a jertfi, is the archaic form and is most often used in a religious context
3. Very culturally significant rivers in Romania; longest rivers in Romania aside from the Danube itself
4. The phraseologism frate lângă frate translates literally as: brother next to brother
5. The famous untranslatable word dor. General meaning: very deep desire (either in a tragic or a romantic sense), longing, nostalgia (+ the state of missing somebody or someone), love, etc. I used longing instead of desire because the overall message of the song doesn't seem very hopeful to me, rather tragic (you are free to disagree), so the desire is kind of doomed. Translation is treason etc,I get it. Translation is interpretation, really. Desire as an alternative word is a valid translation, depending on how optimistically you see this.
6. Fun fact, the original word order is like don't let me, please, to die, which wouldn't work in English but I think it packs one last punch in Romanian
Also, the overall political context at the time this was written (January 2017, I remember it like it was yesterday, I was so so so so excited about this) was some bill that our corrupt govt passed so that they can get scot free with a bunch of (corruption related) crimes, and the people got out in the streets like instantly, peaking at about 600k people in one of the days. My dad went too, both in our hometown and in Bucharest (as the song says, the protests lasted more than a week). We could hear the protesters from the window. It was very exciting. Ofc the bill got passed and corrupt parliament members can and do get privileges normal people don't, so in a sense it was all for nothing. There was, of course, quite the disappointment. But I think even though this story had a bad ending (or a meh ending, or a non ending), it was still worth it. The solidarity, the getting up in arms for the sake of your country. This song.
I still listen to this song on the regular. It was relevant at the time, yes, but I think it's genuinely well written (both musically and lyrically) and can, frankly, be applied to a multitude of situations. It's so emotional how sings it, too, especially the "I have 6 days left" part, ah almost gets the waterworks going. (This, plus this guy is like THE nostalgia core singer of Romanian gen Zs... so many 2000s and 2010s hits ahh + fun fact, he competed in Eurovision in 2015, with a very nice song too)
