Poetry
National Anthem of Chile
Himno Nacional de Chile
Eusebio Lillo · 1847
Opening lines
Dulce Patria, recibe los votos
Con que Chile en tus aras juró
Que la tumba serás de los libres
O el asilo contra la opresión.
Sweet Homeland, receive the vows
With which Chile swore at your altars
That you will be the tomb of the free
Or the refuge against oppression.
Translation by Erostrate
Text quoted from es.wikisource.org
Synopsis
Six stanzas and a chorus. The song hails the end of a bloody conflict in which the former invader has become a brother, and liberty as the inheritance of the brave; it calls for peace, the arts and industry, honours the soldiers who defended the country and declares itself ready to repel any invasion. The best-known stanza sings of the blue sky, the breezes, the flowering fields compared to Eden, the snow-capped mountains as a rampart and the sea that promises a future of splendour. The chorus, taken from the 1819 text, swears that Chile will be either the tomb of free men or the refuge against oppression.
Context
In 1847 the government wished to replace the text by Bernardo de Vera y Pintado, written in 1819, whose hostility towards Spain seemed out of place since the restoration of relations between the two countries; according to the parliamentary library, it was the minister Manuel Camilo Vial who entrusted the task to the young civil servant. The music by Ramón Carnicer, adopted in 1828, was kept, and of the old text only the refrain remained. The lyrics were slightly revised in 1909. Official usage retains only the fifth stanza and the refrain; the military junta added a stanza in praise of the soldiers, abandoned when democracy returned.
Who it is for
A few dozen lines, of which the country knows the official stanza and the chorus by heart.
Prizes and reception
Anthem of Chile since 1847; DonQuijote judges it brighter than the bloodthirsty text it replaced.
Sources for this page 4
The pages consulted to check this page.