"Dac-am plecat, Ardealule, din tine" () is a

Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

n patriotic song. It is also simply known as "Ardealul" (). It appeared after the cession of

Northern Transylvania Northern Transylvania (, ) was the region of the Kingdom of Romania that during World War II, as a consequence of the August 1940 territorial agreement known as the Second Vienna Award, became part of the Kingdom of Hungary (1920-1946), Kingdom ...

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

in 1940. At the time,

was also forced to give up

Bessarabia Bessarabia () is a historical region in Eastern Europe, bounded by the Dniester river on the east and the Prut river on the west. About two thirds of Bessarabia lies within modern-day Moldova, with the Budjak region covering the southern coa ...

Northern Bukovina Bukovina or ; ; ; ; , ; see also other languages. is a historical region at the crossroads of Central and Eastern Europe. It is located on the northern slopes of the central Eastern Carpathians and the adjoining plains, today divided betwe ...

and the

Hertsa region The Hertsa region, also known as the Hertza region (; ), is a region around the town of Hertsa within Chernivtsi Raion in the southern part of Chernivtsi Oblast in southwestern Ukraine, near the border with Romania. With an area of around , it ...

to the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

, as well as

Southern Dobruja Southern Dobruja or South Dobruja ( or simply , ; or , ), also the Quadrilateral (), is an area of north-eastern Bulgaria comprising Dobrich and Silistra provinces, part of the historical region of Dobruja. It has an area of 7,412 square km an ...

Bulgaria Bulgaria, officially the Republic of Bulgaria, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern portion of the Balkans directly south of the Danube river and west of the Black Sea. Bulgaria is bordered by Greece and Turkey t ...

. The

Second Vienna Award The Second Vienna Award was the second of two territorial disputes that were arbitrated by Nazi Germany and the Kingdom of Italy. On 30 August 1940, they assigned the territory of Northern Transylvania, including all of Maramureș and part of Cri ...

of 30 August, which caused the loss of Northern Transylvania, caused great consternation among the Romanian public. Its author is unknown, although it is thought to have been a contemporary soldier. It is recorded that demobilized soldiers from Northern Transylvania went to

Șiria Șiria (; ) is a Communes of Romania, commune in Arad County, Romania. According to the 2002 census it had 8,140 inhabitants. The commune is situated at from Arad, Romania, Arad, its administrative territory covers , and it lies in the contact z ...

and sang the first

stanza In poetry, a stanza (; from Italian ''stanza'', ; ) is a group of lines within a poem, usually set off from others by a blank line or indentation. Stanzas can have regular rhyme and metrical schemes, but they are not required to have either. ...

of the song. Here, it quickly became popular among the inhabitants. It was also sung in 1944 during the Budapest Offensive when Romanian troops attacked Hungary to recover the region. Nowadays, it can be found in the

repertoire Repertory or repertoire () is the list or set of works a person or company is accustomed to performing. Whether the English or French spelling is used has no bearing, but it was the French word, with an accent on the first e, , that first took ho ...

of the Romanian Army Choir or the male choir of the village of Finteușu Mare. From the latter, the folk singer

Veta Biriș Veta Biriș (born 11 August 1949) is a Romanian folk music singer. She was born in Veseuș, a village in Jidvei commune, Alba County, in a large family of seven siblings. Biriș moved in 1966 to nearby Căpâlna de Jos and debuted as a singer th ...

took the song and added it to her repertoire, with different lyrics written by a collaborator of her. These refer to the emigration of Romanians abroad since the

Romanian Revolution The Romanian revolution () was a period of violent Civil disorder, civil unrest in Socialist Republic of Romania, Romania during December 1989 as a part of the revolutions of 1989 that occurred in several countries around the world, primarily ...

of 1989. Another folk singer who has made his own version is Felix Gălan. Furthermore, it is a song used by

Legionnaires The French Foreign Legion (, also known simply as , "the Legion") is a corps of the French Army created to allow List of militaries that recruit foreigners, foreign nationals into French service. The Legion was founded in 1831 and today consis ...

in the country.

Lyrics

The lyrics of the original version (and their English translation) are the following:

References

External links

* {{Authority control Romanian patriotic songs 1940 songs Anti-Hungarian sentiment Songs of World War II Songs in Romanian