Hatikvah
Hatikvah (also transliterated as Hatikva, or, without vowels, H-t-k-v (Hebrew: התקווה, "The Hope") is the national anthem of Israel. The song tells about the 2000-year-old hope of the Jewish people to return to their homeland, Israel. The song lyrics (words) were originally a 9-stanza poem called תקותנו (Tikvatenu), or "Our Hope". The first stanza was changed, and put to music. The music was written by Samuel Cohen, a Jewborn in Galicia, an area of Spain. It is in the minor key, which is usually not used for national anthems, because it sounds sad, but the words to the song tell that the song is supposed to be happy.
Lyrics [change]
כל עוד בלבב פנימה
נפש יהודי הומיה,
ולפאתי מזרח קדימה
עין לציון צופיה -
עוד לא אבדה תקותנו,
התקווה בת שנות אלפים,
להיות עם חופשי בארצנו
ארץ ציון וירושלים.
HATIKVA
Kol ʻod balevav penimah
Nefesh Yehudi Homiyah
Ulfa'atey Mizrakh Kadimah
ʻAyin letzion Tzofiyah
ʻOd lo avdah tikvatenu
Hatikvah bat shnot alpayim
Lihyot am chofshi be'artzenu
Eretz Tziyon v'Yerushalayim
Literal Translation [change]
As long as in the heart, within,
A Jewish soul still yearns,
And onward, towards the ends of the east,
An eye still looks toward Zion;
Our hope is not yet lost,
The hope of two thousand years,
To be a free nation in our land,
The land of Zion and Jerusalem.
