March ahead, o revived people,
To your future march ahead,
Forge your destiny of glory,
By the might of letters led.

March to powerful knowledge,
Let your duty be your guide!
Join the host of other peoples,
God is always by your side.

Go! For like the sun is knowledge.
On the soul it sheds its rays.
Go! A people shall not perish,
When true learning lights its days.

Once unknown and obscure,
Take your place in History.
Let your spirit rule the countries
You subdued in victory.

Thus the two brothers encouraged
Our people long ago.
O you memorable old times,
O you sacred days of yore!

Bulgaria has ever followed
This most worthy testament,
And accomplished deeds of glory
In triumph and predicament.

For it had its time of power,
Then it grievously declined,
Yet unhesitantly followed
What was once to it assigned.

There were times when our letters
Spread quickly far and wide,
And they nourished human learning
With the wisdom which they hide.

Next came sad and slavish years,
When the proud Balkan son
Had to bow under the yoke
Of the ruthless Ottoman.

But the spirit of the people
Always sought support in you
Sages! After a millennium
Your voice still rings strong and true.

O you saviours of a nation
In the darkest days of doom!
You revivers of its spirit
Sleeping in the deepest gloom!

O you champions of true faith,
Enemies of strife and lies!
You apostles God-inspired,
Bright stars in the Slavic skies!

You saints Cyril and Methodius,
You be blessed thrice above!
Fathers of Bulgarian learning,
Makers of the tongue we love!

People will repeat for ever
Your two names in every clime
And the Slavs preserve your mighty
Speeches to the end of time!

*We publish the text of the hymn as translated by Dr. Evgenia Pancheva, Associate Professor of Medieval and Renaissance English Literature at Sofia University. She is the author of Dispersing Semblances: an essay on Renaissance culture, co-author of Literary Theory: from Plato to Postmodernism (forthcoming) and co-editor of Renaissance Refractions: Essays in Honour of Alexander Shurbanov and Seventy Years of English and American Studies in Bulgaria, among other publications. Her major poetic translations include Shakespeare's Venus and Adonis and Rape of Lucrece, Marlowe's Hero and Leander and Byron's Hebrew Melodies. Her new rendition of Shakespeare's Sonnets and minor poems are forthcoming.

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