Deșteaptă-te, române!

"Deșteaptă-te, române!" (Romanian: [deʃˈte̯aptəte roˈmɨne] ^ⓘ; lit. 'Awaken Thee, Romanian!') is the national anthem of Romania. It originated from a poem written during the Wallachian Revolution of 1848.

The lyrics were composed by Andrei Mureșanu and published during the 1848 revolution, initially with the name "Un răsunet" ('An Echo'), as a lyrical response to Vasile Alecsandri's poem "Către Români" ('To Romanians'), later known as "Deșteptarea României" ('The Awakening of Romania'), from which Mureșanu took inspiration for many of the themes and motifs of his own lyrics, a fact that is reflected in the overall similarity between the two poems. The original text was written in the Romanian Cyrillic alphabet. It was first sung in late June in the same year in the city of Brașov, on the streets of the Șcheii Brașovului neighborhood and it became immediately the revolutionary anthem.

Since then, this patriotic song has been sung during all major Romanian conflicts, including during the 1989 anti-communist revolution. After the revolution, it became the national anthem on 24 January 1990, replacing the communist-era national anthem "Trei culori" ('Three Colours').

29 July, the National Anthem Day (Ziua Imnului național), is an annual observance in Romania.

The anthem was also used on various solemn occasions in the Moldavian Democratic Republic during its brief existence between 1917 and 1918. Between 1991 and 1994, "Deșteaptă-te, române!" was the national anthem of Moldova before it was subsequently replaced by "Limba noastră" ('Our Language').

As a side note, in modern vernacular, the word, and according family, of the word “deștept” can be interpreted as “smart”. As such, a common joke for fluent speakers, when lyrics begin “ Deșteaptă-te, române!” Can be loosely translated into “smarten-up, dear Romanian”.