Kilo Lingo

Esperanto song

Ho, mia kor'

Oh, My Heart

Lyrics

Strofo 1

, ', e,

!

,

, '!

Strofo 2

, '!

'?

! u l' o,

, '!

New words in this song

Comprehension drill

4 questions on what you just read. Get one wrong and the story will show you where it says otherwise.

Words by L. L. Zamenhof (1859-1917), written 1887 and published in the Unua Libro as one of the language's two founding poems; text fixed in his own Fundamenta Krestomatio (1903). The melody in the linked video is a modern composition by ĴomArt kaj Nataŝa, released under a Creative Commons Attribution licence. Source text. Melody: Words public domain (Zamenhof, d. 1917); melody CC BY, ĴomArt kaj Nataŝa. Translation ours.

In 1887 a Warsaw eye doctor was about to publish a small book proposing a new language for the world, and his heart was hammering. So he wrote to it, in the language itself - eight lines telling his own heart to calm down - and printed the poem in that first book. You are singing the founding document's stage fright.

The verse teaches the negative imperative in its most natural setting: e - do not beat restlessly - and later the reflexive u, calm yourself. Notice too the apostrophes: ', ', l' o. Esperanto poetry may drop the final -o of a noun, and sung Esperanto does it constantly; your eye should learn to read kor' as koro without slowing down. The full rules of that apostrophe - what may be cut, and what never may - are in poetic Esperanto.

The words have been public property since 1917. The tune here is modern: the duo ĴomArt kaj Nataŝa wrote it and released their setting under a Creative Commons licence that asks only for their names - so here they are, with our thanks.