Arise, The Long Night Is Over

"Arise, The Long Night Is Over", mostly known as the national anthem of the The Commonwealth of Ardun, is a poem written by syndicalist poet and writer Ewan Crane.
The song was written at the onset of the Ardunan Civil War, after Crane himself participated in the first conflict of the war, The Battle of Mulder. According to Crane, he had started to despair during the battle, after seeing the greater numbers and modern equipment of the loyalist army. There were several times when, sitting at the barricades, he contemplated fleeing or ending his own life to avoid capture or torture. However, in the final days of the battle, when syndicalists managed to encircle and break the nationalist lines, he was "filled with a great hope, as if I had jumped from a cliff, only to fall into my mother's arms". Crane wrote the entirety of the poem in a crumpled piece of paper on the last day of fighting, when the last of the nationalist divisions were routed. The hopeful, relieved melody of the song itself was reportedly also Crane's idea, as he had a background as a violin player.
The paper where the anthem was originally written sits at the Museum of Social History, in Caerun.

Ardun, Arise! The long, long night is over,
Bright in the east behold the dawn appear;
Out of your evil dream of toil and sorrow
Arise, O Ardun, for the day is here!
From your fields and hills
Hark! The answer swells:
Arise, O Ardun, for the day is here!

People of Ardun, all your valleys call you,
High in the rising sun the lark sings clear;
Will you dream on, let shameful slumber thrall you?
Will you disown your native land so dear?

Shall it die unheard-
That sweet pleading word?
Arise, O Ardun, for the day is here!

Over your face, a web of lies is woven,
Laws that are falsehoods pin you to the ground;
Labour is mocked, its just reward is stolen,
On its bent back sits idleness encrowned;

How long, while you sleep,
Your harvest shall it reap?
Arise, O Ardun, for the day is here!

Forth then, ye heroes, patriots and lovers!
Comrades of danger, poverty and scorn!
Mighty in faith of Freedom, your great Mother!
Giants refreshed in joy's new-rising morn!

Come and swell the song
Silent now so long -
Ardun is risen, and the day is here!

Type

Text, Literary (Novel/Poetry)

Signatories (Organizations)

• Commonwealth of Ardun