In an old Hungarian film by the great director Zoltan Fabri, Sweet Anna (1958), set in post-war Budapest, there is an interesting mass scene where army veterans return from the Italian front. They fought on the Piave and tell everyone about the horror of the battle, about their comrades who drowned in the waves of the river and the trauma of defeat.
For me, an Italian, that film was a discovery: I knew that the Hungarians had also fought on the Piave, but that film was told from the enemy's side. It is not for nothing that Zoltan Fabri (1917-1994) is one of his nation's greatest directors.
But let's get back to the main topic. In detail, the military unit we are talking about was the 106th "Honvéd" regiment, that is, it was part of the Hungarian national army.
In the Austro-Hungarian Empire there were “common” regiments and Austrian or Hungarian ones. The regiment also managed to cross the Piave, but failed to establish a bridgehead and had to retreat with heavy losses.
La March of the Piave ("Piave Indulò" in Hungarian) was his standard music and is worth analyzing. Meanwhile, his tone is triumphalistic, very different from ours Song of the Piave and it has a history of its own. The young Hungarian commander, Colonel Anton von Lehár, had been near Oderzo with his 106th regiment since November 1917. The future general wanted a "military anthem suited to the times and places", and luckily for him his brother intervened Franz (or Ferenc) von Lehár, the well-known composer of “The Merry Widow”, among other things. Just as Strauss had written the Radetzky March, Lehàr wrote it in March 1918 March of the Piave, which is characterized by a brilliant musical quality and a liveliness of themes unusual in a military march, as well as by a Hungarian colour.
The text, by Gyula Szabò, is more emphatic and we report it in the translation by Krisztina Sándor:
Dedicated to Colonel Antal Lehár and the heroes of the 106th Regiment
Forward, attack, strong fighting army!
Forward, to victory, heroic army!
Forward, for ancient, glorious deeds! Forward the Schita lineage, full speed ahead!
Forward, against the enemy, you will win, you will win!
May the evil world be destroyed, may the evil world collapse!
Forward, against the enemy, you will win, you will win!
Hungarian infantrymen, let our victory ring and be known!
You must go and die, ancient Kuruc lineage1 of valiant blood!
The bloody attack did not destroy you: The ferocious waves attacked you.
The taste of the kiss of the gray river will accompany you in death!
Brave and feared regiment, you crossed the river: thunders the song, the song of the victors.
Come on Hungarians, come on!
Hell attacked the Magyars, but the army did not give in.
Perhaps the earth trembled, its flames came out… as they fought destroying the gates of hell!
Your ancient sabre, Attila's swift sword which brings with it the fire and glory of the ages.
Turks and Tartars feared it and the whole world saw it.
A millennium now comes to praise the Hungarian lineage.
Forward, only forward, you will win, you will win!
May the evil world be destroyed, may the evil world collapse!
Forward, against the enemy, you will win, you will win!
Hungarian infantrymen, let our victory ring and be known.
Listen Magiaro, listen, hear how the roaring river flows away.
Said this, let's listen to it. It is truly great music and honors the Hungarian soldiers that our grandparents had to repel on the Piave.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_bg0Yciszo
Footnotes
1 Kuruc (pron. Kurutz) refers to the anti-Habsburg rebel bands of the Kingdom of Hungary, active between 1671 and 1711.
