Adopted 1976 | Relinquished 1979 | |
 | ||
Dahp Prampi Mesa Moha Chokchey (Khmer: ដប់ប្រាំពីរមេសាមហាជោគជ័យ, "Glorious Seventeenth of April") was the national anthem of Democratic Kampuchea from at least January 1976. Although the anthem may have been in use in the "liberated zone" much earlier, it was proclaimed the national anthem in article 18 of the Constitution of Kampuchea which was promulgated on 5 January 1976. Supposedly, the Khmer Rouge and/or Pol Pot himself wrote the piece, but its status remains unknown.
Although after Vietnam militarily intervened and forced the Khmer Rouge out of Cambodia, installing the People's Republic of Kampuchea and replacing the national anthem, the Khmer Rouge continued to use Dap Prampi Mesa Chokchey as its anthem in exile. And since the government-in-exile of the Khmer Rouge was recognized as the legitimate government of Cambodia by many Western nations and the United Nations, its anthem continued to be presented as the national anthem of Cambodia in the West until the restoration of the monarchy in 1993.
Translation into English
The bright scarlet blood
Flooded over the towns and plains of our motherland Kampuchea,
The blood of our good workers and farmers,
Our revolutionary fighters' blood, both men and women.
Their blood produced a great anger and the courage
To contend with heroism.
On 17 April, under the revolutionary banner,
Their blood freed us from the state of slavery.
Hurrah, hurrah,
For the glorious 17 April!
That wonderful victory had greater significance
Than the Angkor period!
We are uniting
To construct a Kampuchea with a new and better society,
Democratic, egalitarian and just.
We follow the road to firmly-based independence.
We absolutely guarantee to defend our motherland,
Our fine territory, our magnificent revolution!
Hurrah, hurrah,
Hurrah! For the new Kampuchea
A splendid, democratic land of plenty!
We guarantee to raise aloft and wave the red banner of the revolution.
We shall make our motherland prosperous beyond all others,
Magnificent, wonderful!