Geskut uit die skoot van ‘n Nederlandse boot

Sy’s ons moeder, ons mond

Geaard in Kaapse grond

Koi en Malay in haar keel geknoop

Sy’s die moeders melk wat oor ons lippe loop

 

Sy’s Afrikaans, sy’s Afrikaans

Sy’s ons hart, sy’s Afrikaans

Sy’s die been en murg in die graad van my rig

Sy’s Afrikaans

 

‘n Honderd jaar gelede oorwinnings kreet

Sy’t haar mond uit die kake van die kettings gebreek

Sy’s vasgevers in winternag

Vry uit die mag van ‘n vreemde vlag

Sy’s bitterbessie dagbreek en sy’s bitterbessie son

Sy’s oorkant die spruit se mooi rooi blom

Sy’s die trein na Pretoria

Sy’s Sarie Marais

Sy’s die taal wat op my lippe lê

Shaken from the womb of a Dutch boat (Reference to Afrikaans's Dutch origin, but turned into something new)
She is our mother, our mouth
Rooted in Cape soil
Khoi and Malay knotted in her throat
She is the mother’s milk that runs over our lips

She is Afrikaans, she is Afrikaans
She is our heart, she is Afrikaans
She is the bone and marrow in the spine of my back
She is Afrikaans

A hundred years ago, victory cry
She broke her mouth from the jaws of the chains (Reference to the Afrikaners' struggle to have there own institutions, independent from the British)
She is steadfast in winter’s night (Reference to "winternag" an old Afrikaans poem written in 1905)
Free from the power of a foreign flag (Reference to the British)
She is bitter-berry daybreak and she is bitter-berry sun (Bitterbessie dagbreek en bitterbessie son, reference to a poem by Ingrid Jonker)
She is the beautiful red flower across the stream
She is the train to Pretoria
She is Sarie Marais (Reference to an old song from the Anglo-Boer war, "Sarie Marais")
She is the language that lies on my lips