Read more text from database

Hello, I wanted to put my custom text on Read more link.
The text is dynamically loaded from the database based on the language used in the browser.
But…
When i put in “Read more text:” label my code to download text

<?php echo $translation['readmore']; ?>

In result, instead of text from database, there appears commented code

<!-- ?php echo $translation['readmore']; ? -->

Is there any way to put php echo in read more btn?
Thanks!