diff --git a/tree-sitter.changes b/tree-sitter.changes
index 1f73888..d0a6b16 100644
--- a/tree-sitter.changes
+++ b/tree-sitter.changes
@@ -1,3 +1,11 @@
+-------------------------------------------------------------------
+Wed Mar  1 13:55:27 UTC 2023 - Matej Cepl <mcepl@suse.com>
+
+- VERSION string used in generating *.pc file
+  (among other things) has been hardcoded to 0.6.3
+  (gh#tree-sitter/tree-sitter#1608), we should at least fix it
+  using sed.
+
 -------------------------------------------------------------------
 Wed Jan 18 10:05:05 UTC 2023 - Matej Cepl <mcepl@suse.com>
 
diff --git a/tree-sitter.spec b/tree-sitter.spec
index 31f794c..4e4001f 100644
--- a/tree-sitter.spec
+++ b/tree-sitter.spec
@@ -70,6 +70,9 @@ developing applications that use %{name}.
 mkdir -p .cargo
 cp %{SOURCE2} .cargo/config
 
+# fix VERSION in Makefile
+sed -i -e '/^VERSION/s/:= .*$/:= %{version}/' Makefile
+
 %build
 %{cargo_build}
 export CFLAGS='%{optflags}'