Drink, Brothers, and Revel lyrics and meaning

Gerkit broliai, uliavokit ei, ei jo,
Rytui švintant išmiegosma ei, ei jo.

Rytui švintant išmiegosma ei, ei jo,
Kur ketinoms, tį nujosma ei, ei jo.

Oi, tu, sese, lelijėle, ei, ei jo,
Nenekėk už kareivėlio, ei, ei jo.

Kareivėlis kožna dieną, ei, ei jo,
Kožną dieną in vaiskelį ei, ei jo.

Kožną dieną in vaiskelį ei, ei jo,
Kožną dieną in vainelį ei, ei jo.

Oi, tu, sese, lelijėle, ei, ei jo,
Tu tekėk už artojėlio, ei, ei jo.

Artojėlis kožną dieną, ei, ei, jo,
Kožną dieną su jauteliais, ei, ei, jo.

Kožną dieną su jauteliais, ei, ei, jo,
Kožną dieną su žagrelį, ei, ei, jo.

Drink, Brothers, and Revel: song interpretation

This song with the refrain "ei, ei jo" can be understood as a feast song that includes advice to a sister about marriage. At the beginning, the brothers are urged to drink and make merry, then sleep when morning dawns and ride where they had intended. The cheerful opening creates a banquet mood.

The song then addresses the sister, called a little lily, urging her not to marry a soldier. The reason is explained: the soldier rides every day into the army, into war. This advice can be interpreted as a warning that a soldier's wife is often left alone.

Instead of a soldier, the sister is urged to marry a ploughman, who is every day with his oxen and plough. This opposition can be understood as elevating the steady, home-working ploughman above the warrior who is constantly absent. This is one possible meaning, but the marriage-advice motif is clear in the song.

A second interpretive layer may also be seen. Beneath the feast-song surface there is an echo of military-historical songs: the soldier who goes "every day into the army" reflects a real fear that a warrior husband may not return or may leave his wife alone. The song then sounds not merely like banquet joking, but like a serious warning in which the ploughman means safe, stable life, while the soldier means danger and absence. This remains a possible reading, but it explains why a feast song so clearly opposes two possible husbands' destinies.

Drink, Brothers, and Revel: symbols and phrases

Revelry
The brothers' drinking and merrymaking. It creates the feast setting in which the advice to the sister is sung.
Soldier
A warrior who rides to war every day. He signifies an unreliable or often absent husband.
Ploughman
The man who works each day with oxen and plough. He signifies a steady provider who remains at home.
Little lily
The sister compared to a lily. She is the one being advised about her future husband.

Drink, Brothers, and Revel: song history

"Drink, Brothers, and Revel" joins the opening of a feast song with advice to a sister about marriage. Feast songs, or uliavojimas songs, are characterized by the call to drink and be merry, a banquet mood, and a sung refrain; here the refrain is "ei, ei jo," keeping the rhythm. In the second part, another layer emerges: the soldier who constantly rides into the army is opposed to the ploughman who stays at home with oxen and plough, and the sister is advised to choose the steady ploughman.

The exact place and time of recording are not given on this page, so the song is presented by genre traits. The opposition between soldier and ploughman is known in various Lithuanian song variants. Dialect forms such as "nenekėk," "kožną," and "in vaiskelį" show a living spoken tradition.

sources

  • Lietuvių liaudies dainynas, vols. 1-23, Vilnius 1980-2011 (LLTI)
  • Catalogue of Lithuanian Folk Songs, 6 vols., Vilnius 1972-1986

Drink, Brothers, and Revel: sources