Gray Falcon Passing By lyrics and meaning

Vai šaliu šaliu sieras sakalėli pro manį
Vai šaliu šaliu mėlynas paukšteli pro manį

Aš išlakiojau šimtų mylaliu dar ir dzvi
Ir nepamatiau tokios paukštelės kap tavį
Ir nepamatiau tokios raibosios kap tavį

Raibos plunksnelės, mėlynos akelės tai tavo
O tu gegiula, o tu raiboja tu mano

Vai šaliu šaliu juodas debesėli pro manį
Vai šaliu šaliu jaunas bernužėli pro manį

Aš išvakščiojau šimtų kermošėlių dar ir du
Ir nepamatiau tokios mergelės kap tavį
Ir nepamatiau tokos jaunosios kap tavį

Gelsvos kaselės, mėlynos akelės tai tavo
O tu mergele, o tu jaunoji tu mano

Gray Falcon Passing By: song interpretation

This song can be understood as a parallel love song comparing a falcon and a young man. At the beginning, the song addresses the gray falcon, the blue bird flying past, saying: I have flown a hundred miles and two more, but I have not seen a bird like you. This image can be read as the search for an incomparable beloved.

Then the song praises the speckled feathers and blue eyes of the cuckoo, who is called "mine." These images can be understood as praise of the beloved's beauty.

At the end, the same structure is transferred to the young man, compared with a black cloud: I have walked through a hundred fairs, but have not seen a girl like you, with yellowish braids and blue eyes. These images can be read as the beloved's uniqueness among all others. This is one possible meaning, but the falcon-young-man parallel and the praise of the beloved are clear.

Gray Falcon Passing By: symbols and phrases

Gray falcon, blue bird
The falcon flying past is parallel to the young man.
"I flew a hundred miles and saw none like you"
The falcon's huge journey without finding an equal marks the beloved's uniqueness.
Speckled feathers and blue eyes of the cuckoo
The praised cuckoo's beauty marks the beloved young woman's charm.
Yellowish braids of the girl
The young woman's light braids mark the beloved's beauty.

Gray Falcon Passing By: song history

"Gray Falcon Passing By" belongs to love songs in which the beloved's uniqueness is conveyed through a bird parallel. The song is made of two parallel parts: first a gray falcon, a blue bird flying past, is addressed and says that after flying a hundred miles "and two more" it has not found such a bird; then the same praise formula is transferred to the young man and girl, where after walking through a hundred fairs no equal young woman is found. Such pairing of bird and human being, psychological parallelism, is one of the most characteristic features of Lithuanian lyrical love songs.

The exact place and time of recording are not given on this page, so the song is presented according to genre features. Dialectal forms such as "šaliu," "pro manį," "kap tavį," and "dzvi" point to the Dzūkian area. The song has close variants with the same images but small differences, for example in numbers or eye color, as is typical of a living sung tradition.

sources

  • Lietuvių liaudies dainynas, vols. 1-23, Vilnius 1980-2011 (LLTI)
  • Lietuvių liaudies dainų katalogas, 6 vols., Vilnius 1972-1986

Gray Falcon Passing By: sources