A Green Linden Grew lyrics and meaning

Ir pajaugo žali leipa, ir pajaugo žali leipa,
Ir pajaugo žali leipa, keimo vydurią,
Ir pajaugo žali leipa, keimo vydurią.

Ir atlekė volugelė, ir atlekė volugelė,
Ir atlekė volugelė, tupė unt šakel,
Ir atlekė volugelė, tupė unt šakel.

Oi volunge volungeli, oi volunge volungeli
Oi volunge volungeli kami tu lakiojai?
Oi volunge volungeli kami tu lakiojai?

Aš lakiojau aukštuos kalnuos, aš lakiojau aukštuos kalnuos,
Aš lakiojau aukštuos kalnuos, žaliuos birštvynel.
Aš lakiojau aukštuos kalnuos, žaliuos birštvynel.

Oi volunge volungeli, oi volunge volungeli
Oi volunge volungeli knuom tu ti regėjai?
Oi volunge volungeli knuom tu ti regėj?

Aš regėjau jaunas poras, aš regėjau jaunas poras,
Aš regėjau jaunas poras unt šliubų važuojant.
Aš regėjau jaunas poras unt šliubų važuoj.

A Green Linden Grew: song interpretation

This dialect song can be understood as a song about an oriole watching young couples' wedding journey. At the beginning a green linden grows in the middle of the village, and an oriole flies in and perches on its branch. The linden at the village center and the bird on the branch create an image of watching and gathering.

The oriole is asked where it has flown. It answers that it has flown over high hills and green pinewoods. This answer can be read as the wide world covered by the bird's flight, in contrast to the linden that stands in one place.

When asked what it saw there, the oriole answers that it saw young couples traveling to the šliūbas, the wedding ceremony. This image can be understood as the approach of marriage and a new life, conveyed through the bird's words. This is one possible meaning, but the wedding and youth motif is clear in the song.

A Green Linden Grew: symbols and phrases

Green linden
The linden growing in the middle of the village, where the bird perches. It is a place of focus and observation.
Oriole
The bird that flies in and is questioned. It is an observer and messenger from the wider world.
High hills and pinewoods
The places where the oriole has flown. They mark the wide world encompassed by the bird's flight.
Young couples going to the šliūbas
The young couples traveling to the wedding ceremony. They mark marriage and the start of a new life.

A Green Linden Grew: song history

"A Green Linden Grew" belongs to wedding songs in which the wedding scene is conveyed through the observation and speech of a bird, the oriole. Such songs characteristically use a tree image, here a linden in the middle of the village, questions put to the bird about where it has flown and what it has seen, and repeated stanzas and lines. The dialectal writing, with forms such as "leipa" for liepa, "volugelė" for volungėlė, and "unt šliubų" for to the wedding ceremony, shows a living spoken tradition.

The page gives no exact place or time of recording, so the song is presented through genre features. The bird-messenger motif in wedding songs is known in different Lithuanian regions. The oriole's answer, that it has seen young couples going to the šliūbas, presents marriage and the beginning of a new life indirectly, through the bird's speech.

sources

  • Lietuvių liaudies dainynas, vols. 1-23, Vilnius 1980-2011 (LLTI)
  • A. Juška. Lietuviškos svotbinės dainos, 2 vols., Vilnius 1955
  • Lietuvių liaudies dainų katalogas, 6 vols., Vilnius 1972-1986

A Green Linden Grew: sources