Hey, It Grows and Grows lyrics and meaning

Ei auga auga ten ąžuolėlis
šalia pat vieškelėlio.

Tas ąžuolėlis, tas šimtašakėlis
su vėjužiu kalbėjo.
Žad ir nueiti, žad ir pakirsti
žad ir namo parvežti.
O ką darysi iš mano šakų,
iš mano liemenėlio?
Iš tavo šakų riestą važelį,
iš liemenio laivelį.
Žiemą --- važelį, bėrą žirgelį,
o vasarą --- laivelį.
Per lauką jojau, visur žiūrėjau,
tos mergytės norėjau.
Jei jos negaučiau, būčiau nuliūdęs,
būčiau visai prapuolęs.
Dėl tos mergytės, dėl tos jaunosios,
dėl mano mylimosios.
Bet nu aš linksmas, ryli railuži,
prie šalužės mergytės.

Hey, It Grows and Grows: song interpretation

This song can be understood as joining the motifs of an oak's transformation and courtship. At the beginning, beside the public road, grows a hundred-branched little oak that speaks with the wind. Someone promises to cut it down and bring it home, and the oak asks what will be made from its branches and trunk.

The answer is that the branches will become a curved sled, and the trunk a little boat: in winter the sled will go with a bay horse, and in summer the boat will serve. This image may be interpreted as the tree's transformation into useful objects suited to different seasons. The oak seems to give itself over to human work.

In the second part the speaker admits that while riding across the field he longed for a young woman: if he did not get her, he would be sorrowful and lost. At the end he is joyful beside his beloved. This turn can be understood as a happy courtship outcome in which tree and love motifs merge. This is one possible meaning, but the motifs of courtship and joy are clear.

A second interpretive version reads the speaking, hundred-branched oak as a trace of an older mythic layer. In Lithuanian worldview the oak is a sacred tree associated with the sky and Perkūnas, so its transformation into useful objects may echo an older idea that the tree voluntarily gives itself to human life. From this angle the first part does more than prepare the courtship story: it gives meaning to a harmonious exchange between human beings and nature, as a living, questioning tree becomes a sled and a boat that accompany people through the yearly cycle. This remains a hypothesis, but it explains why the oak is imagined as a conscious speaker.

Hey, It Grows and Grows: symbols and phrases

Hundred-branched oak
An oak growing by the road and speaking with the wind. It is the axis of the opening and the object of transformation.
Sled and boat
A sled made from the branches and a boat from the trunk. They mark the tree's transformation into useful things for winter and summer.
Young woman
The desired beloved for whom the speaker worries. She is the aim of courtship and joy.
"Ryli railuzi"
A sonorous refrain that accompanies the stanzas. It gives the song rhythm and a light mood.

Hey, It Grows and Grows: song history

"Hey, It Grows and Grows" belongs to love and courtship songs that join the transformation of a tree with marriage motifs. The first part uses a popular Lithuanian song image: a hundred-branched oak growing by the public road speaks with the wind, and it is to be cut down and turned into useful things, a curved sled from the branches for winter, and a boat from the trunk for summer. In the second part the speaker admits desire for a young woman and ends in a happy, joyful stanza beside the beloved, accompanied by the refrain "ryli railuzi."

The exact place and time of recording are not given on this page, so the song is presented through genre features. The motif of the speaking oak and its transformation, joined with courtship happiness, is frequent in Lithuanian love songs, and variants of such songs have been recorded in different regions.

sources

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

Hey, It Grows and Grows: sources