I Traveled Day and Night lyrics and meaning

Važiavau dzienų, važiavau naktį,
Jir privažiavau, žalių pievelį. /x2

Toje pievelėj, toje žaliojoj,
Jauna mergelė grėbia šienelį. /x2

Ne tiek ji grėbė, kiek gailiai verkė,
Ant grėblužėlio pasirendama. /x2

Oi žeme, žeme, žiemele siera,
Priėmei tėvą ir motinėlį. /x2

Priėmei tėvą ir motinėlį.
Priimki ir mani, jauną mergelį. /x2

Žemelė tarė, našlaitę barė,
Per jauna būsi žemelėj pūti. /x2

I Traveled Day and Night: song interpretation

This song can be understood as an orphan girl's lament. At the beginning the narrator traveled day and night until reaching a green meadow where a young girl was raking hay. This image can be read as a travel scene and a portrait of the girl encountered.

The song then says that she did not rake so much as weep bitterly, leaning on her rake, and addressed the gray earth that had taken in her father and mother. These images can be understood as the grief of orphanhood.

At the end the girl asks the earth to take her too, but the earth scolds the orphan, saying she is too young to rot in the ground. This answer can be read as a life-preserving response in a moment of grief. This is one possible meaning, but the motifs of the orphan's pain and wish to die are clear in the song.

I Traveled Day and Night: symbols and phrases

Green meadow, girl raking
The meadow where the young girl rakes hay. It marks the place of encounter.
Weeping on the rake
The girl leaning on her rake and crying. It marks orphan grief.
Gray earth that received father and mother
The earth that has already taken in the dead parents. It marks their loss.
Earth's rebuke: "too young"
The earth's refusal to receive the girl because she is too young. It marks a response that does not surrender life.

I Traveled Day and Night: song history

"I Traveled Day and Night" belongs to family songs about orphanhood, close to lament in its tone of grief. The song begins with a travel opening, traveling by day and night until the narrator reaches a green meadow, and leads to the central image: a young girl who "did not rake so much as weep bitterly," leaning on the rake.

The exact place and time of recording are not stated on this page, so the song is presented through genre features. The address to the "gray earth," which has already received the father and mother and is asked to receive the orphan too, is a usual motif of orphan songs. The answer of the personified earth, that the girl is "too young to rot in the ground," deepens the grief while also adding a life-preserving note. The dialect form "dzienų" shows a Dzūkian rendering.

sources

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

I Traveled Day and Night: sources