I Walk Along the Road lyrics and meaning

Aš einu keleliu,
Ragu dangų rėždamas,
Barzda kelią šluodamas,
Ir sutikau diedulių pulkų.
Aš dieduliam --- labų rytų,
Man dieduliai po kepurį.

Aš einu keleliu,
Ragu dangų rėždamas,
Barzda kelią šluodamas,
Ir sutikau bobulių pulkų.
Aš bobulėm --- labų rytų,
Man bobulės --- po skarelį.

Aš einu keleliu,
Ragu dangų rėždamas,
Barzda kelią šluodamas.
Ir sutikau bernelių pulkų.
Aš berneliam --- labų rytų,
Man berneliai --- po žiedelį.

Aš einu keleliu,
Ragu dangų rėždamas,
Barzda kelią šluodamas.
Ir sutikau mergelių pulkų.
Aš mergelėm --- labų rytų,
Man mergelės --- po juostelę.

Aš einu keleliu,
Ragu dangų rėždamas,
Barzda kelią šluodamas.
Ir sutikau vilkelių pulkų.
Aš vilkeliam --- trap trap trap,
Man vilkeliai --- knap knap knap,
-Ir nebėra oželio.

I Walk Along the Road: song interpretation

This song can be understood as a humorous song with an almost mythological tone and a fantastic narrator. The lines about scraping the sky with a horn and sweeping the road with a beard draw a gigantic, fairy-tale being whose horn reaches heaven and whose beard brushes the road. Such an image may be read as mythical or story-like, while the song itself was probably meant to entertain.

As this being travels, it meets groups of people and greets each one: old men give hats, old women give scarves, young men give rings, and young women give sashes. This listing of gifts can be interpreted as a playful picture of the community, where each group is marked by a characteristic object.

The ending turns into a joke: the narrator meets a pack of wolves, they begin to eat with "trap trap," the narrator can only answer helplessly with "knap knap," and the little goat is gone. This unexpected resolution can be understood as a comic, perhaps calendar-game ending in which predators win. That is one possible meaning, but the playful cumulative structure is unmistakable.

I Walk Along the Road: symbols and phrases

"Scraping the sky with a horn"
A fantastic image of a gigantic or mythical being. It gives the song a fairy-tale, comic opening.
Gifts by group
Hat, scarf, ring, and sash mark different community groups. They create a playful social picture.
Little wolves
The pack of wolves introduces danger and a comic resolution. They eat the goat and end the song unexpectedly.
Little goat
The goat that disappears at the end can be read as a victim or simply as the comic punch line of the cumulative story.

I Walk Along the Road: song history

"I Walk Along the Road" belongs to humorous songs with cumulative structure, where comedy is created by a fantastic narrator and the sequential naming of groups encountered on the way. Each stanza repeats the same opening formula, "scraping the sky with a horn, sweeping the road with a beard," and adds a new meeting: old men, old women, young men, young women, and finally wolves. Such additive repetition, with constantly changing gifts (hat, scarf, ring, sash), is typical of entertaining and game-like songs.

The precise place and date of recording are not given on the page, so the song is presented through its genre features. The image of a huge traveler with horns and a beard may carry an older mythical or fairy-tale coloring, while the sudden ending, where a pack of wolves eats the little goat through sound-words, returns the song to a purely humorous register.

sources

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

I Walk Along the Road: sources