Poor Little Orphan lyrics and meaning

Biedna siratėlė
Neturiu tėvelio
Neturiu tėvelio
Nei radnos močiutės.

Neturiu tėvelio
Nei radnos močiutės,
Tik turiu sesulę,
Kap gailią gegulę.

Išeikie, sesule,
Oran padaboti
Iš kurios šalelės
Ir vėjelis pučia.

Ar nuog rytelių,
Ar nuog vakarėlių,
Ar iš tos šalalės,
Kur mūsų tėvelis.

Ant tėvelio kapo
Žolynas nedygo,
Žolynas nedygo
Klevelis išdygo.

Klevelis išdygo,
Smulki viršūnėlė
Ant tos viršūnėlės
Gegulė kukavo.

Ant tos viršūnėlės
Gegulė kukavo
Gegulė kukavo
Tėvelį budino.

-Paskelkie tėveli,
Pabarkie žentelį,
Kad greitai nevaikščiot,
Tykiai nekalbėtų.

Kad greitai nevaikščiot,
Tykiai nekalbėtų,
Ant manes, siratos,
Rankelių nekeltų.

An manes, siratos,
Rankelių nekeltų,
Iš balto beržyno
Rykštelių nelaužtų.

Poor Little Orphan: song interpretation

This song can be understood as an orphan's lament about loss and mistreatment. At the beginning the poor orphan says she has neither father nor true mother, only a sister like a sorrowful cuckoo. The narration immediately creates a mood of loneliness and grief.

The sister is sent outside to see from which direction the wind is blowing, whether from the side where the father rests. No grass grows on the father's grave; instead a maple rises, and in its top a cuckoo calls and wakes the father. This image can be read as the orphan's attempt to call back her dead father.

The daughter asks the father to rise and scold the son-in-law or brother-in-law so that he will not move threateningly, speak softly in menace, raise his hands against her, the orphan, or break birch switches. This plea can be understood as a complaint about harm within the family, from which only the dead father might still defend the orphan. That is one possible reading, but the themes of orphanhood and injury are clear.

Poor Little Orphan: symbols and phrases

Little orphan
A girl deprived of father and mother. She is the speaker and sufferer of the song.
Cuckoo on the grave
The cuckoo calling from the maple on the father's grave wakes the dead father and connects the living with the dead.
Žentelis
A son-in-law or brother-in-law who harms the orphan. He is the source of the complaint.
Birch switches
Switches broken from the birch grove and used as a threat of beating. They mark violence and injury.

Poor Little Orphan: song history

"Poor Little Orphan" belongs to family songs, specifically to the orphanhood branch, which is often sung with the intonation of a lament. The song is formed as a continuous complaint: first the orphan lists her losses, with neither father nor true, own mother left, only a sister "like a sorrowful cuckoo"; then she asks the sister to see from which side the wind blows, and finally she turns to the dead father to defend her from harm.

The exact recording place and time are not given on this page, so the song is presented through its genre traits. The central image, a maple growing on the father's grave with a cuckoo calling in its top to wake the dead man, joins the worlds of the living and the dead. It is a typical motif in orphan songs, as is the complaint about the son-in-law or brother-in-law raising a hand and breaking birch switches, signs of experienced violence.

sources

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

Poor Little Orphan: sources