The Sun Has Set lyrics and meaning

Jau saulutė užusėdo
Siratėlė užblūdijo

Visur tėtė ieškojo
Ir siratėlės neranda

Jeigu žvėrys būt suplėšę
Visos žvėrys rasšalitų

Jeigu girioj užblūdijus
Visos girios rasšulitų

Jeigu upėj nuskandinus
Visos upes rasilietų

Gale lauko kapeliai
Jing kapelių avietėlė

Tenai verkė siratėlė
Savo motulį budina

Kelkis mano motula
Pašuji man galvelį

Pašuji man galvelį
Atmainai man marškinėlius

Turi tu sau mocekėlį
Pašukuos tau galvelį

Pašukuos tau galvelį
Atmainys man marškinėlius

Tikra mano motinėlė
Pikta mano močekėlė

Vieną rozą pašukavo
Visus plaukelius nupešė

Marškinėlius duodama
Amžinai mane prakeikė

Kad tu šitų marškinėlių
Šitų jau nepernešiotum

Šitų jau nepernešiotum
O daugiau neprašytum

The Sun Has Set: song interpretation

This song can be understood as an orphan girl's song about getting lost and suffering under a cruel stepmother. At the beginning, the sun has set and the little orphan has wandered off and lost her way. Her father searches everywhere but cannot find her. The lostness immediately creates a mood of anxiety and solitude.

The song considers possible outcomes: if beasts had torn her apart, they would scatter; if she were lost in the forest, the forests would sway; if she had drowned in the river, the rivers would overflow. These images can be read as nature's response, which does not occur, so the girl is found at the far end of the field by the graves, where she weeps and tries to wake her mother.

The girl asks her dead mother to comb her little head and change her shirt, but she is reminded of the stepmother. The stepmother is shown as cruel: when she once combed the girl, she tore out all her hair, and when giving her a shirt, she cursed her forever. This contrast can be understood as the painful fate of an orphan without a mother's love. That is one possible meaning, but orphanhood and stepmother cruelty are clear motifs in the song.

The Sun Has Set: symbols and phrases

Lost orphan girl
The orphan who loses her way after sunset. She marks solitude and vulnerability.
Nature's response
Beasts, forests, and rivers that would react to loss. Their stillness emphasizes that the girl is found by the graves.
Graves and raspberry bush
The graves at the field's edge, with raspberries, where the mother rests. There the orphan seeks comfort.
Stepmother's curse
The stepmother who tears out hair and curses while giving a shirt. She marks cruelty and the absence of love.

The Sun Has Set: song history

"The Sun Has Set" belongs to family songs whose core is the motif of orphanhood: a lost orphan girl, an address at the grave of her dead mother, and the contrast with a cruel stepmother. The song's structure rests on a formulaic listing of possible endings - if beasts had torn her apart, if she had become lost in the forest, if she had drowned in the river, nature would have responded - and only then is she found at the far end of the field by the graves. This listing of unrealized outcomes deepens the impression of loneliness and vulnerability.

The exact place and date of recording are not given on this page, so the song is presented by genre. The address at the grave, "Rise, my mother, comb my head," is a common formula in Lithuanian orphan songs, while the stepmother's curse, uttered as she gives a shirt, sharpens the opposition between a mother's love and a stepmother's injury.

sources

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

The Sun Has Set: sources