I Walked Through the Orchards Gathering Leaves lyrics and meaning

Po sodų vaikščiojau aš lapelius rinkau,
Oi pucine raudonasai.

Aš lapelius rinkau, pakeliuosna dėjau,
Tai girdziu --- šaukia penki alasėliai,

Pirmas alasėlis --- mano šešurėlio,
Antras alasėlis --- mano anytėlės,
Tracias alasėlis --- mano dzieverėlio,
Kecvirtas alasėlis --- mano mošytėlės,
Penktas alasėlis --- nuo jaunojo bernelio,

Aš in šešurėlį su plonais marškinėliais,
Aš in anytėlį su plonu drobeli,
Aš in dzieverėlį su plonu abrūsėliu,
Aš in mošelį su šilko kuskeli,

I Walked Through the Orchards Gathering Leaves: song interpretation

This song can be understood as a daughter-in-law's song about distributing gifts to the husband's kin. At the beginning, while walking through the orchard and gathering leaves with a refrain about the red viburnum, the young wife hears five calling voices, or alasėliai. This image can be interpreted as the husband's family addressing the new bride.

The voices are then named: the first belongs to the father-in-law, the second to the mother-in-law, the third to the husband's brother, the fourth to the husband's sister, and the fifth to the young husband. This enumeration can be understood as the introduction of the new family into which the bride has entered.

At the end the bride goes to each with a gift: to the father-in-law with fine shirts, to the mother-in-law with fine linen, to the husband's brother with a towel, and to the husband's sister with a silk kerchief. These images can be interpreted as the wedding custom of gift-giving, when the young bride presented her husband's kin with textiles made by her own hands. That is one possible meaning, but the motif of the bride distributing gifts is clear in the song.

I Walked Through the Orchards Gathering Leaves: symbols and phrases

Red viburnum
The red viburnum repeated in the refrain. It marks maidenhood and the wedding mood.
Five alasėliai
Five calling voices of the husband's kin. They mark the new family into which the bride has entered.
Father-in-law, mother-in-law, husband's brother, husband's sister
The husband's father, mother, brother, and sister. They mark the bride's new in-law family.
Shirts, linen, towel, kerchief
Gifts given to each relative. They mark the wedding custom of textile gift-giving.

I Walked Through the Orchards Gathering Leaves: song history

"I Walked Through the Orchards Gathering Leaves" belongs to wedding songs about the young daughter-in-law and her gifts to the husband's kin. The structure rests on enumeration: the bride hears "five alasėliai" - five calling voices of the husband's family, the father-in-law, mother-in-law, husband's brother, husband's sister, and the young husband - and then brings a gift to each. Such listing of kin, with the repeated viburnum refrain, is a typical feature of wedding gift songs.

The text is written in Dzūkian dialect forms such as "tracias," "kecvirtas," and "in šešurėlį," but the exact recording place and time are not given on this page, so the song is presented by genre. The bride's gifts - fine shirts, linen, an abrūsas towel, a silk kerchief - reflect a real wedding custom in which the young woman gave her new relatives textiles made by her own hands.

sources

  • Lietuvių liaudies dainynas, vols. 1-23, Vilnius 1980-2011 (LLTI)
  • A. Juška. Lietuviškos svotbinės dainos, 2 vols., Vilnius 1955
  • Lietuvių liaudies dainų katalogas, 6 vols., Vilnius 1972-1986

I Walked Through the Orchards Gathering Leaves: sources