When I Lived with Mother lyrics and meaning

Kap aš buvau pas motulį
Prausiau veidų žaliu vynu /x2

Prausiau veidų žaliu vynu
Nusišluostiau abrūsėliu /x2

Kap patekau anytėlai
Prausiau veidų vandenėliu /x2

Prausiau veidų vandenėliu
Nusišluostiau kvartukėliu /x2

Gali svirno vyšnių sodas,
Tam sodely volungėlė /x2

Tam sodely volungėlė
Tai ji gražiai užgrajino /x2

Tai ji gražiai užgrajino
Jaunų marcių pribudzino /x2

-Kelkis, marci, nemiegoke,
Jau anyta užsikėlė /x2

Jau anyta užsikėlė,
Tavi, marcių, apkalbėjo /x2

-Testa kalba anytėlė
Puikus mano bernužėlis /x2

Kap nuveisiu svirnan gulcia,
Paporysiu bernužėliui /x2

Kad jos manį nekalbėtų
Nei valalės neturėtų /x2

When I Lived with Mother: song interpretation

This song can be understood as a daughter-in-law's song contrasting an easy life with her mother and a harder lot with her mother-in-law. At the beginning, when she was with her mother, the girl washed her face with green wine and dried herself with a towel. Once she came to the mother-in-law, she washed with water and dried herself with an apron. This contrast can be interpreted as the change in a girl's position after marriage.

At the end of the storehouse there is a cherry orchard, where an oriole sings beautifully and wakes the young daughter-in-law. The oriole's waking can be understood as the message that the mother-in-law has already risen and spoken against her.

The daughter-in-law answers that the mother-in-law may speak, because her young man is fine. When she goes to sleep in the storehouse, she promises to tell her young man so that the mother-in-law would not speak against her and would have no power over her. This image can be interpreted as the daughter-in-law's reliance on her husband against the mother-in-law's reproaches. That is one possible meaning, but the motif of the daughter-in-law's lot and her relation with the mother-in-law is clear.

When I Lived with Mother: symbols and phrases

Washing with wine and water
Washing the face with green wine at the mother's home and with water at the mother-in-law's. It marks the contrast between ease and hardship.
Towel and apron
A towel at the mother's home and an apron at the mother-in-law's. They mark the change in status after marriage.
Oriole in the orchard
The oriole singing and waking the daughter-in-law in the cherry orchard. It is a messenger of the mother-in-law's reproaches.
Young husband as support
The husband to whom the daughter-in-law promises to complain. He is her protection against the mother-in-law's words.

When I Lived with Mother: song history

"When I Lived with Mother" belongs to family songs of the daughter-in-law's lot, which contrast an easy maiden life in the parents' home with the harder condition beside the mother-in-law. The change in status is expressed through everyday details: with her mother the girl washed her face in "green wine" and dried herself with a towel, while with the mother-in-law she washes in water and dries herself with an apron.

The exact place and time of recording are not stated on this page, so the song is presented according to genre features; the text is recorded in dialect forms (kap, marci, bernužėliui, paporysiu). The oriole's waking call, the mother-in-law's gossip, and the daughter-in-law's support in her husband - "my fine young man" - are frequent motifs in Lithuanian family songs about the relation between daughter-in-law and mother-in-law.

sources

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

When I Lived with Mother: sources