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Where Have You Been, My Young Man? lyrics and meaning

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Vai kur tu buvai, bernyti mano Vai kur tu buvai, jaunasis mano? Ar už jūrių maružėlių žuvelių pažvejot? /2x Ar daug sugavai, bernyti mano? Ar daug sugavai, jaunasis mano? Vieną mažą žuvytėlę --- margąją lydekėl. /2x Tinklelį taisiau, rankas mazgojau, /2x Paskandinau žiedužėlį, rankelių žėrunėl. /2x Žiedelį grėbiau, patsai įpuoliau, /2x Gelbėk mane, mergužėle, aš jau marių žentas. /2x Gelbėt gelbėčiau, kad aš galėčiau, /2x Aš neturiu laivužėlio nei klevinio irklel. /2x Juodas laivelis girioj ant kalnelio, /2x O kleviniai irklužėliai tėvelio sodely. /2x

Meaning

This song can be understood as a dialogic ballad about a drowned ring. At the beginning the young man is asked where he has been - fishing for fish beyond the sea - and how much he caught; he answers that he caught one small speckled pike. This image can be interpreted as a fishing introduction.

Then, while mending the net and washing her hands, the girl sinks the little ring, and the young man, reaching for the ring, falls in himself and asks to be rescued, saying that he is already the son-in-law of the sea. The phrase "son-in-law of the sea" can be understood as an image of drowning and death.

At the end the girl says she would rescue him if she could, but she has neither a little boat nor a maple oar, since the black boat is in the forest on the hill and the maple oars are in her father's garden. These images can be interpreted as rescue that is far away and unreachable. That is one possible meaning, but the motif of the drowned ring and disaster is clear.

The song can also be read not only as a story of accidental misfortune but as a symbolic song about failed marriage or fate. In folk songs a drowned ring often means lost love or a broken bond, while water is a boundary between states of being; then the young man's fall and the words "I am already the son-in-law of the sea" sound like an ironic or fatal parody of marriage - instead of marrying the girl, he "marries" the waters. In this reading, the fact that the means of rescue are symbolically inaccessible, in the forest and in the father's garden, shows not carelessness but unavoidable fate: the disaster once begun can no longer be undone. This remains an inference, but it explains why the song so strongly stresses the impossibility of rescue.

Symbols

Fishing beyond the sea
The young man's fishing in distant waters. It marks the song's opening.
Drowned ring
The ring lost into the water. It marks a lost precious object and the beginning of disaster.
"Son-in-law of the sea"
The words of the young man who has fallen into the water. They mark an image of drowning and death.
Absent boat and maple oar
The boat and oars located far away, in the forest and garden. They mark rescue that cannot be reached.

History

"Where Have You Been, My Young Man?" belongs to ballad-like songs that tell of disaster by the water. The song is built as dialogue: first the young man is asked where he was and how many fish he caught; then the girl, while mending the net, sinks the ring; and the young man, trying to retrieve it, falls into the water and asks for help. The question-and-answer structure, diminutive forms such as little ring, little boat, and little oars, and the tragic ending are typical features of Lithuanian ballads.

The exact place and time of recording are not stated on this page, so the song is presented by genre features. The phrase "I am already the son-in-law of the sea" and the ending, where the means of rescue - a boat in the forest on the hill and maple oars in the father's garden - are impossibly far away, create the impression of unavoidable misfortune typical of ballad narration about drowning.

Sources