Where Is That Spring? lyrics and meaning
Kur tas šaltinėlis
Kur aš jaunas gėriau?
Kur ta mano mergužėlė,
Kurią aš mylėjau?
Kurią aš mylėjau
Širdelėj turėjau
Kas naktelę per sapnelį
Žodelį kalbėjau
Jau tas šaltinėlis
Žolele užaugo
Jau ta mano mergužėlė
Už kito išėjo
Balnosiu žirgelį
Žirgą juodberėlį
Vysiu vysiu mergužėlę
Ir josios pulkelį
Where Is That Spring?: song interpretation
This song can be understood as a song about lost youth and love. At the beginning the speaker asks where that spring is, from which he drank when young, and where the young woman is, the one he loved. The pairing of spring and beloved can be interpreted as a sign of past time and past feeling.
He then remembers that he held the beloved in his heart and spoke a word to her every night in dreams. But now the spring has grown over with grass, and the young woman has married another. These images can be understood as irreversible loss: both the spring and the love have receded.
At the end he vows to saddle the dark bay horse and chase after the young woman and her wedding party. This resolve may be read as a hopeless attempt to recover what has been lost. That is one possible meaning, but the motif of lost youth and love is clear in the song.
Where Is That Spring?: symbols and phrases
- Spring overgrown with grass
- The spring from which he drank when young is now covered with grass. It marks the passing of time and receding youth.
- Beloved married to another
- The young woman has married someone else. She marks love that has been lost irreversibly.
- A word in a dream
- The word spoken nightly to the beloved in dreams. It marks deep, secret attachment.
- Dark bay horse
- The horse saddled to chase the young woman. It marks the hopeless resolve to recover what is lost.
Where Is That Spring?: song history
"Where Is That Spring?" belongs to love songs in which longing for lost youth and a distant beloved is expressed through images of nature: the spring overgrown with grass and the young woman married to another create a parallel image of loss. The poetics of the spring paired with the girl, the word spoken in dreams, and the saddling of the horse is typical of lyric love and separation songs.
The exact recording place and time are not given on this page, so the song is presented by genre. A note attached to this variant says that Damasceno learned it from A. F. Bendoraitis in the Amazon jungle, and that the recording is connected with the 2015 documentary expedition for "El padre médico"; this circumstance shows how a Lithuanian folk song could remain in memory far from Lithuania.
sources
- Lietuvių liaudies dainynas, vols. 1-23, Vilnius 1980-2011 (LLTI)
- Lietuvių liaudies dainų katalogas, 6 vols., Vilnius 1972-1986
Where Is That Spring?: sources
Where Is That Spring?: frequently asked questions
What kind of song is this?
It is a lyric love song about lost youth and a beloved who has married another.
What does the spring overgrown with grass mean?
The spring from which he drank when young is now overgrown, marking the passage of time and the distance of youth.
Why does he saddle the dark bay horse at the end?
Saddling the horse and chasing the young woman expresses a hopeless resolve to recover what has already been lost.
Where does this song variant come from?
A note says the song was sung in the context of an Amazon expedition, preserved in memory far from Lithuania; the exact original recording place is not given on the page.