The Linden Had Nine Branches (Lioj Taduvela) lyrics and meaning

Turėja liepa, lioj taduvėla,
Devynias šakas, lylia ratulėli.
Taduvo, taduvo, taduvėla taduvo,
Ratulo ratulo, ratulėli ratulo.

Visas devynias, lioj taduvėla,
Vėtrėla palaužė, lylia ratulėli…

Palik naž vienų, lioj taduvėla,
Gegiulai inskristi lylia ratulėli…

Gegiulai inskristi, lioj taduvėla,
Gražiai pakukuoti, lylia ratulėli…

Turėja motka, lioj taduvėla,
Devynias dukras, lylia ratulėli…

Visas devynias, lioj taduvėla,
Piršlaliai išpiršo, lylia ratulėli…

Palik naž vienų, lioj taduvėla,
Aslalai pašluoti, lylia ratulėli…

◈ Atitartinės varianto giedojimas. Pirmoji grupė pradeda ir sudainavus „taduvo“, trečioji grupė atitaria pirmajai „taduvo“, o pirmoji pabaigia posmą: „taduvėla taduvo“, lygiai taip pat „ratulo“ (I g.), „ratulo“ (IIIg.), „ratulėli, ratulo“ (I g.). Analogiškai antroji grupė atitaria trečiajai, o pirmoji – antrajai.
◈ Pateikė V. Katinienė, 80 m., Sudelių kaimas, Utenos rajonas, užrašyta 1985 m.

The Linden Had Nine Branches (Lioj Taduvela): sutartinė interpretation

This sutartinė with the refrain "lioj taduvėla, lylia ratulėli" can be understood as a song in which the fates of the linden tree and the mother with daughters are set in parallel. In the first part, the linden had nine branches; the little storm broke them all, leaving only one for the cuckoo to fly into and sing beautifully. This image can be read as the diminishing of a tree until only a single branch remains.

In the second part, the same parallel shifts to the mother. She had nine daughters; matchmakers married them off, leaving only one to sweep the floor. The comparison identifies the tree's branches with daughters: daughters leaving in marriage are like branches broken from the tree.

A second reading sees the linden, in Lithuanian worldview, as a feminine tree connected with motherhood and the goddess Laima, while nine is a sacred number of fullness. "A linden with nine branches = a mother with nine daughters" may therefore be more than a simple comparison; it may preserve an archaic identity between tree and human being. The daughters' marriages, like the breaking of branches, are experienced as loss, and the last daughter who remains is the youngest, staying with the mother. The sutartinė comes close to a wedding lament: under the calm, circular sound of the atitartinė lies grief for a household becoming empty.

The Linden Had Nine Branches (Lioj Taduvela): symbols and phrases

Linden with nine branches
A tree losing its branches. In Lithuanian tradition the linden is feminine and linked with motherhood and Laima; nine is a sacred number of fullness.
Little storm breaking the branches
The storm that breaks the branches marks the life forces that take children away from the home.
Nine daughters taken by matchmakers
Daughters given into marriage. They parallel the broken branches.
Cuckoo on the last branch
The cuckoo singing on the remaining branch marks the married daughter, longing, and lament.

The Linden Had Nine Branches (Lioj Taduvela): sutartinė history

"Turėja liepa, lioj taduvėla" was recorded in 1985 from the eighty-year-old singer V. Katinienė in Sudeliai village, Utena district. This late, late-twentieth-century recording shows that sutartinės remained alive in memory well into the second half of the twentieth century. It is an atitartinė sung by three groups, which answer one another in turn with the sound words "taduvo" and "ratulo"; this is the most complex subtype of trejinės sutartinės.

The plot of a linden with nine branches and a mother with nine daughters is one of the most widespread in Aukštaitian sutartinės. Variants of it also appear in this collection, including "Gedula liepa" and "Turėja liepa, liaj sudijo." Sutartinės flourished from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century; in 2010 they were inscribed on UNESCO's Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

sources

  • Z. Slaviūnas. Sutartinės, vols. 1-3 (1958-1959)
  • D. Račiūnaitė-Vyčinienė. Sutartinės: Lithuanian Polyphonic Songs (2002)

The Linden Had Nine Branches (Lioj Taduvela): sources