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

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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…

Meaning

The sutartinė sets the linden’s branches alongside a mother’s daughters. In the first part, a storm breaks the nine branches, but one remains for the cuckoo to settle on and call. In the second, the matchmakers arrange the daughters’ marriages, while one daughter remains to sweep the floor. The repeated structure invites a comparison between daughters leaving home in marriage and the loss of branches.

This parallel can be read as an image of the mother’s sense of loss. The words do not identify the remaining daughter or give her age. Here the connection between linden and mother rests on the two parallel parts themselves: Laima is not named in the song, and the number nine alone does not establish a particular mythological meaning.

Symbols

Linden with nine branches
The nine branches parallel the nine daughters. The linden losing its branches offers an image of daughters leaving their mother’s home.
Little storm breaking the branches
The storm breaks the branches; its action parallels the matchmakers arranging the daughters’ marriages.
Nine daughters taken by matchmakers
Daughters given into marriage. They parallel the broken branches.
Cuckoo on the last branch
The cuckoo calls from the remaining branch. Its voice may suggest longing, but the song does not explicitly identify the bird with a daughter.

History

"Turėja liepa, lioj taduvėla" was recorded in 1985 from the eighty-year-old singer V. Katinienė in Sudeliai village, Utena district. This 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.

Singing sequence in this version: group I begins with “taduvo”, group III answers “taduvo”, and group I completes “taduvėla taduvo”. Next, group I sings “ratulo”, group III answers “ratulo”, and group I finishes “ratulėli, ratulo”. In the same way, group II answers group III, and group I answers group II.

The singer and recording details come from the note accompanying the text; no archival reference or publication page for this 1985 version is supplied here. The general studies listed below do not identify this particular recording.

Sources