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The Sister Planted an Orchard lyrics and meaning

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Sesė sodą sodino, Sesė sodą sodino. Sodindama kalbėjo: x2 Auk, obelyte tu auksuota x2 Ir obuolėliai sidabruočiai. x2 Prašė mane motutė x2 Aukso obuolėlio araškyti. x2 Aš tau, motute, negailėsiu x2 Aukso obuoliuką paraškyti. x2 Tu man, motute, negailėjai x2 Plonų drobelių išrėžyti. x2 Sesė sodą sodino. x2 Sodindama kalbėjo: x2 Auk, obelyte tu auksuota x2 Ir obuolėliai sidabruočiai. x2 Prašė mane tėvutis x2 Margų jautelių išvaryti. x2 Aš tau, tėvuti, negailėsiu x2 Margų jautelių išvaryti. x2 Sesė sodą sodino. x2 Sodindama kalbėjo: x2 Auk, obelyte tu auksuota x2 Ir obuolėliai sidabruočiai. x2 Prašė mane broliukas x2 Ristą žirgelį išvaduoti. x2 Aš tau, broliukai, negailėsiu x2 Ristą žirgelį išvaduoti. x2 Sesė sodą sodino. x2 Sodindama kalbėjo: x2 Auk, obelyte tu auksuota x2 Ir obuolėliai sidabruočiai. x2 Prašė mane sesutė x2 Margų juostelių numarguoti. x2 Aš tau, sesute, negailėsiu x2 Margų juostelių numarguoti. x2

Meaning

This sutartinė can be understood as a song about the orchard planted by a sister and about exchanges within the family. The sister plants an orchard and speaks a wish that a golden apple tree should grow there, with silver apples. The image can be read as a wondrous, precious-metal vision of beauty and prosperity.

Each family member then asks for something: the mother for a golden apple, the father to have the mottled oxen driven out, the brother for the fleet horse, the sister to have variegated sashes patterned. The sister promises not to withhold anything, but she reminds her mother that the mother did not withhold fine linens from her. This blend of exchange and reproach turns the song into a reflection on relations among kin.

A second reading places the golden apple tree with silver apples in the older Lithuanian and Baltic poetic field of the world tree: an orchard where heavenly bodies or fruits of life may grow. The sister's orchard becomes a symbolic source of family wealth and vitality. The exchange chain, sharpened by the reminder to the mother, can also be read through dowry and reciprocity. A daughter who may be leaving home remembers what she did or did not receive, and she herself promises not to be sparing. Beneath the fairy-tale beauty of the golden orchard lies a very earthly question of justice and repayment: what does one generation owe another?

Symbols

Golden apple tree and silver apples
An orchard colored by precious metals. It marks fairy-tale prosperity and recalls the image of the world tree.
The sister planting the orchard
The speaking sister who tends the orchard. She is the song's central figure and a guardian of family wealth.
Requests from family members
The mother's, father's, brother's, and sister's requests mark a network of exchange and obligation within the family.
"You did not begrudge me fine linens"
The sister's reminder to her mother. It points to reciprocity, dowry, and fairness in exchange.

History

"Sesė sodą sodino" belongs to the family sutartinės and is built on a chain of exchanges between a sister and her relatives. The image of a golden apple tree and silver apples is a picture of prosperity colored by precious metals, a common register in Lithuanian songs and sutartinės. According to the Visuotinė Lietuvių enciklopedija, family sutartinės are one of the genre's main groups.

Sutartinės flourished in north-eastern Aukštaitija from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century; in 2010 they were inscribed on UNESCO's Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. The exact place and collector of this variant could not be confirmed in the publicly accessible Slaviūnas index.

Sources