The Red Sun Set in the West lyrics and meaning

This sutartinė, with the refrain "tūto tūto betuto," can be understood as a song about sunset and the family returning home. At the beginning the little sun sets red in the west, not so much red as glowing with afterlight. The image creates a calm evening scene in which the sun slowly sinks down to the earth.

Then father comes along the public road, followed by mother, brother, and sister. The return of the family members can be understood as an evening gathering at home, set beside the sun's descent. The repeated structure, in which only the family member changes, is characteristic of sutartinės.

A second reading sees the sun setting "right down to the earth" and the father, mother, brother, and sister coming one by one along the public road as an image of cosmic and human harmony. In Lithuanian mythology the Sun has her own family - the Moon and the star-children - so the parallel between sunset and returning kin can be read as placing the earthly family inside the cosmic round. As the sun "comes home" in the evening, so do people. The complex atitartinė form, in which three vocal groups join into one rotating sound, itself becomes an expression of that circle: the day's ending and the unity of home.