Latvian Folk Songs about Ūsiņš

Latvian song Free translationWord-for-word translation
Ūsiņam gaili kāvu
Pašā svētku rītiņā:
Lai tas man zirgus gana
Šo garo vasariņu.
I sacrificed a cock to Ūsiņš
On the morning of his day
So that he would herd my horses
All the summer long.
Ūsiņš-dat.sg. cock-acc.sg. kill-pst.1st.p.sg.
self-loc.sg. holiday-gen.pl. morning-dim.loc.sg.
so that-one-nom.sg. me-dat.sg. horse-acc.pl. herd-pres.3rd.p.
this-acc.sg. long-def.acc.sg. summer-dim.acc.sg.
Devu, devu Ūsiņam
Ko es biju solījusi:
Melnu gaili, sarkanu cekuli
Ar visiem nadziņiem.
I gave to Ūsiņš
What I had promised:
A coal-black cock with scarlet comb
And every one of his claws.
give-pst.1st.p.sg., give-pst.1st.p.sg. Ūsiņš-dat.sg.
what-acc.sg. I-nom.sg. be-pst.1st.p.sg. promise-pst.ppl.act.fem.nom.sg.
black-acc.sg. cock-acc.sg. red-acc.sg. comb-acc.sg.
with all-dat.pl. nail/claw-dim.dat.pl.


To see the explanation of the grammatical abbreviations used in the "word-for-word" translations, go to → Grammatical Abbreviations


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This page created and maintained by
A. Steinbergs

Last revised September 20, 2008