Latvian Folk Songs about Cows

Latvian song Free translationWord-for-word translation
Appušķoju to gotiņu,
Kas vairāk piena deva;
Kura piena man nedeva,
Lai pušķoja veļu māte.
I adorned the cow who gave
Milk to me in abundance;
The one who gave me none at all
Let the Mother of Shades adorn.
adorn-pst.1st.p.sg. that-acc.sg. cow-dim.acc.sg.
who-nom.sg. more milk-gen.sg. give-pst.3rd.p.
which-one-fem.nom.sg. milk-gen.sg. me-dat.sg. not-give-pst.3rd.p.
let adorn-pst.3rd.p. ghost-gen.pl. mother-nom.sg.
Gotiņ, mana raibaliņa,
Tu man saldu pienu dod;
Tāpēc tevi apdziedāju
Tāpēc tevim kroni viju.
Oh, my cow, my dappled cow
You give me milk, sweet fresh milk;
That is why I sing of you
Why I weave a wreath for you.
cow-dim.voc.sg. my-fem.nom.sg. spotted-one-fem.nom.sg.
you-2nd.p.sg.nom. me-dat.sg. sweet-acc.sg. milk-acc.sg. give-pres.2nd.p.sg.
therefore you-2nd.p.sg.acc. sing-about-pres.1st.p.sg.
therefore you-2nd.p.sg.dat. crown/wreath-acc.sg. braid-pres.1st.p.sg.
Uzliksim saimniecei
Baltu ziedu vainadziņu,
Lai aug viņas raibaliņas
Baltajiem ziediņiem.
Let's put a wreath of flowers white
On the farm wife's head
So her dappled cows will grow
With blossom-white spots all over them.
on-put-fut.1st.p.pl. housewife/farmwife-dat.sg.
white-acc.sg. blossom-gen.pl. wreath-dim.acc.sg.
so-that grow-pres.3rd.p. her-gen.sg. spotted-one-acc.pl.
white-def.dat.pl. blossom-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 19, 2008