Letila Zozulia from Folk Songs by Zelenaya
Letila Zozulya - “The Cuckoo Flew”
Ukraine: Kriachkivka village, Pyriatyn region, Poltava oblast.
A tragic and heartbreaking lyrical song well-known by many Ukrainians, this tune uses the traditional device of a cuckoo bird arriving on the scene, prompting a confession of woe from the protagonist – in this instance, the village woman is consumed by a love that cannot be: she has fallen for the visiting Kozak (a member of a band of nomadic, lawless frontier-warriors who lived in the Ukrainian steppe) and her affliction for his is made even more severe knowing he is forbidden fruit, already married with a wife and two children. We had no choice but to turn this into a slow and gut-wrenching doom-ballad meant to highlight the power of the song’s harmonies and its devastating narrative.
Tracklist
| 5. | Letila Zozulia | 5:26 |
Lyrics
Летіла зозуля
Через мою хату
Сіла на калині,
Та й стала кувати
Ой, сіла на калині,
Та й стала кувати
Ой, чого ж, зозуле,
Ой, чого ж ти куєш,
Хіба ж ти, зозуле,
Добро мене чуєш?,
Ой, Хіба ж ти, зозуле,
Добро мене чуєш?,
Ой, Боже ж мой, Боже,
Що ж я наробила,
Козак має жінку,
А я й полюбила.
Ой, козак має жінку,
А я й полюбила.
Козак має жінку,
Ще й діточок двоє,
Ще й діточок двоє,
Чорняві обоє.
Ой, ще й діточок двоє,
Чорняві обоє.
A cuckoo flew over my house, sat on the guelder-rose (viburnum) plant beside it, and began to cry.
O, why, cuckoo – oh, why do you sing? Maybe within me, you sense that there is still something good.
O, God, my God – what have I done? The Kozak [frontier-steppe cowboy] has a wife, and I have come to love him.
The Kozak has a wife, and two children too! And these two children, dark-haired, just like their father.
Credits
License
All rights reserved.
NYC's Zelenaya merges the haunting vocal harmonies of Eastern European polyphonic folk singing with the intensity of sludge, doom, and death metal. The combination pays homage to the traditions and stories transmitted in these songs, while reimagining their context and form.