About song
This song is based on a longer folk poem, a version of which can be found below.
The following poem is taking from Violet on the Mountain: An Anthology of Georgian Folk Poetry, translated and edited by Kevin Tuite. For access to the entire anthology which is in two PDFs, click here (part I) and here (part II).
Violet On The Mountain
Violet on the mountain, on the snowy mountain,
I planted a violet, up came a rose,
Violets to my ankles, roses to my neck,
A herd of deer came over this way.
May they graze freely, but trample them not.
The groom went out with his father-in-law,
They met on the mountain a large-antlered buck.
The son-in-law shot — he killed the buck.
The father-in-law shot — he killed the groom.
— ''Barbara, my child, what can I tell you?
I killed your husband, don’t kill yourself.''
— ''May you, my father, my father so noble
Never find rest from the sin you have done.
When I asked to marry, you would not let me,
Now I am married — you killed my husband.''
Give me a hatchet, to cut me a path,
Give me a candle, to light me the way!
— Go up the valley and go down the valley
There you will find the one you had loved.
I went up the valley and went down the valley
And there I found him, the one I had loved.
A raven perched on him, tore at his eyes . . .
— Scram, raven, scram, insatiable one!
Tear not his eyes:
There was a time he saw me with them.
A raven perched on him, tore at his arms . . .
— Scram, raven, scram, insatiable one!
Tear not his arms:
There was a time he embraced me with them.
A raven perched on him, tore at his lips . . .
— Scram, raven, scram, insatiable one!
Tear not his lips:
There was a time he kissed me with them
The following explanation is also taken from Violet on the Mountain: An Anthology of Georgian Folk Poetry, page 135, translated and edited by Kevin Tuite:
"In the exagamous and virilocal societies of the South Caucasus, a young woman traditionally left her village in order to marry. At the same time, outsiders were regarded with a measure of suspicion, and consent to marriage was only obtained from the woman's parents after lengthy negotiations and the exchanges of gifts. One way out of this predicament was marriage by abduction, and in fact this was once a common occurrence in the Caucasus. In most cases, the "abduction" was agreed to in advance by both families. Still, the form, if not the spirit, of the practice had to be observed, and a squad of the groom's friends (maq'rebi) were dispatched to the bride's village to escort her to the church. Along the way, the maq'rebi shouted and fired their rifles into the air, a vestige of their original function. In the event of an actual hostile abduction, the male relatives of the captured bride were expected to take up arms and fight to get her back. The killing of the newly-married young man by his father-in-law in the poem harks back to this practice. But the bride, who no longer wants to be treated as her father's cattel, protests her predicament. The opening of the poem, I believe, tells the same story in symbolic language. Evidence from other texts shows that the violet has female connotations, and the rose is its masculine counterpart. The parents sow a violet (the bride, their offspring), but a rose (the groom) appears. The male deer represents the bride's father; she implores him not to trample her beloved, the rose."
Nanina Ensemble