Rosna Livada - Balkan Slavic Song feat. July Vitraniuk

Arrangement and video by Farya Faraji, vocals by July Vitraniuk. Many thanks to Christophe Chapleau and Barbara for heping out with the video. This is a song present in at least three of the Balkan's Slavic-speaking cultures: Serbs, Bosnians and Croats. The lyrics used here are from the Bosnian and Serbian versions. There are multiple versions of the song with different lyrics, even time signatures, but they tend to share lyrical similarities about a dewy meadow, and a girl stringing pearls in it. The Bosnian version of the lyrics I decided to use makes reference to tyrants who "took the girl's beloved," and given the historical and cultural context of this phrase and song, the interpretation many have is that it is an implicit reference to the Ottomans; representing the suffering felt by natives of the Balkans at the hand of imperial domination under said empire.

Musically, I wanted this rendition to reflect native, historical Balkanic musical practices from before its more modern usage of Western musical vocabulary, the kind of sound encapsulated by bands such as Kulin Ban, who give an insight into the sound of the Balkans from the 1500's to the 1800's. I collaborated with the talented July Vitraniuk for the lyrics; as a Ukrainian singer, she was able to utilise the recognisable "White Voice," a sharp, bright vocal quality female vocalists traditionally use in Slavic music, especially the regions of the Balkans and Eastern Europe.

The vocals use typical Balkan polyphony which occurs in the form of drone harmonisation: some of the voices sing the full melody whilst others hold the same notes repeatedly, usually the tonic, subtonic, and perfect intervals like the fifth, which I've used here.

The instrumentation consists of drums and a historical approximation of a Saz-like instrument, the kind used prominently by Balkaners up to the 1800's, which would give rise to instruments like the Šargija or Albanian Çifteli. The end section also features a kaval flute, the most widely used flute in the Balkans. The first section is in duple metre, a form of the song commonly heard in Bosnia and Croatia, whilst the latter part at the end uses a seven-beat metre, commonly heard in the Serbian versions of the song.

Lyrics in Bosnian and Serbian:
Rosna livada trava zelena
Rosna livada, aman, aman,
Trava zelena

Na njoj djevojka biser nizala
Biser nizala, aman, aman,
Suze ronila

Zulumcari joj dragog odveli
Zulumcari joj aman, aman,
Dragog odveli

Biser nizala, dragog cekala
Dragog cekala aman, aman,
Od tuge zaspala

Rosna livada, bregom njihаlа
Tu mi devojka stado čuvala,
Stado čuvala, *džanum, biser nizala

Momče gledalo, sproću livade,
čuješ devojko, džanum, čuješ lepojko
Tvoje je lice jarko sunašce, а ја sam junak,
džanum, kraj sunca oblak

Čuješ devojko, čuješ lepojko, tvoje su oči,
džanum, morske trnjine.
A ја sam junak, s mora trgovac,
Jа da ih kupim, džanum, ја da ih ljubim.

English translation:
Dew-covered meadow, green grass
Dew-covered meadow, *aman aman
Green grass

In that place a girl stringed pearls
She strings pearls, aman, aman
She shed tears

Tyrants took her beloved away
Tyrants took him away from her, aman, aman
They took her beloved one

She stringed pearls, waited for her beloved one
Waited for her beloved one, aman, aman
And the sadness put her to sleep

A meadow full of dew,
My dear, swayed on a hill.
There a maiden was herding a flock of sheep,
my dear, putting pearls on strings.

A young lad was watching from the other side of the meadow,
hear me girl, my dear, hear me beauty.
Your face is the bright sun, and I am a hero,
my dear, a cloud next to the sun.

Hear me girl, hear me beauty, your eyes,
my dear, are sea blackthorns.
And I am a hero, a merchant from the sea, I want to buy them,
my dear, I want to kiss them.

*Note the terms "džanum" and "aman." The former is a Persian term, meaning "my dear/my love (literally my life),the latter is an Arabic term meaning something broadly like "God help us," used to mark wonder, but in terms of traditions like Arabic, Turkish, Iranian and Balkanic music, both "džanum" and "aman" are more or less stock terms used to fill in the blanks in lyrics.