Basket of Songs 4

Mirdzot šķēpiem - Gleaming Spears

In this series, I have been posting pages from a hand written song book left to me by my father.  The book is titled Bakset of Songs: Let our Songs Ring out, Brussels Prisoner-of-War Camp December 1945. It is also labeled with my father's initials J Č. Click on the following link : Basket of Songs to view the rest of the series.

Ilze, who has been doing an incredible job of translating the Letters from Latvia series has been kind enough to provide a translation of the song titles and a summary of the themes involved. The songs individually over the coming weeks and where I can, I will link to a performance of the melody. At this time, I won't be posting full translations for most of these songs -the Leters from Lativa series will be taking priority.

Song 4 in the book is titled: Mirdzot šķēpiem - Gleaming Spears. 

Latvian Riflemen enter a town, the girls’ eyes gleam, next morning they go to battle, and the girls then weep and tend the graves.

Page 4 of Basket of Songs - Brussels Prisoner-of-war camp, December 1945

The Latvian Riflemen are renowned for their valour in WWI. Largely they fought on the Communist side of the war however they were really fighting against the German Barons in the hopes of a free and equitable Latvia - little did they know what Russia had in store for them. A brief history of the Latvian Riflemen can be found at the Latvian History Wordpress page.

A rendition of this song can be found on Youtube: