Suicide. Depression. Broken hearts. Murder. All of these themes are found in the folk songs that Rusyns sing. They are sung even today, at festivals in Europe, by American groups, at sing alongs; wherever singing Rusyns gather. However, especially here in America, most people don’t know what they’re singing about – it’s like a non-native English speaker listening to Eminem!

It would be safe to assume that these songs show that most of these events were not isolated, and that Rusyns really are a passionate people. In “Pidskoču si, dupnu nožkom”, a girl is trying to convince her boyfriend’s mother (and maybe the virile noncommittal boyfriend) to see how serious they are. After a verse inviting him to come into the circle of dancing, so that the mother will stop trying to find him a wife, the next verse is:

Not only were these activities going on years and years ago as these songs were first being sung, they are behaviors that are recognizable to us within today’s culture.

At the same time, usage of euphemisms may have made some situations more singable. “Apple” seems to be a common euphemism for virginity, and an example of it used in that way is found in “Ne budu smutyty”:

She goes on to say that she wished that she would prefer to be “young and dancing”, not waiting. Is our heroine pregnant? It looks like in this case, the old Rusyn fertility aid of periwinkle wasn’t even necessary. Even though some inconvenient results may have occurred for our heroine, even we third-generation Americans haven’t stopped the post-Paschal fliratation rites. Are we Rusyns, engaging in such revelries, a bit hypocritical? The behaviors are not traditionally acceptable within the culture, but we party hard and things happen.

There were illegitimate children born, as was the case with the Lemko-Rusyn artist Nikifor Drowniak, and so these songs would have served as warnings for Rusyn teenage girls to be careful and to act honorably. What decent Rusyn parent would want their daughter sleeping around? Because chances are, even though Mother was not awakened, the gossip next door was.

Or, these could be urban legends, passed from village to village, their credibility gained by their proliferation, even up to today. Even though we hear women singing these songs today, could young, virile, noncommittal boyfriends have sung these songs while hanging out with their comrades at the bar, bragging of their exploits? It’s fun to hypothesize.

Besides the two songs mentioned here, two other songs are of interest in this context. “A ponyže Giraltovec”, and “Červene jabločko”. While the latter is another song, albeit a lullaby, on the apple theme, the former takes these situations to the next level. It involves the daughter of the mayor of Giraltovce, who had an illegitimate son, went crazy, and threw him over the bridge into the river. This backs up the urban legend theory, since she is a relation of someone with a certain degree of authority, giving it a few more grains of credibility.

At any rate, it is possible to see that interpretations of Rusyn folk songs should not be made only in the literal sense. It is obvious that the Rusyns of old did not run away from these types of situations, so why get into that habit now? Is the next step a Rusyn Real World?