"Baltaitiņa jūru pelda" / A White Sheep Swims in the Sea
A song about fishing (1958).
The tune comes from Embute, in the District of Liepāja.The first ed. of the arr. in the collection Lucija Garuta. Latviesu tautas dziesmas jauktam korim [Latvian Folk Songs for Mixed Choir] (R., 1959), p.2, in which the composer has indicated that, instead of humming to "m" and vocalizing to "e", the notes may be sung to "a".
A little white sheep with silver horns is floating on the sea (verse 1). (Variants of this text also give “a little white ram”, “a black ox with white horns” etc., which traditionally all denote a fisherman’s boat with a white sail and usually full of fish.) The Riga gentlemen are sailing towards it to have a look, measuring their wealth in bushels and ready to hand it over in return for the little white sheep (2). But I won’t give them my white sheep, for I need it myself (3). I need it for my dowry: for gloves, for stockings and for beautiful white shawls (4). A little white sheep with silver horns is floating on the sea (5).