Petrus Schroderus - tenor
Tetiana Kushniruk - piano
Antti Untamala - violin
Raimo Sirkiä - accordion
The Song about the towel-cloth (Ukrainian: Пісня про рушник, romanized: Pisnia pro rushnyk), also known as "Beloved mother of mine" (Ridna maty moya), is a Ukrainian hit of the 20th century, based on a poem by Andriy Malyshko and music by Platon Maiboroda. The text is a confession of the lyrical hero about his mother giving him a rushnyk (an embroidered cloth usually draped over religious icons and ritual foods and also used for handfasting at weddings, etc.) as a wish for a fortunate life path.
Lyrics:
Dear mother of mine, you have not slept the nights through,
You took me in the fields at the village’s edge,
And for a far-away journey you were seeing me off at a sunrise,
And gave me the embroidered towel for luck.
And for a far-away journey you were seeing me off at a sunrise,
And gave me the embroidered towel for a good fate and luck.
May there blossom on it a small path, silver-dewy,
And green meadows, and forests of nightingale songs,
And your eternally faithful, the most tender of smiles of a mother,
And your sad but the kindest of eyes in the world!
And your eternally faithful, the most tender of smiles of a mother,
And your sad but the kindest and bluest of eyes in the world!
I will take that rushnyk, spreading it like a fate,
In the rustling of grass, peaceful chirping of leaves.
All familiarly painful springs to life then on this little towel:
All my childhood, and parting, and faithful beloved.
All familiarly painful springs to life then on this little towel:
All my childhood, and parting, and your deepest motherly love.