Does "hej" mean hello?

What does the word hej in the song hej sokoły or in hej bistra woda mean?

In Swedish - it does. :)

In dutch too ;)

bystra

as for hej, it's more a way of calling to someone to get their attention more than a greeting.

In modern Polish 'halo' (hallo?) works the same way, getting the attention of someone whose name you don't know.

hej is actually used more as a goodbye but usually not on its own. Often Polish people will string together three or more expressions when saying goodbye "na razie, cześć, pa, hej"

hej, here it means hello
sokoły , plural form of sokół and it's a bird, falcon/s

hey bystra woda = hello rapid (fast flowing) water

In general, Polish hej is similar to English hi

Thanks. I get it now.

but still "Hej, sokoły" or "hej, bystra woda" does not mean "bye, falcons/water" or "hi, falcons/water".

It's just "Hey!" with no meaning.
Just for the sake of sounding.

Listen to the proper way of singing that song and you'll realise that without "Hej!" it is a completely different song :)

Naaaah, if you followed the lyrics you'd have noticed that as somebody already mentioned "Hey" is there to get the attention of these "falcons", something like "oi". And just after it there's " avoid mountains, forests and pits.." So it was used to get attention before giving advice...

Good point! Well done.

And what about that "bystra woda"? is it still "oi"? :)

I was refering to "Hey Sokoły" not "Hej Bystra Woda", in Bystra Woda it seems it has no meaning, but maybe it has a similar meaning, in the first verse the girls is trying to get the attention of the creak, dark forest and a mountain peak trying to ask them where her beloved "Janicek" is. Later further along the song they all exchanging information ; ) so they are using Hej in the same manner. But generally from what I heard Highlander specifically use Hej in songs to add a certain melody, impact with an exclamation mark.

in my opinion it's just a call. like a "Hey you!"
in this case it doeasn't mean "hi/hello"

Now I think I've got it. It's like in New York when a person says yo!

It may be a welcoming "hi/yo" it may be "hey/oi" to get somebody's attention and it might be just a random shout during a song ; )