по вам

[jarvisa]

From the folk song «Ах вы, сени, мои сени»:

Как и мне по вам, по сеничкам
Не хаживати
Мне мила дружка за рученьку
Не важивати!

I do not understand how «по» is being used here.
My guess:

Just as it is not possible for me to go to you or the seni
It is not possible to lead my dear boyfriend by the hand.

 

[Şafak]

"Вы" refers to "senis" (plural). There's no "you".

 

[Awwal12]

I do not understand how «по» is being used here

Ходить (> хаживать) по сеням - to walk in the seni, as simple as that.
Cf. ходить по улице, по прихожей, по лесу, по мосту...
There is no "or". "По се́ничкам" here specifies "по вам" (and seems to miss the second comma).

 

[Enquiring Mind]

If you haven't come across it already, this page (source: accordeonworld) has some notes about the folksy contextual imagery of the porch. The translation, alas, is nothing to write home about.

 

[onthehills]

I would add that 'хаживать' implies a certain repetitiveness and even without it 'ходить по' implies somewhat persistent movements. So here we have rather 'walkind around' or 'walking through' than simply 'walking in'.

 

[MIDAV]

Just as it is not possible for me to go to you or the seni
It is not possible to lead my dear boyfriend by the hand.

This is my attempt to offer a better translation. And seeing seni in English makes me cringe for some reason. The word has been out of use in Russian for ages.

See how I'm not gonna be able to walk around you, my lobby
And I'm not gonna be able to lead my dear boyfriend by the hand

 

[Awwal12]

See how I'm not gonna be able to walk around you, my lobby

In this context it's clearly not a lobby (the more typical usual meaning) but rather an elevated roofed porch.

 

[MIDAV]

In this context it's clearly not a lobby (the more typical usual meaning) but rather an elevated roofed porch.

Well, I wasn't comfortable with the word either. For me, it was a choice between anteroom, antechamber and lobby. Somehow lobby looked more adequate in the end, upon deliberation.

As to porch, I imagine that's what we would call крыльцо, веранда etc, that is something outside of the main house walls, while сени is inside the main house perimeter, in my opinion.