I'll tell it as I best know how And that's the way it was told to me I must have been a thief or a whore Then surely was thrown overboard, Where, they say I came this way from the deep blue sea
It picked me up and tossed me round I lost my shoes and tore my gown I forgot my name and drowned Then woke up with the surf a pounding It seemed I had been run aground
Well they took me in and shod my feet And taught me prayers for chastity And said my name would be Colleen And I was blessed among all women To have forgotten everything
And as the weeks and months ensued I tried to make myself of use I tilled and planted, but could not produce Not root, nor leaf, nor flower, nor bean Lord! It seemed I over-watered everything.
And I hate the sight of that empty air Like stepping for a missing stair And falling forth forever blindly: Cannot grab hold of anything! No, not I, most blessed among Colleens
I dream some nights of a funny sea As soft as a newly born baby It cries for me so pitifully! And I dive for my child with a wildness in me And am so sweetly there received.
But last night came a different dream A grey and sloping-shouldered thing Said "what's cinched 'round your waist, Colleen Is that my very own baleen No! Have you forgotten everything?"
This morning, 'round the cape at dawn Some travellers sailed into town With scraps for sale and the saddest songs And a book of pictures, leather-bound That showed a whale with a tusk a meter long
I asked the man who showed it me "What is the name of that strange beast?" He said its name translated roughly to He-Who-Easily-Can-Curve-Himself-Against-The-Sky.
And I am without words He said "My lady looks perturbed the light is in your eyes, Colleen." I said, "Whatever can you mean?" He leaned in and said "you ain’t forgotten everything."
"You dare to speak a lady's name?" He said, "My lady is mistaken. I would not speak your name in this place For if I were to try then the wind I swear, would rise, to tear you clean from me without a trace."
"Have you come, then, to rescue me?" He laughed and said, "from what, 'colleen'?" You dried and dressed most willingly. You corseted, and caught the dread disease By which one comes to know such peace."
Well it's true that I came to know such things As the laws which govern property And herbs to feed the babes that wean, And the welting weight for every season But still I don't know any goddamned "Colleen".
Then dive down there with the lights to lead That seem to shine from everything Down to the bottom of the deep blue sea Down where your heart beats so slow And you never in your life have felt so free Will you come down there with me Down were our bodies start to seem Like artefacts of some strange dream Which afterwards you can't decipher And so, soon, have forgotten everything.Teksty umieszczone na naszej stronie są własnością wytwórni, wykonawców, osób mających do nich prawa.
