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We are two mariners |
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Our ship's sole survivors |
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In this belly of a whale |
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It's ribs are ceiling beams |
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It's guts are carpeting |
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I guess we have some time to kill |
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You may not remember me |
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I was a child of three |
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And you, a lad of eighteen |
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But, I remember you |
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And I will relate to you |
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How our histories interweave |
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At the time you were |
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A rake and a roustabout |
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Spending all your money |
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On the whores and hounds |
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(oh, oh) |
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You had a charming air |
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All cheap and debonair |
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My widowed mother found so sweet |
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And so she took you in |
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Her sheets still warm with him |
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Now filled with filth and foul disease |
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As time wore on you proved |
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A debt-ridden drunken mess |
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Leaving my mother |
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A poor consumptive wretch |
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(oh, oh) |
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And then you disappeared |
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Your gambling arrears |
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The only thing you left behind |
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And then the magistrate |
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Reclaimed our small estate |
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And my poor mother lost her mind |
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Then, one day in spring |
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My dear sweet mother died |
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But, before she did |
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I took her hand as she, dying, cried: |
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(oh, oh) |
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"Find him, Bind him |
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Tie him to a pole and break |
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His fingers to splinters |
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Drag him to a hole until he |
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Wakes up naked |
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Clawing at the ceiling |
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Of his grave" |
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It took me fifteen years |
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To swallow all my tears |
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Among the urchins in the street |
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Until a priory |
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Took pity and hired me |
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To keep their vestry nice and neat |
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But, never once in the employ |
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Of these holy men |
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Did I ever, once turn my mind |
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From the thought of revenge |
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(oh, oh) |
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One night I overheard |
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The prior exchanging words |
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With a penitent whaler from the sea |
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The captain of his ship |
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Who matched you toe to tip |
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Was known for wanton cruelty |
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The following day |
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I shipped to sea |
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With a privateer |
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And in the whistle |
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Of the wind |
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I could almost hear |
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(oh, oh) |
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"Find him, Bind him |
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Tie him to a pole and break |
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His fingers to splinters |
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Drag him to a hole until he |
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Wakes up naked |
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Clawing at the ceiling |
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Of his grave |
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There is one thing I must say to you |
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As you sail across the sea |
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Always, your mother will watch over you |
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As you avenge this wicked deed" |
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And then, that fateful night |
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We had you in our sight |
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After twenty months at sea |
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Your starboard flank abeam |
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I was getting my muskets clean |
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When came this rumbling from beneath |
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The ocean shook |
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The sky went black |
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And the captain quailed |
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And before us grew |
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The angry jaws |
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Of a giant whale |
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(oh..) |
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Don't know how I survived |
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The crew all was chewed alive |
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I must have slipped between his teeth |
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But, oh, what providence |
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What divine intelligence |
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That you should survive |
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As well as me |
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It gives my heart great joy |
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To see your eyes fill with fear |
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So lean in close |
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And I will whisper |
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The last words you'll hear |
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(oh, oh) |
