The sea took everything
So why do you still go out to sea
That's what people ask me
My eyes open before dawn
Forty years of living this way
Thick-knuckled hands mend the net
You can mend a hole, you cannot mend the years
The storm took the elder one
The fever took the younger one
My wife went first, waiting
So instead of an empty house, I talk to the sea
Old net, old net
The sea gives and the sea takes
Old net, old net
And still, at dawn, I row
When I was young I ran up the full-catch flag
And laughed loud enough to shake the harbour
Now I come back with an empty boat
And only the sound of waves fills the hull
Last month a scholar from the mainland
I took him in my boat and carried him to the island
They said he was a criminal, but his eyes were clear
The sea does not sort people
Old net, old net
The sea gives and the sea takes
Old net, old net
And still, at dawn, I row
The night the ship went down on the northern shoal
My elder son was in that water too
Government ship or not, I don't know
What happens under the sea, only the sea knows
There's a young woman who dives these days
And when her breath bursts over the water
Without meaning to, I put a hand on my chest
Alive. She's alive again today.
The sea took everything from me
But the sea is all I have left