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