The Seafarer modern version
Lines divide: stanza 1 MV = lines 1-6a AS; 2 = 6b-8a; 3 = 8b-12a; 4 = 12b-16; 5 = 17; 6 = 18-25a; 7 = 25b-26; 8 = 27-30; 9 = 31-33a; 10/11 = 33b-38; 12 = 39-43; 13 = 44-47; 14 = 48-52; 15 = 53-55a; 16 = 55b-57; 17 = 58-62a; 18 = 62b-64a; 19 = 64b-67; 20 = 68-71; 21 = 72-80a; 22 = 80b-85; 23 = 86-93; 24 = 94-99; 25 = 100-105; 26 = 106-107; 27 = 108; 28 = 109-116; 29 = 117-122a; 30 = 122b-124/5; and index. Click on numbers for teleportation.
1: 1-6aMAY my words spell the truth: of the ways I toiled distraught, for days on end enduring cares and bitter bale within my breast, my keel cleaving endless halls of heaving waves
2: 6b-8a I would often at the bark's bows wake the strait night through, steering her clear of clashing cliffs
3: 8b-12a Cold fetters froze my feet and hunger seared my heart with sore sea-weariness back
4: 12b-16 That man lolling on fair land has no earthly inkling of how I a wretched wreck on ice-cold seas weathered each winter exiled from kith and kin
5: 17 Hail scoured my skin, and hoar hung heavy
6: 18-25a All I ever heard along the ice-way was sounding sea, the gannet's shanty whooper and curlew calls and mewling gull were all my gaming, mead and mirth At tempest-tested granite crags the ice-winged tern would taunt spray-feathered ospreys overhead would soar and scream back
7: 25b-26 No kinsman near to fend off need no one to comfort or console
8: 27-30 That fine fellow, carefree in his cups set snugly up in town, cannot conceive the load I hauled along the sea-lanes
9: 31-33a The dark night deepens, northern snow hardens the soil and hail hits earth like cold corn back
10: 33b-38 Yet my heart hammers now, yearning anew wanting the steep salt-water road longing with lust to roam rough seas, alone to seek out some far foreign shore
11: 36 The mood to wander mills within my mind
12: 39-43 But none on earth may be so proud so prodigal or yare in youth nor so express in action nor smiled on by so mild a master that he embark with unconcern what end for him the Master may intend
13: 44-47 He will not heed the harp though and is not gladdened by gold rings nor woman's winning ways and wants no worldly joys only the rolling oceans urge him on the wave play pulls him and impels back
14: 48-52 Then blossom decks the bower's bough the bothie blooms, the sea meads gleam the wide world racks the restless mind of him who on the full flood tide determines to depart
15: 53-55a And heralding his summer hoard of pain the gowk repeats his plaintive geck foreboding bitterness of breast
16: 55b-57 Soft-bedded bloods cannot conceive what some men suffer as abroad they travel tracks of exile back
17: 58-62a Reckless of that, my thought is thrown beyond my heart's cage now. My mind is cast upon the sea swell, over the whale's world widely to course creation's coast: a closing rapture keenly calls
18: 62b-64a THE summons wails above on wing it steels the unarmed soul to start across the waters where the whale sways
19: 64b-67 God's visions are to me more vivid than this dead life loaned out on land I know its leasehold will not last back
20: 68-71 Still three things twist man's mind until the day his doom is sealed age, illness or some stroke of hate will seize sense from him
21: 72-80a So any noble spirit will aspire to earn an everlasting epitaph of praise for good deeds done on earth, bold blows dealt at the Devil and against fell foe before his passing, that posterity delights enjoyed for ever by the brave among the angels may perpetuate back
22: 80b-85 The days of glory have decayed the earth has spilled its splendour there are no captains now, no kings gold givers such as once there were the lords who lived to purchase fame and utmost laud among their peers
23: 86-93 Virtue is fallen, visions are faded the weak are left to hold this world worn low. The flower of the field is old the leaf is withered and the laurel sere Throughout this middle isthmus man meets age hoar-headed, bleak of face by former friends forsaken, grieving over scions of lineage long since gone back
24: 94-99 Life ebbs, the flesh feels less and fails to savour sweet or sour is frail of hand, feeble of mind Though men may bury treasured pelf beside their brother's born remains and sow his grave with golden goods he goes where gold is worthless
25 = 100-105 Nor can his sinful soul, quaking before his God call hoarded gold or mortal glory to his aid that Architect is awesome Whose might moves the world Whose hand has fixed the firmament earth's vaults and vapours back
26: 106-107 Dull is the man who does not dread the Lord on him will death's descent be sudden blissful the man that meekly lives on him will heaven benisons bestow
27: 108 A mind was given man by God to glory in his might
28: 109-116 A man should steer a steadfast course be constant, clean and just in judgement a man should curb his love or loathing though flame consume his comrade and fire the funeral pyre for fate is set more surely God more great, than any man surmise
29: 117-122a Come, consider where we have a home, how we can travel to it, how our travail here will lead us to the living well-head and heaven haven of our Lord's love
30 = 122b-124/5 Thus let us thank His hallowed name that He has granted us His grace Dominion enduring, the Ancient of Days for all time Amen
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