The Water Is Wide (2002)

(Traditional verses in italics)

The water is wide, I can't get o'er,
Neither have I the wings to fly.
Give me a boat that will carry two,
And we both shall row, my love and I.

My first love was a golden girl.
Soft was her voice, sweet was her smile.
So young was I, that I dared not speak,
So I lost her love after a while.

For love is warm, when love is new,
The brightest jewel when it is true.
But love grows old, and waxes cold,
And fades away like morning dew.

I met a lass in Balboa Park;
She drew me like a burning flame.
But she was much too young to love,
And she was much too wild to tame.

I put my hand in a rosy bush,
Thinking the sweetest flower to find.
I pricked my finger to the bone,
And left the sweetest flower behind.

I met my lady at a May tourney.
I sought her hand the very next day.
For eighteen years we laughed and loved:
Why we don't yet I cannot say.

I leaned my back against an oak,
Thinking it was a trusty tree.
But first it bent, and then it broke,
And so her love proved false to me.

I met my love in a library.
Her shining hair is like the sun,
And when her jade-green eyes meet mine,
My heart's strait bonds come all undone.

A ship there is, she sails the sea,
She's loaded deep as deep can be.
But not so deep as the love I'm in,
I know not how I sink or swim.

For I can love as I do live:
From day to day, or evermore.
But if that love will fade away,
This man had better stay ashore.

Because the water is wide, and I can't get o'er,
Neither have I the wings to fly.
But bring a boat that will carry two,
And we both shall row, my love and I!