The Ferryman lyrics

Song information

Artist: Ralph Mctell
Album: From Clare To Here: The Songs Of Ralph Mctell

Lyrics

Oh, the traveller moving on the land, behold I give you, I give you the travelling man
And he's very heavy laden with the questions in his burden
Lo, and I give you the travelling man
He has crossed the mountains, he has forded streams
He has spent a long time surviving on his dreams
Many times he's tried to lighten up his heavy load
But his compromises fail him and he ends back on the road

Oh the traveller he is weary, the travelling man he is tired
For the road is never ending in his fear he has cried aloud for a saviour
And in vain for a teacher, someone to lighten up the load
And he's heard the sounds of war in a gentle shower of rain
And the whisperings of despair that he could not explain
The reason for his journey, or the reason it began
Or was there any reason for the travelling man

At last he reached a river so beautiful and wide
But the current was so strong he could not reach the other side
And the weary travelling man looked for a ferryman strong enough to row against the tide
And the ferryman was old but he moved the boat so well
Or did the river move the boat? the traveller could not tell
Said the ferryman, "you're weary and the answers that you seek
Are in the singing river, listen humbly it will speak."

Oh, the traveller closed his eyes and he listened and he heard
Only the river murmuring and the beating of his heart
Then he heard the river laughing, and he heard the river crying
And in it was the beauty and the sadness of the world
And he heard the sounds of dying, but he heard the sounds of birth
And slowly his ears heard all the sounds of earth
The sounds blended together and they became a whole
And the rhythm was his heartbeat to the music his soul

And the river had no beginning, as it flowed into the sea
And the seas filled the clouds and the rains filled the streams
And as slowly as the sunrise, he opened up his eyes
To find the ferryman had gone, the boat moved gently on the tide
And the river flowed within him, and with it he was one
And the seas moved around the earth, and the earth around the sun
And the traveller was the river, was the boat and ferryman
Was the journey and the song that the singing river sang