Tall ships, we loved you

Tall ships, we loved you, never counting

Gain or loss. Against the evening sky

You loom into the sunset, canvas mounting.

Empty we stand, forlorn, the port and I.

The sea has sped you onward to your own fate.

Our feet are rooted here upon the sand.

Your souls with chains we never dared to weight.

You yearn for places where I'll never stand.

A landsman, I, and my desires are here.

Your call at midnight leads me to despair.

You thrive on winds that fill my heart with cold fear.

I long for foreign shores I'll never dare.

Vessels, we would have loved you, even if all were lost. The last of you has

set sail. So many unfurled sails have melted into the setting sun that this

port, and my heart, will be deserted forever. The sea has taken you to your

destiny, beyond the shore on which we stand. We could not keep your souls in

chains. You need the distances that I do not know. But my desires lie on land.

The breeze that intoxicates you fills my heart with fear. Yet your call, in

the depths of the evening, fills me with despair because I long in vain to

leave as well.