The Mermaid

(Trad)

When I was a lad in a fishin' town

Me old man said to me:

"You can spend your life, your jolly life

Just sailin' on the sea.

You can search the world for pretty girls

Til your eyes are weak and dim,

But don't go searchin' for a mermaid, son

If you don't know how to swim"

(course)

'Cause her hair was green as seaweed

Her skin was blue and pale

Her face, it was a work of art, I loved that girl with all my heart

I only liked the upper part

I did not like the tail

I signed onto a sailing ship

My first very day at sea

I seen the mermaid in the waves,

There reaching out to me

"Come and live with me in the sea said she,

Down on the ocean floor

And I'll show you a million wondrous things,

you've never seen before.

So over I jumped and she pulled me down,

Down to her seaweed bed

And a pillow made out of a tortoise-shell

She placed beneath my head

She fed me shrimp and caviar

Upon a silver dish

From her head to her waist it was just my taste

But the rest of her was a fish

(course)

Then one day, she swam away

So I sang to the clams and the whales

"Oh, how I miss her seaweed hair

And the silver shine of her scales

But then her sister, she swam by

Set my heart awhirl

'Cause her upper part was an ugly fish

But her bottom part was a girl

Yes her hair was green as seaweed

Her skin was blue and pale, her legs they are a work of art

I love that girl with all my heart

And I don't give a damn bout the upper part

'Cause that's how I get my tail