Calypso

Suzanne Vega - Calypso

Inspired by Homer's epic poem The Odyssey

Listen to the Track:

Quote from the songwriter:
Calypso makes an appearance on the first page [of Homer's Odyssey] and I guess she never really comes back, and no one ever checks up on her to see how she's doing. It's very one sided, I remember feeling that. So this song is called Calypso and it's written from her point of view the night before he left.

Lyrics:
My name is Calypso
And I have lived alone
I live on an island
And I waken to the dawn
A long time ago
I watched him struggle with the sea
I knew that he was drowning
And I brought him into me
Now today
Come morning light
He sails away
After one last night
I let him go.

My name is Calypso
My garden overflows
Thick and wild and hidden
Is the sweetness there that grows
My hair it blows long
As I sing into the wind
I tell of nights
Where I could taste the salt on his skin

Salt of the waves
And of tears
And though he pulled away
I kept him here for years
I let him go.

My name is Calypso
I have let him go
In the dawn he sails away
To be gone forever more
And the waves will take him in again
But he'll know their ways now
I will stand upon the shore
With a clean heart
And my song in the wind
The sand will sting my feet
And the sky will burn
It's a lonely time ahead
I do not ask him to return
I let him go
I let him go

©Suzanne Vega