"No, no, my boy, I only know
Where there are no rocks at all,
Where there are no rocks at all, my boy,
And there no ship is lost.
Strike out, strike out for the open sea;
There's danger near the coast.
Beware, I say, of the dunes
In the nights of the watery moons,
Beware of the Maelstrom's tide
When the western wind blows free,
Of the rocks of the Skagerrack,
Of the shoals of the Cattegat;
Strike out for the open sea,
Strike out for the open sea!"

Low sunk the trees in the sun-laved seas,
And the flash of peaking oars
Grew faint and dim on the sheeny rim
Of the harbor-dented shores.
And far Faroe in the light lay low,
Where rode like a dauntless host
The white-plumed waves o'er the green sea graves
Of the rock-imperilled coast.
And I thought of the drifting dunes
In the nights of the watery moons,
And I thought of the Maelstrom's tide
When the western wind blew free,
Of the rocks of the Skagerrack,
Of the shoals of the Cattegat,
And I steered for the open sea,
I steered for the open sea.

To far Faroe I sailed away,
When bright the summer burned,
And I told in the old Norse kirk one day
The lesson my heart had learned.
Then the grizzly landvogt said to me:
"Of strength we may not boast;
But ever in life for you and me
There's danger near the coast.
Then think of the drifting dunes
In the nights of the watery moons,
And think of the Maelstrom's tide
When the western wind blows free,
Of the rocks of the Skagerrack,
Of the shoals of the Cattegat;
Strike out for the open sea,
Strike out for the open sea!"

"O landvogt, well thou knowest the ways
Wherein my feet may fall."
"Oh, no, my boy, I only know
The ways that are safe to all,
The ways that are safe to all, my boy,
And there no soul is lost.
Strike out in life for the open sea,
There's danger near the coast.
Then think of the drifting dunes
In the nights of the watery moons,
And think of the Maelstrom's tide
When the western wind blows free,
Of the rocks of the Skagerrack,
Of the shoals of the Cattegat;
Strike out for the open sea,
Str