Bob Zentz wrote the tune for the poem that opens The White Seal in Rudyard Kippling's classic, The Jungle Book. The story tells of the seal who, by leading them to a secret hidden beach, saves his kind from the seal hunters. "Guvaruska" is Russian for sea gull, or so we've been told.
lyrics
The Beaches of Lukannon
Rudyard Kipling
I met my mates in the morning, and lo, that I am old
The roaring of the ledges, the summer groundswell roll
I heard them lift their chorus to drown the breaker's song
The beaches of Lukannon, two million voices strong.
Song of pleasant stations, beside the salt lagoon,
Song of flow in squadrons that shuffle down the dune.
Song of midnight dances that churn the seas to flame,
The beaches of Lukannon, before the sealers came.
I meet my mates in the morning, I'll never meet them more,
We came and went in legions and darkened all the shore,
Among the foam-flecked offing, as far as voice could reach,
We hailed the landing parties, we sang them up the beach.
The beaches of Lukannon, the winter wheat so tall,
Dripping, crinkled lichen, the sea fog drenching all,
The porches of our playground, all shining smooth and worn,
The beaches of Lukannon, the home where we were born.
I meet my mates in the morning, a broken scattered band,
Men shoot us in the water, men club us on the sand,
They send us to the salt house, like silly sheep and tame,
Still, we sing, "Lukannon! before the sealers came!"
Wheel down, wheel down to southard, oh guvaruska, go,
And tell the salt sea viceroy the story of our woe,
For like the empty shark's egg the tempests fling to shore,
The beaches of Lukannon will know their sons no more.
credits
from Round the Corner,
released January 1, 1997
Tania Opland: fiddle, harmonies
Nancy Wharton: 'cello
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