A Poem by Jacques Cousteau
Watching the ocean in Bordeaux as a boy
I desired its secrets and wondered
What things lay out there just beyond my grasp
Deep within nature's arms, down under?
Together with friends of a curious bend
I invented the "aqua lung" for breathing
Underwater to search a part of the earth
Alone and lying there quietly seething.
Creating the first undersea colony
I Pioneered and filmed the oceans floor
And as I learned to love her frailties
The siren of the deep taught me more.
She seduced my sense with bright colors
As strange creatures kept embracing my mind.
Her illusive environment captured me
With wondrous spectaculars of all kind.
The sea even took my youngest Philippe
In seventy-nine in seaplane crash he died
Tearing my heart out but not breaking my spirit
And I swallowed it all with a special pride
Oh the mistress of the sea can be cruel
As many a man has had time to learn
But if we take time to understand her
She always gives us a lot in return
I desired its secrets and wondered
What things lay out there just beyond my grasp
Deep within nature's arms, down under?
Together with friends of a curious bend
I invented the "aqua lung" for breathing
Underwater to search a part of the earth
Alone and lying there quietly seething.
Creating the first undersea colony
I Pioneered and filmed the oceans floor
And as I learned to love her frailties
The siren of the deep taught me more.
She seduced my sense with bright colors
As strange creatures kept embracing my mind.
Her illusive environment captured me
With wondrous spectaculars of all kind.
The sea even took my youngest Philippe
In seventy-nine in seaplane crash he died
Tearing my heart out but not breaking my spirit
And I swallowed it all with a special pride
Oh the mistress of the sea can be cruel
As many a man has had time to learn
But if we take time to understand her
She always gives us a lot in return