☝️ Key Points
- The song is about a sad and lonely girl on the Bay of Biscay who lost her entire family at sea.
- A sailor shows compassion and sympathy for her situation, and a deep emotional bond forms between them.
- From her pain and sadness, the girl asks the sailor to take her away.
- Despite the sailor's duty, he invites the girl to come aboard and offers her a new home on the Rhine.
- The song is a mixture of love, loss, and hope for a better future.
Interpretation
The lyrics of 'Am Golf von Biskaya' tell a romantic and tragic story of a young girl and a sailor. The girl stands alone at the Gulf of Biscay, a region on the west coast of Europe. She is marked by sadness and loss, as her father and brothers died on a ship during a storm ('The father, the brothers / On a struggling ship / Crashed in the storm / On the rocky reef'). The loss of these family members also led to the death of her mother ('Died of grief / My dear mother'), leaving her completely alone ('Now I stand in the world / Abandoned, alone').
As she tells her fate to the sailor, a deep emotional bond forms between them. She asks him to take her away ('Take me away / My blond sailor') and emphasizes how difficult it would be for her to part from him ('To separate from you / Oh, that is so hard for me').
In the following verses, they express their mutual love and the sailor invites the girl to come aboard with him ('Do you hear the siren / Calling me to duty? / Come, dear girl, / We must go aboard'). He promises her that they will find a new home on the Rhine, where the vines bloom ('The vines bloom / on the magnificent Rhine, / there will also be our home').
The song is thus a mixture of love, loss, and hope for a better future.