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Calypso 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
Now, 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
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Cover art for Calypso lyrics by Suzanne Vega

I was visiting Rome the year "solitude standing" was first releasead, "Luka" was the hit, and Vega began touring. While walking through the Sistine Chapel with some friends, a group of guys approached us and we struck up a conversation. They were a mix of bandmates and soundguys touring with Suzanne, and they invited us to her show that night with guest passes. I was able to sit beside one of the soundguys for the duration of the show. All this background to share this: I had not heard Calypso until this concert. When she began playing the song, the soundguy volunteered, "this song was written from the perspective of Calypso" because Suzanne felt that the poems in the Odyssey always reflected the male point of view, and not the women, and she wanted to represent how the woman, in this case Calypso, might have felt. There you have it from the horse's mouth. This song-that night- sparked in me a subsequent passion for mythology. While we can interpret it for our own needs, in this case I know the intent of Vega matches up exactly with "kezz's" input. I'll add that while studying the Odyssey in college, my mythology professor added that while keeping Odysseus captive all those years, her last desperate attempt to keep him on the island was by changing herself into the image of Penelope, the beloved wife Odysseus pined for. Yet, this too failed, and that is when in her heart Calypso knew she had to "let him go."

Cover art for Calypso lyrics by Suzanne Vega

I don't think it's exactly "from the persepective of Calypso". I think it's more the writer comparing herself to Calypso. Comparing a relationship she had with the myth of Calypso and Odysseus that kezz so wonderfully told. It's about someone who you love that doesn't love you back anymore, she lets him go and "it's a lonely time ahead". But does anyone else get the feeling that she's not so much doing it for herself, but she's doing it for him. She knows she won't be happy without him, because she lives alone and the one chance she had of love is now gone.

Cover art for Calypso lyrics by Suzanne Vega

This is an epic song. So well written it's like you're actually there. It's like poetry only better

Cover art for Calypso lyrics by Suzanne Vega

This song is obviously from the persepective of Calypso, the goddess who rescued Odysseus from drowning in Homer's epic poem the Odyssey. Calypso falls in love with Odysseus, and offers him immortality if he stays with her, but he pines for his home and his wife, and eventually Hermes convinces her to let Odysseus sail home.

Cover art for Calypso lyrics by Suzanne Vega

naughteragain, yes, I later found out that kezz was absolutely right and Suzanne really did mean this as a retelling of the story from the female perspective. And still while I think it's an interesting fact and I admire Suzanne for her approaching such subjects and shining a different light on them. I think that still the importance and brilliance of this song lie in the emotion and the way people can relate to it. In the end it kind of seems that the myth is yet another creative means for her. My opinion is to focus more on the lyrics of her song, but still recognise and give credit to what exactly she was inspired by. Afterall, she is a true artist, one that does not get tangled up in her influences, but instead she uses them to create her own art.

Cover art for Calypso lyrics by Suzanne Vega

I have my eyes filled with tears when I listen to this song. Calypso's love to Odysseus was so strong that "she let him go". She was a goddess. She could easily force him to stay. This is really true love.