One Particular Harbour

The speaker longs for a particular harbour, a place he cannot visit often but keeps returning to in memory and imagination. Thinking about it brings comfort amid a busy, difficult life. The song moves from regret about being away to warm memories of youth, and then to a quieter reflection on safety, aging, and eventual disappearance.

The harbour seems to mean more than a physical port: it is a refuge, sheltered from trouble, where children can play safely. The description of mountain water flowing into the sea compares nature’s movement to paint spreading across a canvas, suggesting that these landscapes have deeply affected the speaker. Calling the place both “so far” and “so near” captures how distant it may be in reality yet close in memory or feeling. The repeated words in another language add a musical, communal quality, though their precise meaning is not explained in the English lyrics.

The harbour may be a real place, an ideal home, or a symbol of peace the speaker hopes to reach someday. Its association with old age and “disappear” gives the longing a gentle awareness of mortality, but does not make the song simply sad. The refuge remains a source of calm and belonging, even while the speaker admits that he may never fully return to it.