Today we’re going to do something a little bit different—a song! Dedicated to all those women who are caregivers for family members and loved ones, and all those in the nursing and medical profession.
The Dutchman is a song written by Michael Peter Smith in 1968 about an elderly married couple living in Amsterdam, Holland. The husband is never named, only referred to as “the Dutchman,” and his wife is Margaret. The Dutchman is frail and forgetful, and beginning to lose his grip on reality. Margaret cares for him, and she protects him from the world. She lovingly patches his coat and helps him walk through the cobbled streets. She doesn’t let other people see him at his worst. When she looks at him, the first thing she sees is the man she loves, the man she married. What a beautiful portrait of selflessness and love!
Liam Clancy does a lovely rendition of the song with Tommy Makem, and he has some neat insights into the song as well. With that, I’ll hand it over to them:
The Dutchman--Makem and Clancy
The Dutchman's not the kind of man
ReplyDeleteWho keeps his thumb jammed in the dam
That holds his dreams in,
But that's a secret that only Margaret knows.
When Amsterdam is golden in the summer,
Margaret brings him breakfast,
She believes him.
He thinks the tulips bloom beneath the snow.
He's mad as he can be, but Margaret only sees that sometimes,
Sometimes she sees her unborn children in his eyes.
Let us go to the banks of the ocean
Where the walls rise above the Zuider Zee.
Long ago, I used to be a young man
And dear Margaret remembers that for me.
The Dutchman still wears wooden shoes,
His cap and coat are patched with the love
That Margaret sewed there.
Sometimes he thinks he's still in Rotterdam.
And he watches the tug-boats down canals
An' calls out to them when he thinks he knows the Captain.
Till Margaret comes
To take him home again
Through unforgiving streets that trip him, though she holds his arm,
Sometimes he thinks he's alone and he calls her name.
Let us go to the banks of the ocean
Where the walls rise above the Zuiderzee.
Long ago, I used to be a young man
And dear Margaret remembers that for me.
The winters whirl the windmills 'round
She winds his muffler tighter
And they sit in the kitchen.
Some tea with whiskey keeps away the dew.
And he sees her for a moment, calls her name,
She makes the bed up singing some old love song,
A song Margaret learned
When it was very new.
He hums a line or two, they sing together in the dark.
The Dutchman falls asleep and Margaret blows the candle out.
Let us go to the banks of the ocean
Where the walls rise above the Zuiderzee.
Long ago, I used to be a young man
And dear Margaret remembers that for me.
Thanks! I probably should have posted that in the first place. derp.
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