If I could choose the life I pleased

Then I would be a boatman

Along the canals and the rivers free

No hasty words are spoken

My only law is the river breeze

Would take me to the open seas

If I could choose the life I pleased

Then I would be a boatman

If I could choose the life I pleased

Then I would be a rover

And if the road was not for me

Then I would choose another

Across the mountains and the valleys deep

I would take these weary feet

If I could choose the life I pleased

Then I would be a rover

But these things are so hard for me

I cannot choose my own destiny

And all the things that I want to see

Are so unclean

I wish I could choose the life I please

But I am not a free man

Others choose my destiny

But my will's never broken

I know someday I will be

Everything that I dreamed I'd be

If I could choose the life I pleased

I would be a boatman.