The Decemberists - Rusalka Rusalka / Wild Rushes Lyrics

Rusalka, Rusalka your arms out of water
Your hair like an alien bloom
Dark-eyed Rusalka, your brow tressed in flowers
Pale in a liminal moon
And all that you are is a star on the water

When first I went swimming, I heeded no warning
And dared breach your rippling pool
As I lulled and lingered, the ring slipped my finger
And drifted down the deepening cool
And all that I want is to fall in your shallows

And now we are wed, the water our bed
And bank to bank a property lake
And you are my wild-eyed rusalka, my river bride
Drag me down, take me away
And here we will lie, you and I, 'neath the cold, dark sky

Beware the wild rushes, my mother told me
That grow on the bank side along the salt sea
But I being young, I heeded her none
So to the wild rushes the wind carried me

The summer was here and the sun it was high
And to the wild rushes I came by and by
And there took my seat and dipped in my feet
When through the wild rushes, a voice sweetly cried

Come down, my little darling, come closer to me
The water is warm; it is salty and free
I long for your touch but I won't ask too much
And I, being foolish, walked in to my knees

Come down, little darling, and lay at my breast
Oh come a little closer and I'll do the rest
I waited so long for a lover to come
And I, being foolish, walked in to my chest

Come down, my little darling, oh farther come in
For deeper the water, the sweeter the sin
My lily lies here, if you'd only draw near
And I, being foolish, went in to my chin

Oh come, my little darling, do you feel my cool breath?
Do you feel my arms around you so warm and so wet?
Swept from my feet, she pulled me beneath
And in the wild rushes, I went to my death