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