MULTIMEDIA-ENGLISH
Orinoco flow (Libera)
click image to open video page
2:59
Video page URL
https://multimedia-english.com/videos/music/orinoco-flow-libera-3643
Description

Ever heard a choir of angels? Here they are.


If you want to listen to the original song as sang by Enya you can click here: Sail Away.

Transcript

Let me sail, let me sail: let the Orinoco Flow.
Let me reach, let me beach on the shores of Tripoli
Let me sail, let me sail: let me crash upon your shore
Let me reach, let me beach far beyond the Yellow Sea

Dooh dooh
Dooh dooh
Dooh dooh

Sail away, sail away, sail away
Sail away, sail away, sail away
Sail away, sail away, sail away
Sail away, sail away, sail away

From Bissau, to Palau in the shade of Avalon
From Fiji, to Tiree and the isles of Ebony
From Peru, to Cebu: feel the power of Babylon
From Bali, to Cali: far beneath the Coral Sea

Dooh dooh
Dooh dooh
Dooh dooh

Turn it up, turn it up, turn it up
Up adieu... ooh
Turn it up, turn it up, turn it up
Up adieu... ooh
Turn it up, turn it up, turn it up
Up adieu... aaah

Sail away, sail away, sail away
Sail away, sail away, sail away
Sail away, sail away, sail away
Sail away, sail away, sail away

From the North to the South: Ebudae unto Khartoum
From the deep Sea of Clouds: to the Island of the Moon
Carry me on the waves to the lands I've never been
Carry me on the waves to the lands I've never seen

Dooh dooh
sail away, sail away, sail away
let me sail, let me sail
let me sail, let me sail
sail away
let me sail, let me sail
sail away
let me sail, let me sail
sail away, sail away
let me sail, let me sail
sail away, sail away, sail away

Explanations

SAIL= Travel by ship.

ORINOCO= A tributary river to the Amazon flowing across Venezuela's rain forest.

FLOW= When a liquid (a river in this case) moves, we say that it flows.

REACH= Get to a place.

BEACH= Get to the beach. A beach is an area of sand between the sea and the land.

SHORES= Beach.

TRIPOLI= An ancient city in the Mediterranean sea, founded by the Phoenicians. Today it is the capital of Libya.

CRASH= Collide, bump into.


UPON= (old fashioned) On.


BEYOND= Further than. FAR BEYOND = much further than.

THE YELLOW SEA= A sea between China and Korea.

SAIL AWAY= Go away on a ship.

BISSAU= The capital city of Guinea-Bissau. It's on the African coast.

PALAU=  An island nation in the Pacific Ocean, some 500 miles (800 km) east of the Philippines.

SHADE= A darker area where the sun rays are blocked by an object (trees in this case).

AVALON= A legendary island, like a paradise, appearing in the legend of King Arthur.

FIJI= A paradisiacal group of islands in the Pacific Ocean.

TIREE= A Celtic island off the coast of Scotland.

ISLES= /aɪlz/ Islands.

THE ISLES OF EBONY= Ebony is a very hard expensive black wood produced in the jungles of Africa and southern India. The Isles of Ebony is an invention, they don't exist, but they sound nice and exotic.

CEBU= An island in the Philippines.

BABYLON= A city state of ancient Mesopotamia from about 5000 years ago, in modern Iraq. It was the capital of the Babylonian empire. A city of richness and luxury.

BALI= An Indonesian island.

CALI= A city in Colombia, near the sea but sited inland. This is the only location which is not by the sea (since this is a journey by ship), and they used it probably because it rhymes with Bali, and hopefully most people won't know exactly where it is.

BENEATH= /bəni:ð/ below.

THE CORAL SEA= A region of the north-east coast of Australia with a chain of islands of the same name. Yea, Cali is not "below the Coral Sea", but how many people knew that?

TURN IT UP= To accelerate, to go faster, to increase the speed.

ADIEU= /ədju:/ (AmE /ədu:/) goodbye. You can also pronounce it imitating the original French word: /ædjɜ:/, which sounds posh or, in this case, more elegant and dreamy.

EBUDAE= A Celtic archipelago (group of islands) off the west coast of Scotland. It is called The Inner Hebrides, but Romans called them Ebudae, and that name sounds more mythical.

KHARTOUM= Capital of Soudan. Placed at the confluence of the White Nile and the Blue Nile (the two rivers that originate the Egyptian Nile). Yea, it's not on the coast either, but at least you can sail there by boat along the river.

SEA OF CLOUDS= The English name of the Mare Nubium, an area of the moon. The big craters in the moon are called seas, because in the past they thought they contained water.

ISLAND OF THE MOON= Sailors sometimes called Madagascar "Island of the Moon", and since they just talked about a sea of the moon, this name now is very appropriate. Madagascar is a big island off the eastern coast of south Africa.

Meaning

This song is a fantasy trip in exotic faraway lands, evoking real locations and also legendary ones, which helps destroy the border between reality and fantasy, turning the whole thing into a dreamy state of mind.