Interpretation of “The sea is deep” by Nana Mouskouri

2026-06-18

For this entry in the series I have picked a song of composer Manos Chatzidakis, as it is performed by the acclaimed Nana Mouskouri: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Lp6f_T1z_o. This is a wonderful performance. Even the breeze adds to the magic of the show.

Below are the lyrics, my translation of them, and further comments.

Το πέλαγο είναι βαθύ

Ερμηνεία:  Νάνα Μούσχουρη
Στίχοι:    Μάνος Χατζιδάκις
Μουσική:   Μάνος Χατζιδάκις


Το πέλαγο είναι βαθύ
κι η αγάπη είναι μεγάλη

Έχω έναν πόνο στην ψυχή
και ποιος θα μου τον βγάλει

Το πέλαγο είναι πικρό
χάδι μαζί και δάκρυ

Και με κυλάει αφρίζοντας
στου ορίζοντα την άκρη

Το πέλαγο είναι παιδί
τρέχει και δεν το φτάνω

Παιδί και στην αγάπη του
που σαν παιδί το χάνω

The sea is deep

Singer:  Nana Mouskouri
Lyrics:  Manos Chatzidakis
Music:   Manos Chatzidakis


The sea is deep
and love is big

I have a pain in the soul
and who will remove it

The sea is bitter
caress together and teardrop

And it rolls me foaming
to the horizon's edge

The sea is a child
it runs and I cannot reach it

Child also in its love
that as a child I lose it

The theme of The sea is deep is discerned through millennia of Greek culture: it is about the world as admixture. The sea is the poetic representation of the world at-large, here approximated through the human experience. Life contains all the parts germane to the human condition: those we like as well those we dislike.

Our preferences about the world are irrelevant, for we cannot enact them. We may not opt out of the magnitudes we do not enjoy or approve of. There is not stylistic or moral argument to be made that shall bring about permanent changes to the functioning of the world.

All we can do is accept what is, be it sweet or bitter, attractive or repulsive. Then we may work on internalising the observation that each is exposed to vicissitudes beyond their control. Phenomena come and go, much like waves. There is no holding onto them. Whatever we have is not ours to keep forever: it is alienable.

The sea exhibits the quality of the world as admixture quite clearly. It is a source of food, a place for recreational activities and romantic escapades, the space for commerce and for connecting to distant cultures… There are just so many beautiful moments we can think of. Yet the sea is never tamed. It has no friends and plays no favourites. In it lies the imminent threat of death and destruction, the peerless potential to make entire realities and to undo them.

Our powerlessness in the face of the world does not prevent us from working with what is available to us. We carry on living, with the qualities we are endowed with, under the evolving circumstances that govern our day-to-day affairs. The feebleness of ours underpins the sense of wonder we have. It manifests as awe: the feeling that consists of admiration and fear in tandem.

This poetic sea is likened to a child to emphasise its vitality and exuberance. Its energy is always more than our own, such that we cannot keep up with it. It is a child also in the sense that it does not obey our longer-term plans, seeking instead change of some sort.

The sea is deep speaks of love. We connect deeply with people, other animals, places, items, and activities, even though we are well aware that death will undo everything. Death in the literal sense, but also the figurative end of an era. A single kiss, for example, is enjoyable in its own right, not because there is any guarantee that there will even be a tomorrow in which another kiss shall happen.

Love is a part of what we seek even with a dagger firmly planted in our heart with nobody to remove it. In a sense, what we do is futile as the sea will wash it all away. In another sense, it is all important since we understand the grandeur of love through the ups and downs.

To what end? The sea knows, yet has no reason to tell us. We keep going regardless. Uncertainty does not deter us.