Old Eyes

I was the only one who witnessed my homecoming
So I asked myself: Brother Joseph, how've you been?
Then I met an old man who knew me as a boy
I said, Father, where're the people, where're the homesteads gone?
And he said, Son, I'll be old until I die now
And then I will join our people in the sky
I am not the one to ask the reasons why
Your brothers and your sisters have been scattered in the wind

And he said old eyes (mehlomadala)
You've got old eyes, boy
You've seen much too much for one so young
He said old eyes (mehlomadala)
You've got old eyes, boy
Child, from whence have you come?

When I left that mountain land so gold and green
I was a sturdy sixteen years
Work was hard and the wage was low
And the seasons passed me by one by one
And I dreamed, Maria, you would wait for my return
We'd build a home upon the rock beneath the smiling sun
But as the old man used to say when I was young
People come and people go, but the mountain still remains

And he said old eyes (mehlomadala)
You've got old eyes, boy
You've seen much too much for one so young
He said old eyes (mehlomadala)
You've got old eyes, boy
Child, from whence have you come?