I was young when I set out

I can hardly remember

Oh the tales that I could tell you

If I only could remember

And the fog it is drumming

And the new world is coming

Oh this song I will be humming

When the words won't come out

On a slow boat to China

I will be, I will be

In the sea, when we get there

We will see what will be

On a slow boat to China

I will be, I will be

We will see when we get there

What will be

Now I’m old I am weathered

My beard is long and white

I have seen many crawling winters

on this sleepy ark

still we go for our fathers

and we go for the lost

still we go ever on

into the common dark

On a slow boat to China

I will be, I will be

In the sea, when we get there

We will see what will be

On a slow boat to China

I will be, I will be

We will see when we get there

What will be

On a slow boat to China

I will be, I will be, I will be

On a slow boat to China

I will be, we will see, we will see

On a slow boat to China

I will be, I will be, l will be

On a slow boat to China

I will be, we will see, what will be

On a slow boat to China

I will be, I will be

We will see, when we get there,what will be