Spoken:
Just one island in an ugly string
Of prehistoric penal colonies
This island is a most remote inhabited spot on earth
Each family possesses a registered trademark
Which is chipped into the trunk of a tree
Sung:
Oh bring back the egg unbroken
The egg of the sooty nesting tern
And you will be made king of this island now
The women have gone on up the cliffside
They're gathering eggs of their own
We'll have them at the celebration when the king is chosen now
Jump off the cliff into the ocean
You grab an egg, you swim back,
Holding it aloft
You hold it high above the roughest
of the shark-infested water now, oh my love
You bring the egg unbroken back, you are the king
You are the King
Oh bring the egg unbroken back, you are the king
Oh, we'll be thinking of the ocean when the king brings back unbroken
The egg of the sooty nesting tern
Some well-known, lost, but ancient wisdom
the point and purpose which was mysterious, or even vague
It says the truth is worse than you could possibly imagine
And we islanders, we'll be thinking of escape
We'll be thinking, we'll be thinking
We'll be thinking of escape
We'll be thinking, we'll be thinking
We'll be thinking of escape
