My heart is, a cavern of desire,

My present life out here has left me hoping,

Has left me wondering.

Listen to the dreams that are within my heart,

And grant me father I pray thee passage to depart.

But this is your home and all I have I give you,

Ripe the fields they are with bounty once again.

What can the city offer more than I do,

There you’ll only find the fleeting pleasures or deceit.

Yet if you give me now this chance,

You will have made my life complete.

I will not squander what you give me.

And so he, so he left his place.

My son is leaving - and my heart - is breaking for him.

Please oh God, I pray, help now to lean,

And keep his life, and grant that he’ll return.

So this is the life of comfort that I have chosen

Ripe the city is with sights that please my taste

What could my father offer more than… this

Here I find…… all that I could ever need

But as I live my life of ease

All that I had I spent in haste

I had no wisdom here within me.

So now as, I wonder all alone

My money spent, my friends have left me, I am forsaken.

Please oh God, have mercy on my starving soul

Or let me die, and bells of sorrow toll

In my father’s house, there is safety and abundance,

All his servants have enough and then to spare.

I will entreat the love and mercy of my father.

Though a son, I can no longer hope to be.

And as I look upon myself,

All of my shame it overwhelms.

But I have no one else to turn to

My prayers, my daily watch upon the hill

Will he return, I feel a glimmer of hope within me.

For all I have, would I gladly give this day,

To hold my son, once again safely in my arms

Are my eyes deceiving, could it be the answer to my prayers.

Down the road I see, my son is coming slowly home.

This is the moment I have so often dreamed of,

I will go out to meet him and put upon him my own robe.

Rejoice with me my friends this day,

Let us not spare in our gratefulness,

For this my son was lost and now is found.

Rejoice with me my friends this day,

Let us not spare in our gratefulness,

For this my son was lost and now is found.