Song Meaning
The lyrics paint a vivid, sensory picture of love and nature intertwined. The opening stanza sets a tranquil scene with a "mellow yellow sun" and "waving sunbeams," immediately establishing a warm, almost magical atmosphere. This golden light is personified as "magic fingers" that gently interact with the narrator's hair, suggesting a tender, intimate connection with the surroundings that mirrors the burgeoning feelings of love.
This gentle touch expands to the natural world, where the "green sea" is described with oceanic imagery like "salty carpets flung on land." Here, the "foamy fingers" of the waves are depicted as actively seeking out secluded spots, "caves where lovers lie upon the sand." This imagery suggests that nature itself is a space designed for romantic encounters, with the sea actively facilitating these intimate moments.
The final stanza shifts to a more direct and passionate expression of love, using the color "red" to describe lips from which the narrator drinks. The metaphor of "rubies from the fleshy bowl" is a bold, almost primal image of desire. The narrator then mirrors the earlier imagery of "fingers," but this time they are reaching inward, "inside to cup my heart and knead my love to soul," signifying a profound, soul-deep merging and transformation through love.