Nature Boy
by Eden Ahbez
There was a boy,
a very strange,
enchanted boy
They say he traveled
very far, very far,
over land and sea
A little shy,
and sad of eye,
but very wise was he
Then one day,
one magic day,
he passed my way
And while we spoke of many things,
fools & kings,
this he said to me
The greatest thing
you'll ever learn,
is just to love
and be loved
in return
I don't know anything about Eden Ahbez, nor of whom he was thinking when he wrote this song in 1947, but I know I've been singing a wobbly, a cappella, version of it to Django since he was in utero. It's a short, rather haunting, melody -- and now a jazz standard -- that doesn't at all match the joyful and carefree exuberance of these particular images. But somehow, they both take me to the same heartfelt place.
