The speaker remembers a sleepless night spent riding a ferry back and forth with someone she loves. They are exhausted but giddy—the kind of happiness that comes from staying up until dawn for no good reason. The setting is bare and bright, even smelling like a stable, but it feels enchanted because they are together, sharing apples and pears and watching the sunrise spill gold over the water. When they meet a poor woman wrapped in a shawl, their joy overflows into generosity: they give her all their money except subway fare, and she blesses them. The repeated lines keep a lilting, song-like rhythm that mirrors both their tiredness and their merriment. The mood is youthful, romantic, and a little reckless—a celebration of a simple, full moment worth remembering.
Recuerdo — Summary
We were very tired, we were very merry-- We had gone back and forth all night on the ferry. It was bare and bright, and smelled like a stable-- But we looked into a fire, we leaned across a table, We lay on a hill-top underneath the moon; And the whistles kept blowing, and the dawn came soon.
We were very tired, we were very merry-- We had gone back and forth all night on the ferry; And you ate an apple, and I ate a pear, From a dozen of each we had bought somewhere; And the sky went wan, and the wind came cold, And the sun rose dripping, a bucketful of gold.
We were very tired, we were very merry, We had gone back and forth all night on the ferry. We hailed, "Good morrow, mother!" to a shawl-covered head, And bought a morning paper, which neither of us read; And she wept, "God bless you!" for the apples and pears, And we gave her all our money but our subway fares.