Who transcends so late through night and sea?

It’s the CTD to collect water for thee.

It holds a SUNA, tight on its frame;

SUNA reveals a nutrient, ‘nitrate’ is the name.

‘Altimeter, why do you hide your face in fear?’

‘Watch out CTD, the ground will soon appear!’

‘The fjord’s ground with its sediments from ashore?

The multibeam says it’s a hundred meter more.

‘Backscatter, sweet child, look over here,

I’m Greenland glacier water, I might disappear.

I was heavily diluted when entering the sea,

Give your science meaning by sampling me.’

‘CTD, CTD, stop! Let’s hit the brakes!

Don’t you hear what promises the glacial plume makes?’

‘Stay calm and stay focused, bud.

We’ll collect a bottle here on our way up.’

‘Good to see you again, dear thermosalinograph,

I’m salty, filling the deeper water column half.

I snuck into the fjord, can melt ice, am warmer.

Who am I? I am… Atlantic Water!

‘CTD, CTD, can you not see,

Atlantic Water is calling for me!’

‘Atlantic Water? Below the pycnocline’s reign?

Bottom here! Bottle closed! And up again.’

‘Welcome back to light, conductivity meter!

Only you reveal my true nature.’

‘CTD, CTD, the surface! Cold, fresh, and free.

Surface Melt Water is dazzling me!’

The winch is pulling firmly, lifting the rosette,

“CTD back on deck” says the radio handset.

In suspense, the team waits for the freshwater hose.

Relief! All Niskin bottles did properly close.

Lukas Taenzer (PO/CTD Team)

After “Der Erlkönig” by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (with a slightly more positive ending than the original)