The Sailor's Return (Quand Le Marin Revient De Guerre)

1. He comes alone,
   The sailor comes now, Tout doux!
   (...repeat...)
"Oh sailor brave," she said,
   "Come in: Where have you been 
   with clothes so thin?"  Tout doux!

2. "The war is done!
   I'm coming home now." Tout doux!
   (...)
"Please bring me wine. Before I go, 
   I'd like to drink this wine I know,"
   Tout doux!

3. Drinking his wine
   The sailor sings now, Tout doux!
   (...)
He asks his lovely hostess
   Why she sits so sadly now and sighs,
   Tout doux!

4. "Why are you sad?
   Why are you sighing," Tout doux!
   (...)
"Is it this wine this passer-by
   Is drinking now that makes you sigh,"
   Tout doux!

5. "Oh no, not that!
   The wine is yours, please." Tout doux!
   (...)
"My husband went to war like you;
   Forgive me, but he looked like you!"
   Tout doux!

6. "Oh tell me please,
   My lovely lady." Tout doux!
   (...)
"Did you not have before the war
   Just three small children here, 
   not four?" Tout doux!

7. "There were just three
   Before they wrote me." Tout doux!
   (...)
"He's dead! He's dead! They wrote to me,
   So I remarried finally."
   Tout doux!

8. He could not speak,
   He could not speak then. Tout doux!
   (...)
With weeping heart, he left her home
   He went back to his ship alone,  
   Tout doux!



A very sad, very moving old folk song from Brittany, sung throughout France.  A sailor returns from war, and on visiting his wife he finds she was told he'd died and she has remarried and had another child.  He returns alone to his ship.