And Barty, whose voice was breaking, would raucously sing him the good old ditty for the sixth time:
"Weel may the keel row, the keel row, the keel row,
Weel may the keel row
That brings my laddie home!"
"Weel may the keel row, the keel row, the keel row,
Weel may the keel row
That brings my laddie home!"
which he would find rather difficult to render literally into colloquial seafaring French!
He translated it thus:
"Vogue la carène,
Vogue la carène
Qui me ramène
Mon bien aimé!"
"Vogue la carène,
Vogue la carène
Qui me ramène
Mon bien aimé!"
"Ah! vous verrez," says Bonzig—"vous verrez, aux prochaines vacances de Pâques—je ferai un si joli tableau de tout ça! avec la brume du soir qui tombe, vous savez—et le soleil qui disparait—et la marée qui monte et la lune qui se lève à l'horizon! et les mouettes et les goëlands—et les bruyères lointaines—et le vieux manoir seigneurial de votre grand‑père ... c'est bien ça, n'est‑ce pas?"
"Oui, oui, M'sieur Bonzig—vous y êtes, en plein!"
And the good usher in his excitement would light himself a cigarette of caporal, and inhale the smoke as if it were a sea‑breeze, and exhale it like a regular sou'‑wester! and sing: