La Brigantine 

Word: Rudyard Kipling;  Music:© 1964, 1992 Gordon Bok, BMI

 

The Canadian French often preferred the brigantine rig to the schooner, for cargo and fishing.  Here they speak of it as the ship of death:  a funeral chant.

 

I learned it when I was quite young, but forgot he melody, so I asked Shirley Ruffalo (Brown) to read it for me, and took the shape of this tune from her inflection.

 

La Brigantine qui va tourner,                          The Brigantine that goes,

Roule et s'incline                                     rolling and pitching,

Pour m'entraîner.                                           takes me with it.

 

Ah, Vierge Marie,                                      Oh, Virgin Mary,

Pour moi priez-Dieu;                                        pray to God for me.

Adieu, Patrie,                                                   Goodbye, my country;

Québec, adieu.                                                 Goodbye, Quebec.

 

La Brigantine  is recorded on the album Seal Djiril's Hymn, and is also in the songbook Time and the Flying Snow