Pique la Baleine

Pique la baleine is a traditional Breton whaling song, one of many such songs dating back to the early 19th century.  It is featured in Commandant Louis Lacroix's (former French captain and naval historian, 1877-1958) famous book 'Les Derniers Baleiniers Francais', which was published in 1947 and documented the life and times of French whalers in the half century between 1817 and 1867.


Pique la Baleine

 

Pour retrouver ma douce amie
Oh mes boués, ouh là ouh là là.
Pour retrouver ma douce amie
Oh mes boués, ouh là ouh là là.
Pique la baleine, joli baleinier
Pique la baleine, je veux naviguer.

Aux mille mers j'ai navigué.

Des mers du nord aux mers du sud.

Je l'ai retrouvée quand j'm'ai noyé.

Dans les grands fonds, elle m'espérait.

Tous deux ensemble on a pleuré.

En couple à elle j'm'suis couché.

Translation


To find my sweet love again,
     Oh my boys, oh la la,
Lance the whale, jolly whalerman,
You lance the whale, I'll steer.

I have sailed a thousand seas.

From the northern seas to the southern.

I found her again when I drowned.

In the deeps, she was longing for me.

Together we cried.

In her embrace, I lay down.