I'm a Legionnaire Camel in disrepair Hoping for a Frigidaire To come passing by I am on reprieve Lacking my joie de vivre Missing my gay Paris In this desert dry And I wrote my girl Told her I would not return I've terribly taken a turn For the worst now I fear It's been a year or more Since they shipped me to this foreign shore Fighting in a foreign war So far away from my home If only some rain would fall On the houses and the boulevards And the sidewalk bagatelles It's like a dream With the roar of cars And the lolling of the cafe bars The sweetly sleeping sweeping of the Seine Lord I don't know if I'll ever be back again La la la la La la la la Medicating in the sun Pinch doses of laudanum Longing for the old fecundity Of my homeland Curses to this mirage A bottle of ancient Shiraz A smattering of distant applause Is ringing in my poor ears On the old left bank My baby in a charabanc Riding up the width and length Of the Champs-Elysee If only some rain would fall On the houses and the boulevards And the sidewalk bagatelles It's like a dream With the roar of cars And the lolling of the cafe bars The sweetly sleeping sweeping of the Seine Lord I don't know if I'll ever be back again