The Legionnaire's Lament

I'm a legionnaire
Camel in disrepair
Hoping for a Frigidaire
To come passing byI am on reprieve
Lacking my joie de vive
Missing my gay Paris
In this desert dryAnd I wrote my girl
Told her I would not return
Terribly taken a turn
For the worse, now I fearIt's been a year or more
Since they shipped me to this foreign shore
Fighting in a foreign war
So far away from my homeIf only summer rain would fall
On the houses and the boulevards
And the side walk bagatelles
It's like a dreamWith the roar of cars
And the lulling of the cafe bars
The sweetly sleeping sweeping of the Seine
Lord, I don't know if I'll ever be back againMedicating in the sun
Pinched doses of laudanum
Longing for the old fecundity
Of my homelandCurses to this mirage
A bottle of ancient Chiraz
A smattering of distant applause
Is ringing in my poor earsOn the old left bank
My baby in a charabanc
Riding up the width and length
Of the Champs ElyseesIf only summer rain would fall
On the houses and the boulevard
And the side walk bagatelles
It's like a dreamWith the roar of cars
And the lulling of the cafe bars
The sweetly sleeping sweeping of the Seine
Lord, I don't know if I'll ever be back againIf only summer rain would fall
On the houses and the boulevard
And the side walk bagatelles '
It's like a dreamWith the roar of cars
And the lulling of the cafe bars
The sweetly sleeping sweeping of the Seine
Lord, I don't know if I'll ever be back againBe back again
Be back again
I'll be back again