“La Mer

Qu’on voit danser le long des golfes clairs

A des reflets d’argent 

La mer

Des reflets changeants

Sous la pluie …”

“La Mer,” Charles Trénet.

The first time I heard “La Mer” was during the credits of Finding Nemo.  Of course, I don’t remember hearing it at all.

The reason I know it now, is because I got into the TV show Lost this winter.  A group of survivors from a plane crash are stranded on a mysterious island come into contact with a French woman, Danielle Rousseau, who had been trapped there for sixteen years.  She takes Sayid Jarrah, an ex Republican Guard, captive.  He escapes and steals her maps of the island.

He turns to another survivor, Shannon Rutherford, to translate the French writing on the maps.  Her French is “bad” and at first she is confused by the strange words and they abandon their attempts to translate it.

But later, she comes to Sayid, remembering that she heard the words -the song- at the end of the movie “about the fish.”

She sings “La Mer” to Sayid on the beach by firelight.

It is a beautiful song so I began, enthusiastically, writing out a phonetic pronunciation guide.

Then I realized it sounded like a cover preformed by Damian McGinty, a song called “Beyond the Sea.”

“Beyond the Sea” was written by Bobby Darin in 1946.  A contemporary pop song, it reached number 6 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Darin took the tune from “La Mer” and wrote in entirely unrelated English lyrics.

“Somewhere beyond the sea

Somewhere waiting for me

My lover stands on golden sands

And watches the ships that go sailin.”

-“Beyond the Sea,” Bobby Darin

Both songs are great.  Check them out!