This text comes from Songs of French Canada, a historical songbook transcribed on Wikisource and reproduced from the pinned revision linked below.
A frigate went a-sailing
(Mon joli cœur de rose)
Far o'er the seas away
(Joli cœur d'un rosier).
A gentle maid was weeping
Beside the smiling bay.
"Ah! tell me, sweet, what sorrow
Bedims your eyes to-day?"
"Ah! sir, I've lost my ring of gold,
Deep 'neath the waters grey."
"And if I find it, gentle maid,
What will you give, I pray?"
"Alas! kind sir, I'm poor, and nought
Have I to give away;
Unless my heart is wage enough
For my ring beneath the bay."
He threw aside his cloak, and plunged
Deep where the jewel lay.
The first strong plunge he almost touched
The golden ring so gay.
The second time, it moved and rang,
But lured him on alway.
But at the third, the lover bold
Was drowned. Ah, mournful day!
And with the tide that gallant heart
Swept seaward o'er the bay.
His father from his turret sees,
And bows his head so grey.
"Alas! that for a maid, my son
(Mon joli cœur de rose)
Should throw his life away,
(Joli cœur d'un rosier)!"