Thursday, October 8, 2009

Alouette

When I was a young child, "un enfant", my mother would often sing to me before I went to sleep. It was a practice that I am sure she learned from her mother, who was French. One of the songs that she sang was "Alouette". I have always remembered the song and the lyrics, but with one exception. I remember the opening refrain as "Alouette, jaunty Allouette."

I did not speak French, I did not know that Alouette was a rooster, and did not know that "Je te plumerai le tete," meant to pluck the feathers (and eyes, "yeux", and beak, "bec", and eventually the neck, back, wings, belly, legs, and tail) from the chicken's lifeless body. Jaunty Alouette was really gentile Alouette, or as I would like to remember, was it a jaunty Alouette strutting about and parading around, happy as could be.

Chanson enfantine

Refrain
Alouette, gentille alouette,
Alouette, je te plumerai.

Je te plumerai le bec,
Je te plumerai le bec,
Et le bec, et le bec,
Alouette, Alouette !
Ah ! ah ! ah ! ah !

(refrain)

Je te plumerai les yeux,
Je te plumerai les yeux,
Et les yeux, et les yeux,
Et le bec, et le bec,
Alouette, Alouette !
Ah ! ah ! ah ! ah !

(refrain)

Je te plumerai la tête,
Je te plumerai la tête
Et la tête, et la tête
Et les yeux, et les yeux,
Et le bec, et le bec,
Alouette, Alouette !
Ah ! ah ! ah ! ah !

(refrain)

Je te plumerai le cou…

Je te plumerai le dos…

…les ailes… le ventre…

…les pattes… la queue…

5 comments:

  1. whats the deal with creep children's nursrey rhymes? ring around the rosie was about the bubonic plague. humpty dumpty died. little miss muffet couldn't even enjoy her curds and wey (sp?) with out getting harrassed by a spider. no wonder so many people are spending thousands on therapy and xanax

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  2. Read Joesph Campbell and you will understand the significance of it all.

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  3. I too sang to my daughter, H, when she was young, but sadly, she does not remember.

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  4. everything is said, sung, or written in the context of the time in which we live.

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  5. Not only were the good night songs sadistic but the "children's fairy tales".....

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