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…