That is (phonetically)
Rain, rain, go away.
Come again, another day.
Hilarious! I have GOT to get that book! I'm going straight to Amazon.com...
Is someone reading this who reads French better than I do, and who would translate it literally just for the amusement of it?
EDIT: $6.80, 78 page paperback reissue, orig. pub 1993, and here are readers' comments pasted from amazon.com:
Customer Comments
Average Customer Review: Number of Reviews: 5
A reader from Pittsburgh PA , January 31, 1998
Mots D'Heures: Gosses, Rames ....
A reader , June 14, 1997
Great book, but beware of the back cover!
I agree that it's a great book. But... in the current printing, on the back cover, the beans are
spilled, and the reader is told how the poems were written, spoiling the joy of discovery for the
reader. If you are buying the book as a present, tear off the back cover before giving it. If you
are buying it for yourself, remove the cover without reading it before you start the book!
A reader , June 8, 1997
Mot D'Heures...simlement sublime
Reminiscent of Woody Allen's books, this one causes the reader to laugh outloud, uncontrollably
and to the envy of everyone around. The author flies in the face of Moliere, casting Mother
Goose ryhmes into french....without translating them! Equally hysterical are the footnotes
explaining the more obscure linguistical twists, adding a semi-serious face to an otherwise unique
humor book. To be read on a dreary day!
A reader , March 22, 1997
Mots d'Heures: Gousses, Rames: an indispensable book
This is a dangerous book. People with heart conditions and enlarged prostates should consult a
physician before so much as viewing the cover. It is one of the funniest books ever written. I
cannot describe it. It's not a book of Mother Goose rhymes, though it sounds like them. It's not
modern French, either (some poems are nearly impossibly arcane French.) It's not a cookbook.
Buy it, no matter how dire your financial condition.
A reader , July 3, 1996
For those whose favorite toy is language
This is a truely amusing work, giving a sardonic twist to the fairy-tales we have grown up with. I
am gratified to see it in re-release as I have been searching for a copy for many years to replace
my own lost volume. Van Rooten has a masters touch in his translations of these standard tales,
the so called 'Mother Goose Rhymes', into french. The result is a beautiful, and at times beatific,
prose which strikes to the essense of these yarns, if straying slightly from a direct translation.
humbly, Michael L. Barta |
