The poem in question: is here.
Several weeks ago I was going through some boxes in my closet and found two poems that I wrote for assignments in a French class at BYU. This is the sillier of the two; the other will be the subject of my next commentary. This is called “Le Singe et Son Thon” (“The Monkey and His Tuna”).
Il y avait une tortue qui voulait du thon,
a demandé d’un singe s’il en aurait un peu.
Le singe a dit, Quoi? Le demander à moi?
Allez ailleurs, attendez dans une queue!
La tortue a pleuré, elle a mendié,
Donnez-moi du thon, j’en ai besoin!
Le singe a gloussé, gloussé, et gloussé,
a dit, C’est ton problème, pas le mien!
La tortue a crié, Pourquoi être vilain?
Est-ce que vous ne m’aimez pas?
Le singe a dit, non, mais j’ai une leçon
que je vous enseigne maintenant:
Le thon sera bon
la semaine prochaine
mais cette semaine-ci
il faut que tu te baignes.
En réalisant qu’elle se sentait mauvais,
la tortue a promis un bain,
seulement si le singe lui promet du pain—
le thon—avec un peu de lait.
And a rough translation:
There was a turtle who wanted some tuna,
and asked a monkey if he had any.
The monkey said, What? Ask me?
Go somewhere else, wait in a line!
The turtle cried and begged,
Give me tuna, I need some!
The monkey chuckled, chuckled, and chuckled,
said, That’s your problem, not mine!
The turtle yelled, Why be mean?
Don’t you love me?
The monkey said, no, but I have a lesson
to teach you now:
Tuna will be good
next week
but this week
you need to bathe.
Realizing he smelled bad,
the turtle promised a bath,
only if the monkey would promise him bread—
tuna—with a bit of milk.
While it’s silly, I’m impressed with myself that I managed to create the rhyming scheme in a foreign language. And I got an A-, I think for some minor grammar errors (which I’ve corrected in the above text).
Update 6/27/2016: Here is an image of the paper I originally turned in for my assignment.
Poetism Commentary: “Le Singe et Son Thon”
The poem in question: is here.
Several weeks ago I was going through some boxes in my closet and found two poems that I wrote for assignments in a French class at BYU. This is the sillier of the two; the other will be the subject of my next commentary. This is called “Le Singe et Son Thon” (“The Monkey and His Tuna”).
And a rough translation:
While it’s silly, I’m impressed with myself that I managed to create the rhyming scheme in a foreign language. And I got an A-, I think for some minor grammar errors (which I’ve corrected in the above text).
Update 6/27/2016: Here is an image of the paper I originally turned in for my assignment.