Cadet Rousselle

 

Cadet Rousselle a trois maisons, 
Qui n'ont ni poutres, ni chevrons,
C'est pour loger les hirondelles

Reading a French text book a couple of days ago, I came across a word "hirondelle", "swallow". It sounded somewhat familiar and after a while it hit me that "hirondelle" was mentioned in a song that my friend used to sing at school. She was having French lessons, and I was doing English, so her singing was just a jumble of sounds for me. And now, 40 (!) years later, the words unjumbled themselves suddenly, and I was able to find the song. It is a nursery rhyme "Cadet Rousselle" and the text is rather strange, but then, nursery rhymes tend to have strange texts. Isn't it weird how memory works, though?

Here is the beginning of the song: 

Cadet Rousselle a trois maisons,

Cadet Rousselle a trois maisons,

Qui n'ont ni poutres, ni chevrons,

Qui n'ont ni poutres, ni chevrons,

C'est pour loger les hirondelles...

Cadet Rousselle has three houses,

Cadet Rousselle has three houses,

Which have neither beams nor rafters,

Which have neither beams nor rafters,

It's to house the swallows...

etc.

I figure that is a house has neither beams nor rafters, it probably means that it has no roof, either. And the figure of the Cadet comes from a rather strange statue of him they have in Auxerre. 

Why God invented cats

Dieu a inventé le chat pour que l'homme ait un tigre à caresser chez lui // God invented the cat so that man could have a tiger to stroke at home.

 

 

 

When Victor Hugo wrote this, he probably had in mind fluffy cuties who indulgently allow themselves to be stroked in exchange for food, cushy bed and other necessities. 

I wonder what breeds of cats were around in his times. Perhaps unstrokable cats, the hissing balls of fury, all claws, teeth and glowing eyes came into fashion later and he simply wasn't aware of their existence.

On s'engage et puis on voit

On s'engage et puis on voit // First we engage, and then we'll see

Yesterday, I don't remember why, this supposedly Napoleonic maxim came up in our conversation. That is, I said it and Kirill didn't remember it. I did a little research on the topic and came up with interesting results: it looks like in my case I knew it because Lenin ascribed it to Napoleon in one of his written works, and gave an exceptionally loose translation "Сначала надо ввязаться в серьезный бой, а там уже видно будет" (First we engage in a serious battle, and then we'll see).

In Kirill's case he probably blocked his knowledge of anything to do with Lenin more successfully than I did.

Did he, that is, Napoleon, say something of the kind? The answer is probably yes, except he was not the first to say it. Some researchers found these words used in Napoleonic times in the same context as Napoleon himself. It is easy to see how tempting it is to associate the guy with the maxim.

Anyway. The cat has the right shape to pose as Napoleon, I feel. He cuts a very fine figure, as always.

Pictures related to posing on shitterstock

Si je n’étais roi

Si je n’étais roi, je me mettrais en colère // If I were not king, I should lose my temper

Today’s prompt is “king”, roi.

The words above were uttered by Louis XIV, who said a lot of other interesting things. The bird is a magpie of course, with typical love of all things shiny.

The cat is keeping his cool, but only just, I think.