Le Jardin de ma Tante

By luigi_pagano

Wed, 16 Apr 2014
  • 2624 reads
8 comments
 

There exists a French garden
à ma tante de l'Angleterre
where she grows haricots verts,
courgettes and pommes de terre,
des aubergines for ratatouille,
Brussels sprouts and garlic too.
All the vegetables from the soil
did not cost a single sou.
If you want to see the plot
she will give you a grand tour,
then she’ll offer some fromage
and a bowl of potage du jour.
But something is not French:
her traditional English fraises.
They are sweet and succulent
and have received a lot of  praise.

© Luigi Pagano 2014

Certificate U
Poem
Are you being versed?
Humour
Nature
Miscellaneous

Comments

Submitted by Bee on

This is - Un grand mélange de français et anglais, Luigi. Fun and very much enjoyed by me. Looking forward to the strawberries !

 

Bee

Submitted by luigi_pagano on

Are we talking strawberries or cherries, Bee? They both seem to be out of season.

Luigi x

 

Submitted by Bee on

Les fraises, naturellement, mais les cerises sont délicieuses aussi. 

J'espère que vous aurez des cerises pour votre poème, Luigi.

Bee

Submitted by luigi_pagano on

Je suis d'accord. And by the way votre français est pas franglais, il est excellent.

Greetings, Luigi (Louis?)

 

Submitted by skinner_jennifer on

I enjoyed this poem Luigi,  even though I don't speak French.  It had a good rhythm and rhyme and made me think!  enlightened I must get out in the garden and start digging and growing my own fruit and veg.

Loved the picture by the way.

Jenny.  xx

 

Submitted by luigi_pagano on

Jenny, it was just a bit of fun writing the name of produce that one finds in vegetable gardens in French with reference to a fictitious French aunt who lives in England and is a keen horticulturist. The weather has improved a lot and digging in the garden won't seem too miserable.

Luigi xx

P.S. The photo was from Photobucket.

 

Submitted by Rhiannonw on

Enjoyed your play on the garden and franglais. ( we get accused of using Wenglish, when able to speak both). I had to check up on the fraises, though guessed from the correspondence above!
Rhiannon

 

Submitted by luigi_pagano on

Hi Rhiannon. The words 'fraise' for strawberry and 'framboise' for rapsberry have a pleasing resonance for me. I wonder if we can make the case for a hybrid Welsh/Italian language. A 'Weltalian' perhaps. I understand that there are several words in both that have the same root. I wouldn't like to be a pioneer though. In the same vein, one could use pidgin to produce humorous alternatives. Pleased you enjoyed my wordplay.

Luigi