Monsieur le Tigre

This piece began with just a phrase: "a french tigre". I immediately imagined what a french tigre would be like and thus this poem was born.

 

 

He was known as "Monsieur"

A French Tigre he was
with his cream silk costume
and creamy cravate et chapeau
the cane of ivoire avec the handle d'or
and his leather pleasure
shoes
crème, aussi

Yes, like all tigres he loved cream
especially when it was being poured into his morning café
by his lovely dance partner from the night before

He was quite the danseur
with his smooth words et oh-so-charmant
green eyes
he danced in the ballrooms
and à les coeurs des femmes
until the friction of his fancy chausseurs
melted them into cream

Et voilà!
he lapped them up.


So was la vie
de Monsieur le Tigre

Every night he had crème fraîche
and every day he got fatter
until his suit could not contain his swollen chest
and his hat could no longer fit around
his tète gras.


Mais, pauvre Monsieur le Tigre!
When he happened to meet
Mademoiselle
La Tigress

Ah, he danced in her heart, mais...
that cunning French Tigress soon saw la vérité
and her coeur-de-beurre would not melt for him

Instead that terrible tigre-femme
tore him to shreds
and ran him out sans sa chapeau


Eh, maintenant
when Monsieur le Tigre visits his café favourite
pour un café blanche et peut-être un biscuit
his beautiful suit
is just slightly rumpled
et sa chapeau
is slightly crushed

And when le serveur adds le sucre to his café
you might hear him say

"Crème aussi"

With a little less enthusiasm

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here are some translations:

 

cravate: tie
chapeau: hat
or: gold
aussi: also/as well
café: coffee (or restaurant)
coeurs: hearts
femmes: women
chausseurs: shoes
fraiche: fresh
tète gras: fat head
pauvre: poor
mais: but
la vérité: the truth
maintenant: now
pour: for
café blanche: white coffee
peut-être: maybe
un biscuit: cookie

Author's Note

Let me know if there are any words I did not include in the translation or any that you don't understand.

Reviews

[[untitled]]

C'est non sens. C'est l�g�rement impair et une id�e int�ressante.