Mots d'Heures

Mots D'Heures: Gousses, Rames: The D'Antin Manuscript (Mother Goose's Rhymes), published in 1967 by Luis d'Antin van Rooten is purportedly a collection of poems written in archaic French with learned glosses. In fact, they are English-language nursery rhymes written homophonically as a nonsensical French text, that is an English-to-French homophonic translation.^[1]

Here is van Rooten's version of Humpty Dumpty:^[2]

Secondary Use

Some of the Mots D'Heures: Gousses, Rames have been set to music by Lawrence Whiffin.^[3]

Similar works

An earlier example of homophonic translation (in this case French-to-English) is "Frayer Jerker" (Frère Jacques) in Anguish Languish (1956).^[4]

A later book in the English-to-French genre is N'Heures Souris Rames (Nursery Rhymes), published in 1980 by Ormonde de Kay.^[5] It contains some forty nursery rhymes, among which are Coucou doux de Ledoux (Cock-A-Doodle-Doo), Signe, garçon. Neuf Sikhs se pansent (Sing a Song of Sixpence) and Hâte, carrosse bonzes (Hot Cross Buns).

Publication history

• 1967, USA, Viking Adult, ISBN 0-67049064-4, hardcover, 40 pp.
• 1967, UK, Grossman, ISBN 1-29926218-X, 43 pp.
• 1968, UK, Angus & Robertson, ISBN 0-20794991-3, May 1968, hardcover, 80 pp.
• 1977, UK, Angus & Robertson, ISBN 0-20795799-1, De Luxe Ed edition, November 17, 1977, 40 pp.
• 1980, US, Penguin, ISBN 978-0-14005730-0, November 20, 1980, paperback, 80 pp.
• 2009, UK, Blue Door, ISBN 978-0-00732469-9, 29 Oct 2009, hardcover, 48 pp.

References