Déjeuner du Matin
Jacques Prevert
Il a mis le café
Dans la tasse
Il a mis le lait
Dans la tasse de café
Il a mis le sucre
Dans le café au lait
Avec la petite cuiller
Il a tourné
Il a bu le café au lait
Et il a reposé la tasse
Sans me parler
Il a allumé
Une cigarette
Il a fait des ronds
Avec la fumée
Il a mis les cendres
Dans le cendrier
Sans me parler
Sans me regarder
Il s’est levé
Il a mis
Son chapeau sur sa tête
Il a mis son manteau de pluie
Parce qu’il pleuvait
Et il est parti
Sous la pluie
Sans une parole
Sans me regarder
Et moi j’ai pris
Ma tête dans ma main
Et j’ai pleuré
Morning Meal
He put the coffee
Into the cup
He put the milk
Into the cup of coffee
He put the sugar
Into the milky coffee
With the little spoon
He stirred it
He drank the milky coffee
And he replaced the cup
Without talking to me
He lit
A cigarette
He made rings
With the smoke
He put the ash
Into the ashtray
Without talking to me
Without looking at me
He stood up
He put
His hat on his head
He put on his rain coat
Because it was raining
He went out
Under the rain
Without a word
Without looking at me
And I put
My head in my hand
And I cried.
Since the begining of October this year I have gone back to French classes.
These are run by the Alliance Francais in Waterford on a Tuesday night and I must say I am enjoying them immensley.
Last Tuesday, Catherine, out teacher arrived in with a copy of this, deceptively simple and very moving poem.
The translation is by myself, no attempt at poetry on my behalf just as true a translation as I felt I could manage.
I say deciptively simple because, as soon as we started to discuss the poem,
and you must remember this discussion was all in varying standards of French,
we dicsovered that there was quite a lot of different interpretations of the subject matter by the six members of the class.
The first problem was where did the action take place.
Prevert is so spare with his words in this poem that we must accept that every one is exact and intentional.
He specificly says
“the little spoon”
Therefore the action must have taken place in a Café.
Only in a Café would one be served a coffee in a little cup (with which one would have a little spoon)
At home, in a B&B , or in a hotel at breakfast time one would always drink one’s coffee from a bowl or a large cup.
But, if it was in a café why did he not pay before he left.?
We take it that the author is a lady
but is she a just jilted girl friend
or
a wife of long standing
The more one looks at thie spare and moving poem the more mysterious and demanding it becomes.
I love it.
Comments
G r e e n . . .
on December 8, 2005The action of this poem is definitively not taking place in a Café.
You know that from the very 2 first verse:
Il a mis le café
Dans la tasse
In a Café, “le garçon” will never let you pour the coffee into the cup yourself, he will bring you the cup already filled up with the beverage.
Also being a (true) parisian, I can tell you that all my life I always had my breakfast coffee in a large “tasse” not bowl.
Expresso are served in Café in a tiny cup (petite tasse à café). Ask for a “double expresso” or “Expresso allongé” (with some warm water on the side to pour into the expresso) those would be serve in regular large “tasse”.
The true french “Tasse à café” is much larger than the tiny Italian “Tasse à expresso” served in Café.
When I’m reading Prevert’s poem, the picture I get in my mind is a kitchen table. A man and a woman are sitting on each side of the table. Him in is suit and her probably in her night gown. Two large “tasse à café” each on a saucer with a “petites cuilléres” on the side sets in front of them. And in the middle of the table a pot of filtered coffee and a bottle of milk.
Romain aka G r e e n . . .
Martin
on December 9, 2005Point taken.
But in a chambre d’hote or hotel one pours oneself.
Prevert created a different picture in each of our minds in the French class.
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