Mots d'Heures: Gousses, Rames: The d'Antin Manuscript
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| Author | Luis d'Antin van Rooten |
|---|---|
| Publisher | Grossman Publishers |
Publication date | 1967 |
Published in English | 1967 |
| Media type | book |
| Pages | 76 |
| OCLC | 1208360 |
| LC Class | 67-21230 |
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 (with pseudo-scholarly explanatory footnotes); that is, as an English-to-French homophonic translation.[1] The result is not merely the English nursery rhyme but that nursery rhyme as it would sound if spoken in English by someone with a strong French accent. Even the manuscript's title, when spoken aloud, sounds like "Mother Goose's Rhymes" with a strong French accent.
Here is van Rooten's version of Humpty Dumpty:[2]
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Secondary use
Ten 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).
A similar work in German-English is Morder Guss Reims: The Gustav Leberwurst Manuscript by John Hulme (1st Edition 1981; various publishers listed; ISBN 0517545594, ISBN 978-0517545591 and others). The dust jacket, layout and typography are very similar in style and appearance to the original Mots D'Heures albeit with a different selection of nursery rhymes.
Marcel Duchamp draws parallels between the method behind Mots d'Heures and certain works of Raymond Roussel.[6]
Publication history
- 1967, USA, Viking Adult, ISBN 0-670-49064-4, hardcover, 40 pp.
- 1967, UK, Grossman, ISBN 1-299-26218-X, 43 pp.
- 1968, UK, Angus & Robertson, ISBN 0-207-94991-3, May 1968, hardcover, 80 pp.
- 1977, UK, Angus & Robertson, ISBN 0-207-95799-1, De Luxe Ed edition, November 17, 1977, 40 pp.
- 1980, US, Penguin, ISBN 978-0-14-005730-0, November 20, 1980, paperback, 80 pp.
- 2009, UK, Blue Door, ISBN 978-0-00-732469-9, 29 October 2009, hardcover, 48 pp.
See also
References
- ^ Janson-Smith, Patrick (27 November 2009). "A French excursion for classic nursery rhymes" (Guardian Books Podcast). The Guardian. Retrieved 27 November 2009.
{{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|pmd=(help) - ^ "Luis d'Antin van Rooten's Humpty Dumpty". The Guardian. 27 November 2009. Retrieved 27 November 2009.
- ^ Whiffin, Lawrence (1999). A setting of poems from Mots d'heures - gousses, rames : for mezzo soprano. Australian Music Centre. Grosvenor Place, N.S.W.: Australian Music Centre. OCLC 222653938.
{{cite book}}:|format=requires|url=(help) - ^ Chace, Howard L. (1956). "Frayer Jerker". Anguish Languish. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall. OCLC 2539398.
{{cite book}}: External link in|chapterurl=|chapterurl=ignored (|chapter-url=suggested) (help); Unknown parameter|trans_title=ignored (|trans-title=suggested) (help) - ^ de Kay, Ormonde (1980). N'Heures Souris Rames. ISBN 978-0-517-54081-7. OCLC 6378996. ISBN 0-517-54081-9.
{{cite book}}: Unknown parameter|trans_title=ignored (|trans-title=suggested) (help) - ^ Jean, Marcel (ed) (1980). Autobiography of Surrealism. New York: Viking Press; p326 footnote(MJ). ISBN 0-670-14235-2.
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