Mots d'Heures facts for kids
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| Author | Luis d'Antin van Rooten |
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| Publisher | Grossman Publishers |
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Publication date
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1967 |
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Published in English
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1967 |
| Media type | book |
| Pages | 76 |
| OCLC | 1208360 |
| LC Class | 67-21230 |
Mots D'Heures: Gousses, Rames: The D'Antin Manuscript is a very clever and funny book published in 1967 by Luis d'Antin van Rooten. It looks like a collection of old French poems, but it's actually a secret! The book takes famous English nursery rhymes and rewrites them in French.
The trick is that the French words sound almost exactly like the English words when you say them out loud. This is called a homophonic translation. It's like hearing an English nursery rhyme spoken with a very strong French accent. Even the book's title, when you say it, sounds like "Mother Goose's Rhymes" with a French accent.
Contents
How the Rhymes Work
This book is full of puzzles and jokes. Each French poem sounds like a well-known English nursery rhyme. The author, Luis d'Antin van Rooten, even added fake scholarly notes to make it seem like a serious old French text. This makes the joke even funnier!
An Example: Humpty Dumpty
Let's look at how Humpty Dumpty was changed. You can see the original English, the new French version, and what the French words actually mean.
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List of Hidden Rhymes
Here are some of the famous English nursery rhymes that are hidden in Mots d’Heures: Gousses, Rames:
- Humpty Dumpty
- Old King Cole
- Hey Diddle Diddle
- Old Mother Hubbard
- There Was a Little Man and He Had a Little Gun
- Hickory Dickory Dock
- Jack Sprat
- Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater
- There Was a Crooked Man
- Little Miss Moffat
- Jack and Jill
- There Was a Little Girl She Had a Little Curl
- Little Jack Horner
- Ride a Cockhorse to Banbury Cross
- Tinker Tailor Soldier Sailor
- Rain Rain Go Away
- Pat-a-cake Pat-a-cake Baker's Man
- Mistress Mary Quite Contrary
- Roses Are Red Violets Are Blue
- Tom Tom the Piper’s Son
- Mary Had a Little Lamb
- Cross Patch Draw the Latch
- See Saw Margery Daw
- The Queen of Hearts She Made Some Tarts
- One Two Buckle My Shoe
- There Was an Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe
- Ladybird Ladybird Fly Away Home
- Monday’s Child
- Lucy Locket
- Curly Locks
- Here Is the Church Here Is the Steeple
- Simple Simon
- I Do Not Like Thee Doctor Fell
- Pussycat Pussycat
- Little Bo Peep
- Baa Baa Black Sheep
- Polly Put the Kettle On
- Lock the Dairy Door
- This Little Pig Went to Market
- Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep
Other Books Like This
Mots D'Heures is not the only book that plays with sounds between languages.
French to English
An earlier book called Anguish Languish (published in 1956) did something similar. For example, it turned the French song "Frère Jacques" into "Frayer Jerker" in English.
More English to French
Another book like Mots D'Heures is N'Heures Souris Rames (which sounds like "Nursery Rhymes"). This book came out in 1980 and was written by Ormonde de Kay. It has about 40 nursery rhymes. Some examples are:
- Coucou doux de Ledoux (sounds like "Cock-A-Doodle-Doo")
- Signe, garçon. Neuf Sikhs se pansent (sounds like "Sing a Song of Sixpence")
- Hâte, carrosse bonzes (sounds like "Hot Cross Buns")
German to English
There's also a similar book in German and English called Mörder Guss Reims: The Gustav Leberwurst Manuscript. It was published in 1981 by John Hulme. This book looks very much like Mots D'Heures in its design, but it uses different nursery rhymes.
fr:N'Heures Souris Rames
