{"id":30336,"date":"2018-05-21T23:04:49","date_gmt":"2018-05-21T21:04:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/?p=30336"},"modified":"2018-05-21T23:04:49","modified_gmt":"2018-05-21T21:04:49","slug":"french-poetry-la-coccinelle-de-victor-hugo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/french-poetry-la-coccinelle-de-victor-hugo\/","title":{"rendered":"French Poetry: “La Coccinelle” de Victor Hugo"},"content":{"rendered":"

I always love the time of year when ladybugs start coming out. In French, a ladybug is called\u00a0une coccinelle,\u00a0<\/em>and it symbolizes good luck. The French often refer to\u00a0les coccinelles\u00a0<\/em>as “les b\u00eates \u00e0 bon Dieu,”\u00a0<\/em>which means something like “Good God’s creatures.”<\/p>\n

\"\"

Courtesy of Pixabay<\/p><\/div>\n

Some linguists state that this expression dates back to medieval times. According to medieval legend, an innocent man was wrongly condemned to death by beheading for murder. Just as the executioner’s (le bourreau<\/em>) blade was about to come down,\u00a0une coccinelle\u00a0<\/em>landed on the man’s neck (cou<\/em>) and refused to move. Eventually, le roi<\/em> Robert II (972-1031) believed that the presence of the\u00a0coccinelle\u00a0<\/em>was\u00a0une intervention divine<\/em> and decided to pardon (gracier<\/em>) the man. Afterwards, the real murderer was found and ever since\u00a0la coccinelle\u00a0<\/em>has been seen as a lucky charm of sorts (un porte-bonheur<\/em>).<\/p>\n

The French writer Victor Hugo famously dedicated a poem to\u00a0la coccinelle,<\/em>\u00a0You can read it below:<\/p>\n

La Coccinelle\u00a0<\/em>(1830)<\/p>\n

Elle me dit : Quelque chose<\/em><\/p>\n

Me tourmente. Et j’aper\u00e7us<\/em>
\nSon cou de neige, et, dessus,<\/em>
\nUn petit insecte rose.<\/em><\/p>\n

J’aurais d\u00fb – mais, sage ou fou,<\/em>
\nA seize ans on est farouche,<\/em>
\nVoir le baiser sur sa bouche<\/em>
\nPlus que l’insecte \u00e0 son cou.<\/em><\/p>\n

On e\u00fbt dit un coquillage ;<\/em>
\nDos rose et tach\u00e9 de noir.<\/em>
\nLes fauvettes pour nous voir<\/em>
\nSe penchaient dans le feuillage.<\/em><\/p>\n

Sa bouche franche \u00e9tait l\u00e0 :<\/em>
\nJe me courbai sur la belle,<\/em>
\nEt je pris la coccinelle ;<\/em>
\nMais le baiser s’envola.<\/em><\/p>\n

– Fils, apprends comme on me nomme,<\/em>
\nDit l’insecte du ciel bleu,<\/em>
\nLes b\u00eates sont au bon Dieu,<\/em>
\nMais la b\u00eatise est \u00e0 l’homme.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

You can read the translation below:<\/p>\n

The Ladybug<\/p>\n

She told me: Something is<\/p>\n

bothering me. And I noticed<\/p>\n

her white neck and, on it,<\/p>\n

a little pink bug.<\/p>\n

I should have\u2014but, wise or mad,<\/p>\n

at sixteen one is timid,<\/p>\n

seen the kiss on her mouth<\/p>\n

more than the insect on her neck.<\/p>\n

One would have thought it a shell:<\/p>\n

a pink back with black marks.<\/p>\n

Warblers leaned out from the branches<\/p>\n

to better see us.<\/p>\n

Her honest mouth was there:<\/p>\n

I bent toward the beauty,<\/p>\n

and I took the ladybug;<\/p>\n

but the kiss flew away.<\/p>\n

Son, learn what they call me,<\/p>\n

said the insect from the blue sky.<\/p>\n

Insects belong to Good God<\/p>\n

but stupidity belongs to humans.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

I always love the time of year when ladybugs start coming out. In French, a ladybug is called\u00a0une coccinelle,\u00a0and it symbolizes good luck. The French often refer to\u00a0les coccinelles\u00a0as “les b\u00eates \u00e0 bon Dieu,”\u00a0which means something like “Good God’s creatures.” Some linguists state that this expression dates back to medieval times. According to medieval legend…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":123,"featured_media":30337,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[507538,408503,10918,507537,9138],"class_list":["post-30336","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-coccinelle","tag-free-french-lesson","tag-french-poetry","tag-ladybugs","tag-victor-hugo"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30336","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/123"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30336"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30336\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30337"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30336"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30336"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30336"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}