French
Au clair de la lune, mon ami Pierrot
Prête-moi ta lume,* pour écrire un mot.
Ma chandelle est morte, je n'ai plus de feu.
Ouvre-moi ta porte, pour l'amour de Dieu.

Au clair de la lune, Pierrot répondit
Je n'ai pas de lume, je suis dans mon lit.
Va chez la voisine, je crois qu'elle y est
Car dans sa cuisine, on bat le briquet.

Au clair de la lune, l'aimable Lubin
Frappe chez la brune, elle répond soudain
"Qui frappe de la sorte ? ", il dit à son tour
"Ouvrez votre porte pour le Dieu d'Amour"

Au clair de la lune, on n'y voit qu'un peu
On chercha la lume, on chercha du feu
En cherchant d'la sorte je n'sais c'qu'on trouva
Mais je sais qu'la porte sur eux se ferma.

English
Under the moonlight, my friend Pierrot,
Lend me your light, so I could write a word.
My candle is out, I've no more light.
Open your door for me, for the love of God.

Under the moonlight, Pierrot replied,
I've no light; I'm in my bed.
Go next door, I believe that she is in,
For in the kitchen, someone lit a match.

Under the moonlight, friendly Lubin
Knocks at the brunette's door, she suddenly replies
"Who's knocking this way", he says in his turn
"Open your door, for the god of love."

Under the moonlight, little can be seen
The light was looked for, fire was looked for
Searching this way, I don't know what was found
But I do know that the door, on them was shut.

*In modern versions, this word is "plume", meaning pen. "Lume" is derived from "lumière", meaning "light".
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Au_clair_de_la_lune

After the book, The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger, was mentioned here in relation to the Doctor Who episodes, "Silence in the Library" and "Forest of the Dead", I knew I had to read it. So, now I have. :)

I was surprised to find this book in the literature section of Borders instead of the sci-fi section, but on reading it, that really makes sense. It's about time travel, but not about the mechanics of time travel. It's about the effect on a man, Henry, who spontaneously time travels, controlling neither when it happens nor when/where he ends up, and on his relationship with his wife, Clare. It's a fantastic love story.

(Not that there isn't any science in it - there's a very small amount. I was skeptical about the idea of time travel being controlled by a person's genes, but this was more than compensated by my amusement at the idea of making transgenic time traveling mice to study the time travel genes. *lol*)

When Clare first meets Henry, she's 6 and he's 36. By that time, Henry has known Clare for 8 years and been married to her for 6 years. When Henry first meets Clare, he's 28 and she's 20. By that time, Clare has known Henry for 14 years, but they won't marry for another 2 years. (Older!Henry has been very careful to tell young!Clare nothing of his everyday life, so it may be complete coincidence when he meets her; though, in general, the story seems strongly to support predestination.) I really liked Henry's response to his first meeting with her at the beginning of the book:

( Read more... )

So, overall, I really loved this book. It often read like a bunch of short stories, but isn't that what our lives are made of? A series of events, like short stories? And, the individual events all fit together perfectly to make the lives of Henry and Clare complete.

Oh, and a bonus for me is that Clare is from Michigan with much of the story taking place there. :)

Has anyone else read it? I would very much like to discuss it.

On a related topic, I saw this news story tonight about David Tennant having announced...( Read more... )