Nheures Souris Rames Coucy Cas

by Ormonde De Kay

Book Overview

N'Heures Souris Rames (Nursery Rhymes) is a book of homophonic translations from English to French, published in 1980 by Ormonde de Kay.[1] It includes contains some forty nursery rhymes, among which... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0517540819
• ISBN13: 9780517540817
• Release Date: January 1980
• Publisher: Random House Value Publishing
• Length: 40 Pages
• Weight: 0.58 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Read once in silence then again outloud--a brilliant riot

I 'discovered' this book after learning of it from a friend who lost it, and told me feverishly about it over several drinks. By coincidence, it is in this setting that Ormonde de Kay, who claims to have discovered the lost 16th Century 'Coucy Castle Manuscript,' titled "N'Heures Souris Rames," claims also to believe that many of our modern 'English' nursury rhymes arose: from English overhearing French emigres in taverns drunkenly mumbling these 'French originals,' and misinterpreting them as slurred English. Take a listen and read this outloud: Roc a bail, bey bis; On detruit tape. Ou N. de Windt blouse, Decret de l'huile roque. We then receive the French-to-English 'translations' of these poems, and, as if that weren't enough, a thorough literary interpretation to unlock their meanings. This is English literary pranking at its best, not merely on a par with better known trolls such as _Flushed With Pride_, the alleged biography of a Mr. Crapper, inventor of the flush toilet, and its sequel alleging the invention of the brassiere by an Otto Titzling (both of which were widely accepted as factual, even though clearly farcical); this is far beyond those clever japes, and incorporates carefully-researched historical facts, detailed in the bibliography, itself an unusual appendage to a book of humour. The ruse is enhanced further by an alleged 'late 19th century' lithograph of Coucy Castle, where the manuscript was supposedly found, and even a plate featuring a sample of the manuscript itself (which is written in a period French script, 'batarde'). Among literary pranks, de Kay's 'Rames'/'Coucy' is a masterpiece, and a credit to one man's love of a good, well-delivered joke. As an aside, I want to note that I dropped this book into the hands of a number of persons who actually believed it's amazing premise. This is called a 'troll,' a joke that not everyone is supposed to 'get'--designed more for the delight of the jokester and his friends. Try it.