I've received some terrific new global schoolyard rhymes for the collection recently, but what's interesting about this one is everybody already knows it. I don't know if it hails from France or Quebec, but since the sender asked so nicely to credit the Quebecois, Quebec it is.

That being said, please enjoy the extremely popular kid's rhyme "Alouette" and its surprisingly gruesome translation. An "alouette" is the small bird known as a "lark."

QUEBEC

Alouette, gentille alouette!
Alouette, je t'y plumerai!
Je t'y plumerai la tete!
Je t'y plumerai la tete!
Et la tete!
(Et la tete!)
Alouette!
(Alouette!)
La, la, la, la! etc.

English translation:

Lark, friendly lark!
Lark, I will pluck you!
I will pluck your head!
I will pluck your head!
And your head!
(And your head!)
Lark!
(Lark!)
La, la, la, la! etc.

(As the song continues through its repetitions (actually permutations) we continue from la tete to les yeux and thus onward until we've torn up each body part. Then we start again.)

Sent by: the higher critic

Do you have a great obnoxious kid rhyme from outside the U.S.?
Send it here for the next update!

Just be sure to include:
1) The rhyme's originating country
2) The rhyme in the original language
3) The direct English translation

See all the rhymes here.