The Salt Herring, Poem by Charles Cros

Poem by Charles Cros Collection The Sandalwood CasketPeriod 19th century

To Guy.

There was a big white wall – bare, bare, bare,
Against the wall a ladder – tall, tall, tall,
And, on the ground, a salt herring – dry, dry, dry.

He comes, holding in his hands – dirty, dirty, dirty,
A heavy hammer, a big nail – sharp, sharp, sharp,
A ball of string – thick, thick, thick.

Then he climbs the ladder – tall, tall, tall,
And drives in the sharp nail – knock, knock, knock,
At the very top of the big white wall – bare, bare, bare.

He lets the hammer fall – which falls, which falls, which falls,
Ties to the nail the string – long, long, long,
And, at the end, the salt herring – dry, dry, dry.

He comes back down the ladder – tall, tall, tall,
Takes it away with the hammer – heavy, heavy, heavy,
And then, he goes off elsewhere – far, far, far.

And, since then, the salt herring – dry, dry, dry,
At the end of that string – long, long, long,
Very slowly sways – always, always, always.

I composed this story – simple, simple, simple,
To enrage people – serious, serious, serious,
And amuse the children – little, little, little.

Charles Cros

Translation generated by Poésies 123 with assistance from the deepseek-chat artificial-intelligence model.

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