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    French for Soldiers
    French for Soldiers
    French for Soldiers
    Ebook83 pages24 minutes

    French for Soldiers

    By Nina Nyhart

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    About this ebook

    Nina Nyhart's concern for the saving power of language informs many of the poems in French For Soldiers. The title poem weaves together World War I vocabulary lessons and an eloquent Daudet story to convey the reality of war. Whether in dream sequences, or in persona voices, or in poems grounded in Maine coast summers, Nina Nyhart's metaphors are "life preservers" that rescue both the imagined and the real.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherAlice James Books
    Release dateDec 1, 2015
    ISBN9781938584510
    French for Soldiers

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      Book preview

      French for Soldiers - Nina Nyhart

      I

      FRENCH FOR SOLDIERS: A Language Lesson

      Where are we   We are in the trenches

      Where are they     They are in the shelter

      Have you any tools   No, I haven’t any

      What do you have   I have a string

      bucket   helmet

      screwdriver   overcoat

      coffee   stew

      water   mud

      The Englishmen are tall

      The Frenchwomen are pretty

      The Belgians are poor

      The Germans are in the steeple

      Where is the church   It is behind the trees

      Have they any cannon   They have a great many

      We have no spades   Who has the axe

      The Americans are in the town

      We give the bread to the Belgians

      Ten Germans are in the window of the steeple

      Hands up!   Halt!

      Get up!   Surrender!

      Where are your dugouts

      Where is the command post

      How many machine guns have you

      I got up this morning

      You washed your face

      He shaved himself

      They have cut the buttons off

      the trousers of the German

      The attack of the enemy is going to fail

      We will riddle them with bullets

      When will we be in England

      the first of January

      the second of January

      next month

      in spring

      in summer

      in autumn

      Then from one thing to another, M. Hamel began to speak to us of the French language, saying that it was the most beautiful language in the world, the most clear, tile most solid:

      I am

      thou art

      he is

      we are

      you are

      they are

      that it was necessary to keep it among its and never forget it, because, when a people falls into slavery, as long as it keeps its language, it is as if it held the key of its

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