Childish poems demand justice

On Friday I walk past the kindergarten, and there they learn rhymes for the little ones - about the plague riot, Peter the Great and the battleship Potemkin! Believe it?

That's right, there is no such thing in our folklore. And in the Anglo-American is, and this is nursery rhymes. If we look at them with the armed eye, we will see a well-disguised satire. Behind the sheep and the rainbow loom odious historical characters, diseases, wars and other negligence of the common people.
At the same time, most hidden lulz did not fall into Russian-language translations.
It is time to restore justice!


Let's start, perhaps, with an old friend - an egg-headed man named Humpty Dumpty. Everyone who read Carroll and Marshak remembers the hard fate of the guy: he sat on the wall, fell in a dream - and did not wake up. For some reason, the royal troops tried to assemble it piece by piece. Alarming? Why, it's a very old mystery. Only not about the person, but about the cannon and the English bourgeois revolution.
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It was like this: the bad guys were royalists (supporters of King Charles I Stewart, who had the misfortune to quarrel with the people and parliament) entrenched themselves in the city of Colchester. Fighting off the Cromwell Puritans, they were helped by a powerful cannon nicknamed “Humpty”, but soon a shell of opponents destroyed the tower of St Mary’s at-the-Wall church, on which it “sat”. You know the rest: the royalists did their best to put it in place, only in vain. As a result, the city fell, and the victorious people immediately responded with an oral satirical verse-riddle.

His ending was repeatedly reworked — sometimes with a rhythm tight, then with rhyme — because of which they made a slight distortion of the meaning: “Could not set Humpty Dumpty up again” turned into “can't collect” (Could not put Humpty together again). And only later, largely thanks to this blunder, a new hero was born - the man-egg.

"The Cardinal ate broth with Madame D'Ogillon ..."

These couplets are familiar to many from childhood, however, they are far from nursery rhymes: the British serve political satire thinner and more elegant. You do not know the pitfalls - do not understand what I mean. Well, for example, how much can you get out of such a harmless rhyme?

Georgie Porgie, Puddin 'and Pie,
Kissed the girls and made them cry,
When the boys came out to play
Georgie Porgie ran away.

Very little. In translation, nothing at all:

Georgie-Porjee, so impudent!
Kissing all the girls.
And girls - take offense,
Yes, for Georgie can not keep up.

And we are talking about George IV, the most unpopular monarch of Britain. He was despised for his gluttony (Puddin 'and Pie), his wife and his mistresses' termination (Kissed the girls and made them cry), but most importantly - for being far away. About this and the poem.

As prince regent for the mad king-father, Georg “incognito” (he was always recognized by his immense waist) attended illegal fights. Boxing without gloves - entertainment is extremely dubious for the gentleman, and for the monarch - generally taboo, but then you and the spectacle, and tote.

In one of these matches, a man died, and as soon as George realized what a huge scandal he was in, he made his legs. For which he became the object of popular ridicule for many years.

Hu from Miss Mary Mack?



This poteshka is a cult thing among American kids. True, none of them will tell you that the first four lines are taken from an old English riddle about the coffin:

Miss mary mack
All dressed in black,
With silver buttons (nails)
All down her back. (in the lid)

After the civil war of 1861-1865. Riddle subjected to creative transformation:

She asked her mother
For fifteen (later - fifty) cents
To see the elephants
Jump over the fence.
They jumped so high,
They touched the sky,
They never came back,
Till the fourth of July.

... to encrypt the battleship, the battle of Hampton Roads and the surrender of the Vicksburg fortress. All - on behalf of the defeated side.

The story is this: the slave South has a steam frigate Merrimack. Its wooden skeleton was sheathed with steel sheets and received a Virginia (Virginia) - one of the first American battleships. Actually, that's why Mary Mack is “Miss”, and eleven southern states is her “mother”.

And Virginia set off to break the naval blockade (the battle on Hampton Rhodes), which the “mother” was staged by the industrial North at the suggestion of Republican President Lincoln (the elephant is the symbol of this party). True, she failed to break through, but her enemies ’patted the nerves notably.

By the way, in the early years of the war, the "elephants" -northerners had no luck at all: intelligible attacks for some reason led to huge losses and retreat of their own forces. They "came back" (They never came back / Till the fourth of July) on July 4, 1863, forcing to capitulate the fortress, which is strategically important for Southerners. There was a military break, and progressive "elephants" won against the creators of "Mary Mac."

What else to read this?

Glory to folklore, nursery rhymes "with undertones" is complete: Jack and Jill, stubborn Mary, black sheep, etc. Some - for example, Lizzie Borden or the ever-falling London Bridge - are held under the heading of "black humor."

And now attention!
Question: have we written the truth here or what?

Lena Agafonov,
translator