Spéculation Hasardeuse
Arthur Vogelsang
No one was learning French fast.
I was learning French too slowly and
Some were learning at an average speed.
We had to learn it fast. There was a great plane
Coming for us and we had to know French
When we got on it or else.
Later we found out there was no or else.
We boarded the plane knowing an amount of French.
Enough that the others covered for me.
That was easy, I never
spoke1 French,
I never spoke. Far up over Earth and France
Where we floated which of course was fun
In the great plane, in the great swift plane as I have said,
That high, the French spoke to us in French,
Numbers, "millième des soixante," and other manifold numbers
The
epitome3 of difficult, for a non-native speaker.
According to my character I did something else,
No counting, no speaking French. I was there
To float and study and be studied and do unmentionables
So I forgot about learning French fast and I forgot about
Their or else, I said to myself I think I am their or else.
I was not. In such a
risky4 venture or spéculation hasardeuse
I think it was
decided5 to include somebody not fast and not smart
Like a slow horse that keeps a posse at its safe pace, unambushed.
The endless arguments about this had been in French and English,
Back and
forth6 endlessly they had gone at it,
So we began by trying to learn French fast.
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