The times they are a-changing
image via Google
Little girls in frilly frocks
curls and bows and silly socks
played skipping games,
picking sides by calling names
jumping rope for endless hours
running wild and picking flowers.
Nowadays in tees and jeans
they watch screens.
for Quadrille Monday (44 words including Skip) at dVerse
About https://vivinfrance.wordpress.com
All poetry, prose and pictures posted here, except where otherwise stated, is my own, and may only be used elsewhere with my expressed permission.
Please don't be inhibited from correcting my bloopers and making suggestions: Most of what I post here is instant, ill-considered and off-the-cuff, in serious need of editing.
Lovely – and I liked the afterthought substitution for TV.
BUT I would love to see it as tees and jeans. I don’t think it needs the rhyme broken to get the effect of the turnabout!
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tees/screens = assonant near-rhyme. But I see your point, and have changed it It started as TV, until someone pointed out that it was as likely to be an ipad or gaming screen.
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All those skipping games and the rhymes that went with them, passed on by generation of schoolchildren – all gone? Or have any survived? I suddenly had flashbacks, throwing a ball against a wall so many times and the actions that went with each set of numbers … do any children do that nowadays?
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From my observation of the children at playtime in the school near the house, the main activities are football, skateboarding and making noise.
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I’m glad I grew up in those olden days which you recreate with such joy. 🙂
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And they miss so much–I have the scars to prove it (literally).
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Ha!
sMiLes..
and WInks Viv..
i am like a little
girl skipping rope
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I really like the rhyming style of this piece. Theme is also very true – children don’t play outside as much as they used to do. Probably because adults feel its too dangerous outside.
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Charmant !
Les temps changent
Autre temps, autres enfants
Jeux d’antan, jeux d’enfants
Jeux d’antan, jeux charmants
Avant les enfants jouaient
maintenant,
ils sont devant un écran,
comme leurs parents
souvent,
trop longtemps.
Mes enfants sont grands
maintenant
et l’écran
de la maison est tentant,
mais j’apprends,
grâce à lui, tout le temps,
tout en me distrayant.
Les enfants me man-
quent…
C’est le printemps;
dansons maintenant
Chaque chose en son temps.
http://www.momes.net/Jeux/Jeux-et-animations/Jouer-tout-seul/Corde-a-sauter
Click to access MEP_FICHES.pdf
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Ah ces écrans, omni-présents. Ils nous distraient mais aussi nous éduquaient.
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nous éduquent, eh !
J’ai essayé de traduire ton joli poème :
Les petites filles qui portaient des robes fleuries,
des rubans dans leurs cheveux bouclés et des chaussettes ridicules
jouaient à la corde à sauter,
changeant de partenaire(s) / formant des équipes en s’interpellant
jouant ainsi sans fin / pendant d’innombrables heures / d’incalculables heures
s’amusant librement
De nos jours en jean et tee-shirt
elles regardent la télé.
WordReference English-French Dictionary
quadrille n (old-fashioned dance for couples) (danse) quadrille nm
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Collins Dictionary :
skipping (ˈskɪpɪŋ )
noun
the act of jumping over a rope that is held and swung either by the person jumping or by two other people, as a game or for exercise
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http://www.momes.net/Jeux/Jeux-et-animations/Jouer-tout-seul/Corde-a-sauter
Règle du jeu “Corde à sauter”
Il y a plusieurs manières pour sauter à la corde. La manière traditionnelle en sautant à pieds joints par dessus la corde qui passe par dessus-la tête et par-devant soi. Mais on peut aussi sauter en arrière; il suffit de faire tourner la corde à l’envers.
On peut encore sauter en croisant les pieds, ou en croisant les bras, ou bien enfin “au galop” en courant et en sautant en même temps.
On pense souvent que la corde à sauter est un jeu “pour les filles” mais on oublie de dire que les boxeurs, pour entrainer leur “jeu de jambes”, pratiquent toujours la corde à sauter.
On joue également à la corde à sauter à plusieurs, au moins trois, deux pour faire tourner la corde et une qui saute au milieu.
Jeu de la corde à sauter : Mademoiselle
“Mademoiselle (le prénom de celle qui est en train de sauter) est la préférée
De Monsieur (le prénom de son prétendu amoureux) qui veut l’épouser.
Si c’est oui c’est de l’espérance,
Si c’est non c’est de la souffrance
Un, deux, trois”
À ce moment là les personnes qui tournent la corde accélèrent le mouvement et à chaque saut ponctuent par un “oui”, “non”.
Si la personne qui saute rate sur un “oui”, ce sera de l’espérance, si elle rate sur un “non”, ce sera de la malchance !
Enfin, n’oublions surtout pas qu’il ne s’agit que d’un jeu !! heureusement ;o))
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WordReference English-French Dictionary
jump rope,
UK: skipping rope n US (skipping rope) corde à sauter nf
Little girls like to play with jump ropes.
Les petites filles adorent jouer à la corde à sauter.
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Dictionnaire Larousse :
to pick or to choose sides former des équipes
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Linguee English-French Dictionary :
endless hours
sans fin / pendant d’innombrables heures / d’incalculables heures
des heures et des heures / des heures interminables
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WordReference English-French Dictionary:
run wild vi (be uncontrolled) agir en liberté vi + adv
Residents say that gangs are running wild in the streets.
Les résidents disent que les délinquants agissent en liberté dans le quartier.
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WordReference English-French Dictionary
picking n (act of picking) (personne, chose) choix, sélection nm
Reverso English-French Dictionary:
to pick
to choose (something) deliberately or carefully, from or as if from a group or number; select
http://www.theguardian.com/law/2011/mar/16/rules-picking-wild-flowers
The rules about picking wild flowers > picking flowers
Wild flowers According to Dominic Price of wild plant protection charity Plantlife, “it is not normally an offence to pick the ‘Four Fs’ – fruit, foliage, fungi or flowers – if the plants are growing wild and it is for your personal use and not for sale.” Dozens of rare or endangered plants – from the lady’s slipper orchid and adder’s tongue, to threadmoss and sandwort – are, however, protected under the 1981 Wildlife and Countryside Act, so pick those and you could face arrest (though you’re unlikely to stumble across too many of them). Whatever you do, don’t drag up the whole plant to resettle it in your own garden – the law firmly forbids the uprooting of any wild plant.
Urban Dictionary :
Flower picking
basically, it means grabbing tits. you can also say picking flowers.
Joe: Hey man, what’d you do saturday night?
John: Me and some homies went to flower picking.
Joe: NICE! How were they?
John: Double D baby
by nick block September 29, 2008
tits
Women’s secret source of power over men. Having the right tits often results in social and economic gain.
by Anonymous October 01, 2003
> LIBRES ET SE LIBÉRANT (??)
Urban Dictionary :
pick flowers
It is a term New Yorkers use as “getting drunk” to use if you dont want any one knowing you are.. such as your parents:)
Hey Amy, lets go pick some flowers at Zeds house. That would be fun!!
by Val November 03, 2004
> s’amusant librement (??)
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WordReference English-French Dictionary
tee n informal, abbreviation (clothing: T-shirt) T-shirt, tee-shirt nm
T-shirt,
tee-shirt n (short-sleeved collarless top) (anglicisme) T-shirt, tee-shirt nm
In the summer I usually wear just shorts and a T-shirt.
En été, en général, je ne porte qu’un short et un T-shirt.
Dictionnaire CNRTL :
TEE-SHIRT, T-SHIRT, subst. masc.
Maillot en jersey de coton, initialement sans col et à manches courtes, dont la forme rappelle celle d’un T.
JEAN, subst. masc.
A. − Abrév. de blue-jean. La belle en « jeans » aux pieds nus est remplacée par la femme qui veut paraître « habillée », même à la plage (Le Monde,14 juill. 1967ds Gilb. 1971).Il est grand (…) avec des épaules larges, des jambes longues et musclées auxquelles colle la toile du jean (J.-P. Bastid, Méchoui-massacre, Paris, Gallimard, 1974, p. 59).Elle a réussi à arracher Ronnie à ses rôles de série B, ses rodéos, ses jeans (Elle,janv. 1981, no1828, p. 32).
Rem. Employé indifféremment au sing. ou au plur., comme blue-jean.
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MarieJo, c’est bien que vous essayez de traduire les poème. Pour la plupart mes lecteurs sont anglophones, donc mon blog n’est pas la place de poster autant de français. Je crois qu’il serait mieux d’avoir votre propre blog
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Oui, bien sûr Viv, ne t’inquiète pas, c’est juste que ce poème m’a plu, plus particulièrement !
D’habitude, je fais ce travail pour moi.
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aucune problème
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Have a nice weekend, Viv!
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Happy to sad in eight lines!
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So very true. Our neighbors do not allow their children to live in front of a screen. We live on a very quiet street. It is a joy to see them roller skating, or jumping rope or in their yard swinging from the tree swing their father hung for them…chasing fireflies at night in the summer – oh the laughs one gets to hear. It makes me smile. It is up the to parents indeed to determine screen time, not the children.
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How times have changed…I wish young kids would be more active than always checking their phones and watching stuff in the computer ~
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SAD. Indeed. I am raising two young teens, and it is a challenge to find balance. We’re getting there.
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how true or they play video games and never move off the chair
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Alas alas, they do watch TV (or even worse it’s youtube)… somehow the skipping ropes and playing has ceased to be important..
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Sad but true. It’s up to the Grandmas to teach the kids to have silly fun.
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