La rentrée, il y a ceux qui la font et ceux qui… peut-être, devraient la faire. Puisse ce premier jour d’école, vu par Roger McGough être l’occasion pour chacun (tout en remuant souvenirs et nostalgie) d’évaluer son niveau d’anglais et de mesurer sa légitimité à ne plus fréquenter les bancs de l’école.
“My First Day at School”
A millionbillionwillion miles from home
Waiting for the bell to go. (To go where ?)
Why are they all so big, other children ?
So noisy ? So much at home they
Must have been born in uniform
Lived all their lives in playgrounds
Spent the years inventing games
That don’t let me in. Games
That are rough, that swallow you up.
And the railings.
All around, the railings.
Are they to keep out wolves and monsters ?
Things that carry off and eat children ?
Things you don’t take sweets from ?
Perhaps they’re to stop us getting out
Running away from the lessins. Lessin.
What does a lessin look like ?
Sounds small and slimy.
They keep them in the glassrooms.
Whole rooms made out of glass. Imagine.
I wish I could remember my name
Mummy said it would come in useful.
Like wellies. When there’s puddles.
Yellow wellies. I wish she was here.
I think my name is sewn on somewhere
Perhaps the teacher will read it for me.
Tea-cher. The one who makes the tea.
Roger McGough (born in 1937)
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Initiale F. 