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 spoke 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

For hours -- division and multiplication are the hairiest,

The epitome 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 risky venture or spéculation hasardeuse

I think it was decided 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 forth endlessly they had gone at it,

So we began by trying to learn French fast.