Most French children know Prévert’s poems because of his simplistic style while using everyday language that is not difficult understand. This made him a very popular poet to study in the French school system. Learning to recite this kind of poetry improves their memorization while also developing an interest in French literature. I would know. After living in France for a few years as a child, I had to memorize similar poems.
Déjeuner du Matin
Jacques Prévert (Paroles, 1946)
Il a mis le café
Dans la tasse
Il a mis le lait
Dans la tasse de café
Il a mis le sucre
Dans le café au lait
Avec la petite cuillere
Il a tourné
Il a bu le café au lait
Et il a reposé la tasse
Sans me parler
Il a allumé
Une cigarette
Il a fait des ronds
Avec la fumée
Il a mis les cendres
Dans le cendrier
Sans me parler
Sans me regarder
Il s’est levé
Il a mis
Son chapeau sur sa tête
Il a mis
Son manteau de pluie
Parce qu’il pleuvait
Et il est parti
Sous la pluie
Sans une parole
Sans me regarder
Et moi j’ai pris
Ma tête dans ma main
Et j’ai pleuré.
ENGLISH TRANSLATION
Breakfast
He poured the coffee
Into the cup
He poured the milk
Into the cup of coffee
He put the sugar
Into the coffee with milk
With a small spoon
He stirred it
He drank the coffee
And he put down the cup
Without speaking to me
He lit a cigarette
He made circles
With the smoke
He put the ashes
Into the ashtray
Without speaking to me
Without looking at me
He got up
He put a hat on his head
He put on his raincoat
As it was raining
And he left
Into the rain
Without a word
Without looking me
And I put
My head into my hands
And I cried.
English translation thanks to Ravi Kopra
One of the most amazing, yet obvious, things about this poem is its simplicity. Its simplicity attracts the reader with its ability to paint a scene in so few words. Prévert is very good at setting scenes for his readers. He begins with the pouring of the coffee, and then the milk. At the same time he hints at a tension that is completely unrelated. This systematically describes the writers’ anxiety and uneasiness because their focus is on the other person completing those actions. It’s like when you’re in a doctors’ waiting room for a while after a check-up waiting for the doctor to tell you the bad news. The same “bad news” that you’ve probably invented in your mind because you can’t help but be on edge. You watch him go in and out the waiting room, you watch his eyes dart to and from the nurses. You try to decipher every word curling off of his lips. Meanwhile, you’re tapping your toes and thinking of the worst. This increased perception is all caused by a painful uneasiness of the mind, that something’s not right, or something must be wrong.
I italicized certain phrases to highlight the times when the speaker diverges from the scene and focuses on him/herself. Those phrases are important because it is where the poem becomes personal. The narrator speaks as if they feel alone and that the person they’re observing doesn’t see them. His/her feeling of insignificance leads to the speaker’s breakdown in the end.
This poem could easily be about a wife and her husband, or an unobservant father and his neglected son/daughter. But, Prévert leaves the imagination to us. Prévert beautifully demonstrates his skill to produce a profound piece of work that may seem simple, but its meaning is close to complex.
ViveLaPoésie 
