Some children’s rhymes actually have a double meaning that it is better to know before singing them to the youngest…
“It’s raining, it’s raining shepherdess”, “He was a little ship”, “At the clear fountain”, “Au clair de la lune”… Who has never hummed these tunes to children? Children’s nursery rhymes have had a special place in the world of toddlers for generations. These short rhythmic songs, sometimes accompanied by various choreographies, are sometimes much more than just pleasant melodies to listen to… And sometimes even have a well-hidden double meaning, far from the innocent words you think you sing to your children.
Far from being as general as you thought, some songs have meanings that are much less suited to toddlers and even reveal dubious allusions, far from the innocence that we might attribute to them. Here’s a quick overview of the hidden meanings of some of our best-known children’s nursery rhymes:
One of the most famous children’s songs, Fishing for Mussels reveals, when you pay close attention to the lyrics, a much less sympathetic double meaning. So it’s the story of a little girl who explains to her mother that she no longer wants to go mussel fishing, after having her basket stolen by “people from the city”. But it takes another turn with these words: “Fishing for mussels, mussels, mussels, I don’t want to go there anymore mom (…) Are they good children, when once they hold you, hold, hold on. Are they good children, they give you little caresses.”
We are talking here about a boat on which food is starting to run out and where the sailors draw lots for which one will be eaten by the others. A story of cannibalism therefore.
A children’s song par excellence, Au clair de la lune appeared for the first time in 1960. Its lyrics have often given rise to various analyses, highlighting the double meaning they could have. “My candle is dead”, which can have a double meaning that we imagine, the candle not necessarily being the candle that we sing about. Especially since, according to Pierrot, it is necessary to go “to the neighbor’s house (…) because in her kitchen, they beat the lighter”, which designates sexual intercourse.
One of the hypotheses surrounding the meaning of this song dating from the 18th century says that the famous “green mouse” would in fact be a Vendée soldier, hunted down and tortured by Republican soldiers during the Vendée War. “He grabs it by the tail and shows it to these gentlemen (…) these gentlemen tell me, dip it in oil, dip it in water, it will make a hot snail”: the lyrics take on, with this theory, a completely different meaning.
It is one of the most famous spoonerisms in the French language: “Il cours, il cours le ferret” becomes, by reversing a few letters, “Il fourre, il fourre, le curé.”
The last example of these nursery rhymes with a well-hidden meaning, A la claire Fontaine evokes the anger of a young man, Pierre, who was rejected by his girlfriend who “gave herself away too soon”: “I lost my friend / Without having deserved it / For a rosebud / Which I gave away too soon.”
