HE IS BORN, THE ARCHÆOPTERYX

He is born, the Archæopteryx!
Harsh hangovers, resonant brawls
He is born, the Archæopteryx!
Let’s all sing the fetus phoenix

Since then, had Vercingetorix,
Strategist with Gallic suffix,
Since then, had Vercingetorix
A hard kick straight up his coccyx

Chorus

Jansenius has little price
For Monseigneur de Péréfixe;
Jansenius has little price
If he doesn’t erect a big crucifix,

Chorus

Alphonse Allais with Félix
Faure, this president prolix,
Alphonse Allais with Félix
Makes prefix puns on him

Chorus

If he gets anthrax on his chest,
– Such inflation triturates! –
If he gets anthrax on his chest,
Will cure it with opopanax.

Chorus

And one bottle of trois-six,
She’s got one and stares straight at it,
And a bottle of trois-six,
Ma Ubu has not ten.

Chorus

Ah! how golden, how onyx!
Such reverence to his prefix;
Ah! how golden, how onyx!
Let him fly like a big bombyx!

Chorus

But this Bird under the larixes
For the Mallarmean nixies,
But this Bird under the larixes
Pooped in the waters of the Styx,

Chorus

He’s not an imaginary x,
Or an algebraic affix
He’s not an imaginary x,
His oncilla forms a helix.

Chorus

In August, we decorated his storage box
It was such a method orthodox,
In August we decorated his storage box
With a phallus in phlox flowers.

Chorus

The Archæopteryx defeats Pollux;
He stuns with so much more luxury;
The Archæopteryx defeats Pollux;
If the phot’s worth ten thousand lux.

Chorus

 
translated from French by La Vertèbre et le Rossignol

Note:
This ritual song was published in 1955 by Henri Bouché, Transcendent Satrap at the Collège de ‘Pataphysique. It was composed to the tune of “Il est né le divin enfant”, a famous Catholic Christmas song and it uses the rhyme formula in “ixe”, developed by Stéphane Mallarmé in his “Sonnet en x”. In the calendar of the Collège de ‘Pataphysique, the Archeopteryx’s Nativity is celebrated on the 25th Sable, corresponding to December 25th. It is a reference to the son of Mère Ubu and Barbapoux, her lover in Ubu cocu ou l’Archeopteryx (Alfred Jarry, 1898). Measuring 25 centimeters, the child is a crossbreed of archeopteryx, ichyornis and vampire, with many qualities of bats, “leporids, raptors, palmipeds, pachyderms and pigs”.

– The digital collage Mère Ubu Brings Opopanax To Her Son, by David Nadeau

– JA, SH, and VL