Oscar Wilde - The Happy Prince 2




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"I am glad there is some one in the world who is quite happy," muttered a disappointed man as he gazed at the wonderful statue.

"He looks just like an angel," said the Charity Children as they came out of the cathedral in their bright scarlet cloaks and their clean white pinafores.

"How do you know?" said the Mathematical Master, "you have never seen one."

"Ah! but we have, in our dreams," answered the children; and the Mathematical Master frowned and looked very severe, for he did not approve of children dreaming.

One night there flew over the city a little Swallow. His friends had gone away to Egypt six weeks before, but he had stayed behind, for he was in love with the most beautiful Reed. He had met her early in the spring as he was flying down the river after a big yellow moth, and had been so attracted by her slender waist that he had stopped to talk to her.

« Je suis content qu’il y ait au monde quelqu’un de tout à fait heureux », grommelait un homme déçu en contemplant la statue merveilleuse. « Il ressemble à un ange », disaient les enfants de l’orphelinat en sortant de la cathédrale dans leurs manteaux rouge vif et leurs tabliers blancs bien propres. « Comment le savez-vous ? » demandait le Maître de Mathématiques, « vous n’en avez jamais vu. » « Mais si, nous en avons vu, en rêve », répondaient les enfants ; et le Maître de Mathématiques fronçait les sourcils d’un air sévère, car il n’approuvait point les rêves des enfants. Un soir, un Hirondeau vola au-dessus de la ville. Ses amis étaient partis pour l’Egypte six semaines auparavant, mais lui était resté, car il était amoureux de la plus belle Flèche d’Eau qu’on eût jamais vue. Il l’avait rencontrée au printemps tandis qu’il descendait en volant la rivière, à la poursuite d’un gros papillon jaune, et la minceur de sa taille l’avait tellement séduit qu’il s’était arrêté pour lui parler.


vocabulary vocabulaire
to mutter grogner
scarlet rouge écarlate
cloak le manteau
to frown froncer le front
severe sérieux
to approve approuver
swallow l' hirondelle
reed le roseau
moth la motte

grammar grammaire
"I am glad there is some one in the world who is quite happy," muttered ...
"He looks just like an angel," said ...
"How do you know?" said ...
discours indirect
... for he did not approve ... la conjonction 'for'; négation au simple past
One night there flew ... verb irrégulier
... he was flying down the river ... forme continue du simple past
... had been so attracted by her la voix passiv aus past perfect





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