From smile to mouse to smile: thinking bilingually

Hearing the Mouse in Smile – a few notes on Bilingual Thinking followed by a poem

Where we place a word, what we keep of the syntax which couches it in a phrase, is part of a poet’s work. I enjoy testing a poem by playing with line breaks, associations, with “best word in the best place” or order, as Coleridge and Dobyns would say.
Finding inspiration by thinking of homonyms and their translation can be quite beneficial, especially when the word is flexible to act as a noun and a verb.
In French, tu souris is “you smile”, from the verb sourire, which has a sous-entendu of “under a laugh”. Rather like Voltaire’s invitation to come to the Château Sans Souci (without worries), spelled this way:

ci
¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬
sans


If you eliminate the subject tu, souris becomes a command, “smile!”.
However, la souris means mouse. So it could be that you have dropped the article (la) to the noun, in order to address the mouse, as in souris, souris! Mouse, mouse! And of course the context and intonation will help you tell the difference.

As linguist, my mind is constantly playing this way, and often provides a source of triggers which I find amusing. Maybe you will too. Here’s an example.

Sous la Souris – souris: Under the mouse – smile.

What lies under a laugh?
A small mouse
some days, tight-lipped,
without a hint of a tooth,
the scurrying kind of mouse,
content to stop, burrow
in the bocal safety
battened shut

And look
his slightly larger sibling
curving at the mouth corners
considering a shimmy
down into a chuckle
but is not sure it is the time or place.
Other days, something makes it spread
from ear to ear, as if to ignite a lamp
in each eye.

As for the sleeping mouse,
smile draped light as angel kite,
when he wakes up, he’ll turn its rope
asking every cell to jump to it.

And "Version II"

Slippery

What lies under a laugh?
A small French mouse some days
tight-lipped, without a hint of a tooth,
a scurrying kind of mouse,
content to stop, burrow
in bocal safety battened shut

And look
his slightly larger sibling,
curving at the mouth corners
considering a shimmy
down into a chuckle,
considering a full-grown rire.

Somedays this under-laugh
spreads from ear to ear, as if to ignite
a lamp in each eye.

Other days, it sleeps,
smile draped light as angel kite,
but when he wakes up, he’ll turn its rope
asking every cell to jump to it.

Sad jumpropes to happy
English mouse to French souris
happy hopscotches to pensive
and a French command: smile

with plenty of sous-entendu
How do you translate mouse,
or what lies in a smile?