The Tiger
Give me my freedom, useless man!
I did not come here to sleep in a cell.
I am the king of the jungles of Asia!
This miserable home is not fit for a king.
If you want me to stay one day longer,
Put me up in the Château de Versailles.
What is this dirty little hotel anyway?
There are fleas here—and bedbugs!
Have you no insecticide in all of Paris?
What is this garbage you call “food”?
I must chew each piece ten times!
Have you no soft meat in all of Paris?
Where’s my champagne, my café crème?
I demand to dine on the Champs Elysées!
I demand to see Josephine Baker tonight!
Written by Dan Tirinaro (‘Jeong Saseop’) | Translation by Adam Kuplowsky
from La Liberpoeto, Imp. Del’ Orillon, Paris, 1938
Illustrations from the original by Solemio Palermo
Jeong Saseop, ps. Dan Tirinaro (1910-1944): Born in Iksan, Korea, Jeong studied French literature in Japan and France in the 1920s and ‘30s, during which time he also learned the international auxiliary language Esperanto. In August 1938, he published a collection of poems titled La Liberpoeto, the first work of original Esperanto literature written by a Korean Esperantist. He died of meningitis in 1944, at the age of thirty-five.