Rabbit
I know another bunny
I wish I could take alive.
Her warren is among the thyme
in the valleys of Tender land.
Connin
= Lapin (Old French), but also the female sexe (in Old French,
as today in 'conne'.)
Garenne
= Breeding ground ("Bois, étendue boisée où les lapins vivent et
se multiplient à l'état sauvage" (Le Petit Robert).
Pays de
Tendre = allegorical country, imagined by Madeleine de Scudéry's
and her entourage (17th C).
In
Clélie there is a famous map: la Carte de Tendre.
It shows
three different ways to get from Nouvelle Amitié to one of
the three cities called Tendre all located on the banks of a
river: Tendre sur Reconnoissance, Tendre sur Inclination
and Tendre sur Estime. Interested: click on the thumbnail
(the Map) or read the entire story on
http://fr.wikisource.org/wiki/Carte_de_Tendre

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