Charlotte
That was a malaise. We call that malaise.
When that old man said I lost my baby fat
since last time he saw me, that’s malaise.
But when you asked in front of everybody
if I get drunk a lot — it’s legal in France,
you know — that was genânt. It’s gee,
ee, en, ey with that arrow on top, en, tee.
Malaise is more like you bother me: tu
mets des malaises. Genânt is bother, too,
but more like awkward. Like my friend,
he’s not my boyfriend but my friend,
he introduced me to his other friends,
“This is Charlotte,” and then we’re like
“OK, nothing to say,” just standing there.
That’s genânt. It’s kind of hard to explain
because you don’t have it exactly in English like that.
