The recital of the Malay Pantun by a French scientist Dr. Georges Chapoutier was posted on the official Facebook page of the French consulate and Embassy in Kuala Lumpur.
Dr. Chapouthier was featured in the three-minute video, entitled “Georges Chapouthier Loves Pantun – when you meet a French scientist who is completely head over hills for Pantun Melayu”.
The Pantun is a Malay poetic form that originated as a traditional oral form of expression. Pantuns are written in quatrains, generally following an ab ab rhyme scheme with the second and fourth lines of each stanza becoming the first and third lines of the following stanza. Finally, the first and third lines of the first stanza become the second and fourth lines of the last stanza, usually in reverse order so that the first and last lines of the poem are identical.
At the beginning of the video clip:
(https://www.facebook.com/FranceinMalaysia/videos/1773910286236832/)
Dr.Georges Chapoutier recited a popular classic Malay Pantun:
Dua tiga kucing berlari
Mana nak sama si kucing belang
Dua tiga boleh ku cari
Mana nak sama tuan seorang
The video has garnered 760 likes, 34K views and 72 comments at the time of writing.
Dr. Chapoutier had worked for the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), where he currently has the rank of emeritus research director. His areas of research covers the pharmacology of memory and anxiety; and philosophy with a focus on the relations between humans and animals.