From insults reportedly made to French presidents, collected in De voyou à pov’ con, by Raphaël Meltz, published in 2012 by Robert Laffont. (See “Après Mots, Le Déluge,” an Annotation on the subject in the January 2014 issue by Kabir Chibber.) Translated from the French by Ryann Liebenthal.

Pathetic bloated noodle, whose eye drips like a Camembert in August.

Grotesque scarecrow who could scarcely frighten the palace sparrows.

Derelict, political vagabond, his prestige sullied by gobs of spit.

He was made to be prodded and weighed and driven to the abattoir, sliced, sold, boiled, and eaten.

Giant mustardless sausage.

Limp pickle.

Rotten palace pickle!

Rioter and assassin’s ally, profane thug, iconoclastic boor poached from the Correctional Police.

Flea-market pharaoh, fairground strongman, inveterate flatulist, his face demolished, his silhouette haggard, his voice that of a man sinking in quicksand, his eyes heavy and empty where the flame of ardor has ceased to burn.

President Dickhead.

Boo.