it's raining, it's pouring (the old man is snoring)...

this is 'il pleut'. a french poem about the rain by apollinaire.

nope. i've not a clue what it says either, but it is a very nice piece of typography that really relates to it's subject. luckily some fellow named roger shattuck made a 'linear translation' of the poem:

it’s raining,

it’s raining women’s voices as if they had died even in memory,

and it’s raining you as well marvellous encounters of my life o little,

drops,

those rearing clouds begin to neigh a whole universe of auricular cities,

listen if it rains while regret and disdain weep to an ancient music,

listen to the bonds fall off which hold you above and below.

the old, handmade, typewriter-aligned feel gives the reader a real sense of the arbitrary, dripping patterns of rain on a window pane. a great example of how graphically descriptive of even the purest forms of typography can be.