Literal translation
he dances in front of the cupboard
Meaning
his cupboard is bare
Explanation
This expression means that a person has nothing to eat, their larder being entirely empty. The verb to dance, well attested, and the word cupboard, also attested, form a very concrete domestic image: that of someone standing in front of the piece of furniture where provisions are normally kept, reduced, for lack of food, to fidgeting or taking a few steps there for want of anything better to do. The image can be read in two complementary ways, one evoking a bitter or mocking little jig performed before the emptiness, the other simply suggesting the pointlessness of opening the cupboard since it holds nothing to find, leaving only the dance movement to perform in front of it. The construction follows a common pattern in Provençal folk sayings, which favour a concrete, almost theatrical image over an abstract formula to describe scarcity. It is used to speak, with a touch of dark humour or resignation, of a person or household reduced to the greatest food shortage.