100,000,000,000,000 poems

From playboy Chance the nymph no longer flees
Licks round carved marble chops on snails full-blown
He bent right down and well what did he seize
And loudly sang off-key without a tone
And yet 'twas he the beggar Fate just flings
Rejecting ermine to become a knave
An icicle of frozen marrow pings
Till firemen come with hose-piped tidal wave
It's no good rich men crying Heaven Bless
Shallots and sharks'fins face the smould'ring log
The country lane just thrives on farmyard mess
Their sculptors did our best our hulks the clog
Ventriloquists be blowed you strike me dumb
A wise loaf always knows its humblest crumb


Raymond Queneau

Translation to English by Stanley Chapman
found in "Oulipo Compendium"
Atlas 1998, ISBN 0-947757-96-1

Idea and implementation by Magnus Bodin 1997
Produced in the wonderful country of Sweden.