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He bent right down to pick up his valise
The answer is they could be twins full-grown
The understanding critic firstly sees
With cherry-pips his cottage floor is sown
To one sweet hour of bliss my memory clings
The North Wind Bites into his architrave
Such merchandise a melancholy brings
The nicest kids for strickiest toffees crave
Staunch pilgrims longest journeys can't depress
Shallots and sharks'fins face the smould'ring log
To prove mamma an adult with a tress
Southern baroque's seductive dialogue
Do bank clerks rule their abacus by thumb
In cognac brandy is Bacardi rum?


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.