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At snuff no Cornish sailorman would sneeze
Since Elgin left his nostrils in the stone
The Turks said just take anything you please
With cherry-pips his cottage floor is sown
To one sweet hour of bliss my memory clings
Whose ocean still-born herrings madly brave
The fertile mother changelings drops like kings
Etruscan words which Greece and Rome engrave
The fasting fakir doesn't smell the less
Or grinning like a pale-faced golliwog
While homeward thirsts to each quenched glass say yes
With breaking voice across the Alps they slog
On fish-slab whale nor seal has never swum
For Europe's glory while Fate's harpies strum


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.