100,000,000,000,000 poems

From playboy Chance the nymph no longer flees
The answer is they could be twins full-grown
The showman gargles fire and sword with ease
One gathers rosebuds or grows old alone
The frisian Isles my friends are cherised things
Signalling gauchos very rarely shave
Proud death quite il-le-gi-ti-mate-ly stings
The nicest kids for strickiest toffees crave
Poetic licence needs no strain or stress
What things we did we went the whole darned hog
Watching manure and compost coalesce
Their sculptors did our best our hulks the clog
On fish-slab whale nor seal has never swum
And lessors' dates have all too short a sum


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.