100,000,000,000,000 poems

From playboy Chance the nymph no longer flees
For tea cucumber sandwiches a scone
The understanding critic firstly sees
With cherry-pips his cottage floor is sown
Oh how oh how he hates such pilferings
With sombre thoughts they grimly line the nave
Proud death quite il-le-gi-ti-mate-ly stings
To break a rule Britannia's might might waive
The wolf devours both sheep and shepherdess
What things we did we went the whole darned hog
Watching manure and compost coalesce
We'll suffocate before the epilogue
With marble souvenirs then fill a slum
The bell tolls fee-less fi-less fo-less fum


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.