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Don Pedro from his shirt has washed the fleas
When masons clutch the breath we held on loan
Upon his old oak chest he cuts his cheese
'Ere meanings new to ancient tribes are thrown
O Parthenon you hold the charger's strings
Filching the lolly country thrift helped save
Such merchandise a melancholy brings
For burning bushes never fish forgave
The genealogist with field and fess
Or grinning like a pale-faced golliwog
From cool Parnassus down to wild Loch Ness
With breaking voice across the Alps they slog
Ventriloquists be blowed you strike me dumb
They're kings we're mammal-cousins hi ho hum


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.