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The marble tomb gapes wide with jangling keys
The bull's horns ought to dry it like a bone
His toga rumpled high above his knees
The thumb- and finger-prints of Al Capone
How it suprised us pale grey underlings
The North Wind Bites into his architrave
Th'outrageous Thames a troubled arrow slings
Etruscan words which Greece and Rome engrave
It's no good rich men crying Heaven Bless
What things we did we went the whole darned hog
On wheels the tourist follows hos hostess
We'll suffocate before the epilogue
The Taj Mahal has trinkets spice and gum
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.