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Don Pedro from his shirt has washed the fleas
Since Elgin left his nostrils in the stone
The Turks said just take anything you please
'Ere meanings new to ancient tribes are thrown
To one sweet hour of bliss my memory clings
Filching the lolly country thrift helped save
Such merchandise a melancholy brings
In purest cradels tha's how they behave
Platonic Greece was not so talentless
Shallots and sharks'fins face the smould'ring log
Watching manure and compost coalesce
With breaking voice across the Alps they slog
Though bretzels take the dols from board-room drum
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.