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From playboy Chance the nymph no longer flees
His exaltation shocked both youth and crone
Replies like this the dumbstruck brain may tease
And empty cages show life's bird has flown
To one sweet hour of bliss my memory clings
When flame a form to wrath ancestral gave
In salads all chew grubs before they've wings
That every verbal shock aims to deprave
The fasting fakir doesn't smell the less
And starve the sniveling baby like a dog
The colonel's still escutcheoned in undress
But I can understand you Brogher Gog
Do bank clerks rule their abacus by thumb
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.