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The marble tomb gapes wide with jangling keys
Licks round carved marble chops on snails full-blown
Her native chauffeur waited in the breeze
One gathers rosebuds or grows old alone
O Parthenon you hold the charger's strings
Were pots graffiti'd over by a slave
A daring baron pockets precious Mings
To break a rule Britannia's might might waive
It's no good rich men crying Heaven Bless
One tongue will do to keep the verse agog
On wheels the tourist follows hos hostess
One misses cricket hearth and croaking frog
The Taj Mahal has trinkets spice and gum
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.