"VILLON'S STRAIGHT TIP TO ALL CROSS COVES
Suppose you screeve? or go cheap-jack?
Of fake the broads? or fig a nag?
Or thimble-rig? or knap a yack?
Or pitch a snide? or smash a rag?
Suppose you duff? or nose and lag?
Or get the straight and land your pot?
How do you melt the multy swag?
Boose and the blowens cop the lot.
Fiddle, or fence, or mace, or crack,
Or moskeneer, or flash the drag;
Dead-lurk a crib, or do a crack,
Pad with a slang, or chuck a fag;
Bonnet, or tout, or mump and gag,
Rattle the tats, or mark the spot.
You cannot break a single stag:
Boose and the blowens cop the lot.
Suppose you try a different tack,
And on the square you flash your flag?
At penny-a-lining make your whack?
Or with the mummers mug and drag?
For nix, for nix the dibs you bag,
At any graft, no matter what!
Your merry goblins soon stravag.
Boose and the blowens cop the lot.
It's up the spout and Charlie Wag
With wipes and tickers and whatnot.
Until the squeezer nips your scrag,
Boose and the blowens cop the lot."
--François Villon tr W E Henley
"A writer takes earnest measures to secure his solitude and then finds endless ways to squander it." --De Lillo
This big container was a shelter for dozens of families.
No comments:
Post a Comment