*But in Lisp when read naïvely left-to-right this becomes "times add one two thr...

But in Lisp when read naïvely left-to-right this becomes "times add one two three", which is nonsense in English.

So, "the product of the sum of 1 and 2, and 3"? Reads fine in English, as long as you refer to the results instead of describing what to do. :)