(Not Pynchon, but) Jerome Rothenberg & Picasso's Poems

[Eric Alan Weinstein]

I was lucky enough to hear Pierre Joris and Jerome Rothenberg
read poetry tonight at the Three Cups, along with several London-area
Pynchonites (Clive Bush, Garreth Lloyd, Shamoon Zamir,
Lyn Rothman, Pam Okri, Jermemy Cranswick).  Rothenberg in 
particular is I thinki a remarkable American poet and translator,
and I hope less neglected in North America than he is here.

It seems Pierre and Jerome (who have translated Kurt Switters
previously) are translating the poems of Pablo Picasso, of which there
are 30 years worth of notebooks. Picasso wrote almost every day
for the second half of his life. I must say that if the rest of the work
which emirges is of the high standard which I heard tonight,
Picasso will prove one of the most important Surrealist (even Proto-Beat)
poets of his generation in any language. The poems are in French and 
Spanish, have an amazing energy, a great sense of music, and 
a wonderful, unique sense of form. The images are crisp and often 
stunning.
Eric Alan Weinstein
University of London
E.A.Weinstein at qmw.ac.uk