I abandon sculpture, engraving, and painting to dedicate myself entirely to song.

(Pablo Picasso to Jaime Sabartés, April 1936.)

A reading celebrating the publication of The Burial of the Count of Orgaz & Other Poems (Exact Change, 2004), the most substantial translation into English to date of Picasso's poetry. For a period of 25 years, beginning in 1935, Picasso engaged in a form of radical experimental writing that is now coming to be recognized as a major literary breakthrough--not only a reflection of his own time but a beacon for the present. In his characteristic and prolific way, he was, as Michel Leiris described him, "an insatiable player with words... [who, like] James Joyce ... in his Finnegans Wake,... displayed an equal capacity to promote language as a real thing (one might say) ...and to use it with as much dazzling liberty."

Jerome Rothenberg and Pierre Joris, coeditors and principal translators of The Burial of the Count of Orgaz, are joined in this reading by a number of the volume's guest translators: Carlos Blackburn (reading for Paul Blackburn), Ricardo Nirenberg, Diane Rothenberg, Jason Weiss, and Mark Weiss. Recorded at P.S.1 on June 3, 2005.

In Part 1 you will hear Jerome Rothenberg, Pierre Joris and Ricardo Nirenberg.

In Part 2 you will hear Jason Weiss, Diane Rothenberg, Mark Weiss, and Pierre Joris.

In Part 3 you will hear Jerome Rothenberg and Pierre Joris plus closing comments from P.S.1 Deputy Director Brett Littman.