SOURCE: An interview in American Poetry Review, translated by Bertrand Mathieu, May/June 1980, pp. 40-44.

In the following interview, originally broadcast on April 25, 1950, Cendrars ruminates on the artists and authors of his time.

Blaise Cendrars (1887–1961) is one of the giants of modern literature. In addition to poetry, he wrote novels, travel books, biographies, autobiographies, film scenarios, letters, translations, essays, operas, and ballet choreographies. Yet hardly any of Cendrars's writings have been translated into English.

Bertrand Mathieu has already published a number of Cendrars's translations: his translations of Rimbaud's Illuminations and A Season in Half have been published by BOA Editions. He has also written a book on Henry Miller and a volume of his own poetry.

This interview was broadcast on April 25, 1950. The translation was completed in 1974.

[Manoll:] Do you really believe that the poets are fifty years ahead of the painters?

[Cendrars:] As far as the poets...