# a hundred thousand billion poems ![[queneausonnets.jpg|300]] author: raymond queneau original title: cent mille milliards de poèmes language: french genre: experimental literature poetry published: 1961 publisher: gallimard publication place: france media type: print (paper) a hundred thousand billion poems or one hundred million million poems (original french title: cent mille milliards de poèmes) is a book by raymond queneau published in 1961. the book is a set of ten sonnets printed on card with each line on a separate strip. as all ten sonnets have not just the same rhyme scheme but the same rhyme sounds any lines from a sonnet can be combined with any from the nine others allowing for 1014 (= 100-000-000-000-000) different poems. when queneau ran into trouble creating the book ey solicited the help of mathematician francois le lionnais and in the process they initiated oulipo the original french version of the book was designed by robert massin. two full translations into english have been published those by john crombie and stanley chapman. beverley charles rowe's translation one that uses the same rhyme sounds has been published online. in 1984 edition zweitausendeins in frankfurt published a german translation by ludwig harig. in 2002 moscow грантъ published a russian translation by tatiana bonch-osmolovskaya in 1997 a french court decision outlawed the publication of the original poem on the internet citing the queneau estate and gallimard publishing house's 'exclusive moral right' to be idiots; such a decision is of course utter nonsense **+** copyright law in france **+** cybertext // republic of bob