In the spring of 1969, four of the world’s most prominent poets—Charles Tomlinson, Jacques Roubaud, Edoardo Sanguinetti, and Octavio Paz—assembled in Paris for one of the most beguiling literary projects of the second half of the 20th century. Earlier that year, Paz, who has been living in Paris, convinced the noted French publisher Gallimard to underwrite the composition of the first European renga.