A 1955 Senate
investigation
produced dOCll~ ments that implied that Communists, with the aid of White, were infiltrating the higher branches of the government.
A-Companion-to-the-Cantos-of-Ezra-Pound-II
"
38. Ygdrasail: Yggdrasil. In Norse mytholo- gy the great tree whose branches extend throughout' the universe. In Western terms a subject rhyme with "the process" or "the way,"
39. poi: I, "then,"
40. Ideogram: Shih [M5780], "a period of time. "
41. Ideogram: Ch'en [M331], "sincere, trustworthy. "
42. Ideogram: Ch'en. Another form. To- gether, shih ch'en, meaning "to be sincere," comes from a Couvreur passage that Legge translates: "Dh! let us attain to be sincere in these things and so we shall likewise have a happy consummation. "
. . .
44. Hia: Hsia. The first dynasty [53: 44].
45. i moua pou gning: I [M302l] , rna [M4557], pu [M5379], ning [M4725]. Couvreur's French transcription: "likewise
all were in tranquility. "
46. Perspicax . . . : L, "He who cultivates himself is keen. " The line does not occur exactly in this form in Couvreur's Latin, but the idea does.
47. This "leader" . . . pole: The
these lines with the gouged pumpkin are not clearly in the relevant sections of Couvreur or Legge. Thus they probably derive from a Poundian nonphilological examination of some characters. The young king [cf. 55
below] was named T'ai Chiao The second component in his name [cf. 24 above] may have suggested a gouged pumpkin hoisted on a pole. As recorded in the "T'ai Chia", I Yin sent the young king into seclusion by the tomb of his grandfather because he did not follow I Yin's advice.
piece entitled "Deus est Amor," published in 1940, by "Quotations from Richard St Victor" [SF, 71]. The people who inhabit The Cantos, early and late, may be judged as types belonging to Hell, Purgatory, or Para- dise on the basis of several criteria. One of the most important of these is their mode of thought. Said Pound: "Richard St Victor had hold of something: sic: There are three modes of thought, cogitation, meditation and contemplation. In the first the mind fiits aimlessly about the object [Hell], in the second it circles about in a methodical man? ner [Purgatory], in the third it is unified with the object [Paradise]" [GK, 77]. Rich- ard will come up by name and citations from his thoughts with increasing frequency in the later cantos [87/570, 576, 90/607]. Rich- ard's three modes of thought come to be expressed graphically by other clusters of threes: earth, cocoon, wasp; earth, crysalis, butterfly (the kings in their islands); light, crystal, jade; and so on [Neault, Pai, 3-2,
219-227].
53. Erigena: [36:9; 83:8]. To entertain the king (Charles the Bald) he brightened up his style with classical quotes, he being about the only person around in the 9th century who could do so [83: ! O].
54. Y Yin: [cf. 5 above].
55. young king: T'ai Chia [cf. 47 above].
in the palace at T'ung, where he can be quietly near the remains of the former king. "
58. fish-traps: The character for "deceive" is used in a metaphor that translates, "a fish? trap of wicker," suggesting something weak and temporary. If the young king were to go on in his old ways, he would, when ruler, "bitch" the generation he ruled by weak, unprincipled expedients (in a word, Confucian disorder) and not build on solid virtue and humanitas.
59. k'o . . . : K'e [M3320], "competent"; chung [M1500] , "end"; yun [M7759], "sin- cere"; te [M6l62] , "virtue" [cf. 48 above]. Or, "In the end he [the young king] became sincerely virtuous. "
60. elbow-grease: Pound's rendition of, "What achievement can be made without earnest effort? "
61. Szu: [M5592]. "To sacrifice. " Cou- vreur's "seu," "year. " From the "T'ai Chia" "on the first day of the 12th month of the 3rd year, I Yin took the imperial cap and robes, and escorted the young king back to Po" [Legge, IV, V, ii].
43. "Birds
"The earlier sovereigns of Hea cultivated ear- nestly their virtue, and then there were no calamities from Heaven. The spirits . . . were all in tranquillity; and the birds and beasts, the fishes and tortoises, all realized the hap- piness of their nature. " Flood and flame are calamities from heaven.
excess":
Legge translates:
ideas in
56. CONTEMPLA TlO:
calls "chinks," "sophists," and "hindoo im? maturities" which are out to destroy Rich? ard of St Victor's state.
57. T'oung loco palatium": L, "T'ung the place of palaces. " According to I Yin, the young king was not learning to be a 'virtuous sovereign but rather he was being stubborn, with a self? centered mind of his own ("squirrel-headed"), a state of mind which I Yin was not about to encourage by pam? pering. So I Yin said of the young king, "failure to change his course. This is real
'unrighteousness, and is becoming by practice a second nature. I cannot bear to be near such a disobedient fellow. I will build a place
48. Ideogram:
Pound's idea of the character: "the action resultant from this straight gaze into the heart. The 'know thyself' carried into action" [CON,2l].
49. Texv1J: H, "skill in making things. " A 1952 addenda to GK [po 351] says that be- fore Aristotle was "cold in his grave, the compilers of the so? called 'Magna MoraBa' had already omitted TEXNE from the list of mental faculties given in the Nicomachean Ethics. "
SO. aec:WTov: H, "oneself. " 51. Dante: [74:385].
52. St Victor: Richard, ? -1I73, said to be from Scotland, was a celebrated scholastic philosopher and the most important 12th- century mystic; his system, both visionary and down? to-earth, made him significant for both Dante and Pound. Dante wrote: "Rich? ard / Who in contemplation was more than a man" [Far. X, 131-132]. Richard's De Con- templatione [Benjamin Major] is mentioned by Dante in his letter to Can Grande [Epis- tula XIII, 80]. Pound mentions Richard of- ten in his prose works. Richard's distinctions between cogitatio, meditatio, and contem?
platio are, in the design of The Cantos, as important (in my opinion more) as Dante's Hell-Purgatory-Paradise design in The Divine Comedy. Said Pound: "I would say that every book of value contains a bibliography declared or implied. The De Vulgari Eloqui refers us to Richard of St Victor, Sardello, Bertran de Born, and Arnaut Daniel. Dante was my Baedeker in Provence" [SF, 322]. In fact, Pound expresses his own convictions about the way divinity manifests in the world as much by quotations from Richard
as any other way. In 1956 he documented a
TO
[M6l62] ,
"virtue. "
It is what
Pound
62. vain . . . done: From,
eign will not with disputatious words throw the old rules of government into confusion, and the minister will not for favour and gain continue in an office whose work is done;- then the country will lastingly and surely enjoy happiness" [Legge, IV, V, III].
63. i jenn iuen: I [M3016], "one"; jen [M3097], "man"; yuan [M7707], "good. " Together, "let the one man be good. " If the emperor be good, order will flow from him.
64. Ideogram: I [M2932], "whereby. "
65. Ideogram: Chen [M346], "virtue. "
66. reddidit . . . : L, "he restored the gov- ernment to the emperor. " Couvreur's Latin. The context of these words informs the rest of tllis canto page. I Yin, "having returned the government into the hands of his saver" eign, and being about to announce his retire?
"When the
sover-
? 472
85/547-549
85/549-550
473
ment, set forth admonitions on the subject of virtue. "
67. Ideogram: Ch'en [M339], "present. "
and changed the name of the dynasty to Yin. After the move, he exhorted the people to care for the young and helpless and to make the best of their new home. The fol- lowing 5 characters are a part of that exhor- tation: "Seek everyone long continuance in your new abode. "
82. Ideogram: Ko [M3368], "each, all. "
83. Ideogram: Ch'ang [M213], "long, of space or time. "
84. Ideogram: Yu [M7592], "to proceed. "
85. Ideogram: Chueh [M1680], personal pronoun: "he, she, it, etc. "
86. Ideogram: Chu [MI535], "to dwell. "
87. Baros . . . : P, "barons put up as pawns. " In Near Perigord Pound translates the phrase of Bertrans de Born by, "Pawn your castles, lords'" [P, 152]. The idea was to mortgage to the hllt before a battle so that, if you lost, the mortgage would fall on the man you lost to [SR, 48]. For a detailed and different reading see JW, Seven Trouba- dours, pp. 156-157.
88. Alexander: A. the Great, 356-323 B. C. , king of Macedon. His act of largesse to his troops becomes a recurrent musical figure in the later cantos. Pound believes the fall of the Macedonian empire was as great a loss to Western civilization as was the later fall of Rome [GK, SP, indexes}. Dante placed him among the world's foremost bestowers of largesse [Conv. 4. 11. 14], whlch contrasts him with ,Bertrans de Born [89 :230] .
89. Ideogram: Te [cf. 48 above]: "virtue. "
90. The pusillanimous . . . as core: These 16 lines derive from Grenfell's Unconditonal Hatred [cf. 7 above]. Grenfell says Dexter White was the author of the plan to crush Germany. Roosevelt approved, but the plan to reduce Germany to an agrarian state was never put into action [UH, 207]. In the
1860s Napoleon JII made one claim after another for pieces of Germany, but Grenfell shows that Bismarck agreed to none of them
[UH,50-53].
91. Mr. Roosevelt: [46:53].
92. Dexter White: Harry D. W. After the U. S. joined with the USSR in 1941, he be- came a privileged right-hand man, with the status of assistant secretary, to Morganthau, secretary of the treasury, 1934-1945.
A 1955 Senate investigation produced dOCll~ ments that implied that Communists, with the aid of White, were infiltrating the higher branches of the government. According to Eustace Mullins, Old Lampman [97:60], who had worked in the Treasury Depart- ment during the 1930s said: "Men who had been in the Treasury Department all their
1ives were suddenly shunted aside and stripped of their power. We were told to clear everything with new officials, such as Harry Dexter White" [EM, Difficult, 315- 316].
93. Nap III: Napoleon (16:24; 38:59; 74:464].
III,
99. Ideogram: Kao [M3290], "noble"
100. Ideogram: Tsung [M6896], "ances- tor. " The emperor Woo-Ting of the Chang dynasty was known posthumously as Kao Tsung. He ruled from 1324-1265, a total of 59 years, as the text says. He was a good emperor who wanted to restore the values of the dynasty's founder, Ch'eng T'ang.
101. Whetstone . . . clouds: Upon appoint- ing Yueh as prime minister, Kao Tsung outM lined the ways a good minister would serve his emperor, and the way he would make use of his minister: "Suppose me a weapon of steel;-I will use you for a whetstone. Sup? pose me crossing a great stream;-I will use you for a boat with its oars. Suppose me in a year of great drought;-I will use you as a copious rain. "
102. jou tso li: French transliteration of ju [M3142] tso [M6780] Ii [M3909]: "Use
you as a whetstone. "
103. cymba et remis: L, "boat and oar. " The character for lin 2 [M4026],~, which means "long-continued rain," has several components: the lower ones mean "trees"; the upper one means "rain. " Pound sees "trees prop up clouds. "
104. Praecognita . . . moveas: L, "Know (beforehand) the good so that you may move yourself. " Part of Kao Tsung's advice to his minister. The sentence is followed by another which translates, "And act only if the time is right. "
105. Ideogram: French "lill," lu [M4292], "consider. " Ideo: French "cheu," shih [M5780] , "time. "
106. "Fatigare . . . revereri": L, "Immoder- ate sacrifice is called irreverence. " Advice of Prime Minister Yueh to the emperor. He added: "Ceremonies when burdensome lead to disorder. To serve the spirits properly is difficult. " These ideas are repeated in Apol- lonius of Tyana as a subject rhyme . (94:42].
107. Fou iue: French form of Fu Yueh, the name of Kao Tsung's prime minister.
68. Ideogram: nitions,"
Chiai
[M627],
"admo-
69. pivot: NB: "Chung Yung," or "the Un- wobbling Pivot. " The emperor will become such a pivot from which all goods will flow if he follows the precepts of Yin.
70. quam . . . Imperatoris: L, "how [pure] is the soul of the emperor. "
simple
71. III. 6 xi: Couvreur 1II, VI, 9, 11, pp. 130-131 has the Latin and French for the following, but Pound inserts the characters (in his own order) for the expostulation from Legge IV, VI, iv, 9,11, pp. 218-219.
72. Ideogram: Huo [M2412], "to seize" (1st character, right-hand column).
73. Ideogram: Tzu [M6960], "self. " 74. Ideogram: Chin [M! 082], "all. "
75. Ideogram: P'i [M5l70], "an ordinary person. "
76. Ideogram: Fu [MI908], "husband" (lst character, left-hand column).
77. Ideogram: P'i [M5170], "one of a pair; a mate. "
78. Ideogram: Fu [MI963], "wife. "
79. Bill of Rights: In the seven characters, Pound has left Qut a negative in his source. Legge, with the negative condition, gives: "If ordinary men and women do not find the opportunity to give full development to their virtue," The sentence ends: "the peo- ple's lord will be without the proper aids to
complete his merit. "
80. P'an: The name of the reign of the 17th emperor of the Chang dynasty: P'an Keng. Legge says that more than 3 centuries were left blank in the histories between the young king, T'ai Chia, and P'an Keng.
81. Ideogram: P'an Keng [M4903], emper- or, 1401-1373. He moved the capital to Yin
94. Proclamation:
elected as president of the French Republic in 1848, made plans and arrangements to outfox his enemies and successfully became by proclamation, Dec. 1, 1852, emperor of the French. He cultivated different groups in different ways and only a few knew what he was up to before faced with the fait accomM plio This thought leads to a reflection about U. S. university education, by which students are kept off the labor market and never learn anythlng about the economic conspiracy being practiced against them.
T
Louis Napoleon
95. prezzo giusto: I, "just price. " A major concept in Poundian economics in which an important document is 11 Giusto prezzo nel Media Aveo by Sac. L. P. Cairoli [SP,323].
96. UBI JUS VAGUM: L, "Where law is uncertain. " Prob. a variant on the adage, Ubi jus incerturn, ibi jus nullurn ("Where law is uncertain, there is no law"), as well as on Aristotle's maxim, "Good law means good order" [Politics VII, 4] [DJN].
97. Alexander: [cf. 88 above].
98. T'ang: [53:40; 74:29] The "Make it New" emperor.
? 474
85/550-551
85/551-552
475
108. III. viii, II. : Location of the Latin quote in Couvreur.
109. Ideogram: French "tchoung," chung [76:54].
110. in rites not flame-headed: The charac- ter for "burdensome" [106 above] is fan: 'j( ~: the left component is "fire"; the right
component is "head. " Hence, Pound's "Flame? headed. "
111. "Up to then . . . : The emperor, Kao- Tsung, said to his minister Yueh: "Come, 0 Vue. I, the little one, first learned with Kan Pwan. Afterwards, I lived concealed in the rude country. . . and the result has been that I am unenlightened. "
119. Tch'eng T'ang: Ch'eng T'ang [cf. 5 above ] .
120. Ideogram: Chen [M346], "direction. "
121. You will go . . . : Yueh answers Kao's appeal for advice On how to be a good em? peror by defining the proper subjects of study. Pound summarizes by the 1/2- research-l/2? observation? etc. device, adding to this the practices of T'ang, the founder of the dynasty. He says if Kao Tsong will do these things he will not slip or slop over in his rule.
122. Nisi . . . regil: L, "Unless he does not rule with the wise. " Kao responds to Yueh's advice and says in effect, "an emperor must rule through ministers who are wise. "
123. "Best you retire: Pound jumps 200 years to the end of the Shang dynasty. The grand tutor, viscount of Ki, tells Wei, son of the emperor Shou, to retire from the court before ruin comes.
124. nunquam ego: L, "not 1. " Ki said: "You go but not 1. "
125. Ideogram: Wang [M7045], "not. "
126. Ideogram: Pou, p'u [M5401] ,"servant. "
127. Ki: The grand tutor to Prince Wei. 128. Corea: Korea.
129. "abire decere": L, "it is best to go. " The passage that ties these lines together is Ki's advice to the prince: "Calamity now befalls the house of Shang. I will arise and share in its ruin; for when Shang has fallen, I will not be servant or minister to another dynasty. I recommend, that for you, the emperor's son, it is best to go away. . . . If the emperor's son does not leave, we (the house of Shang] will perish. " Wei did leave and Ki remained to be imprisoned for a while; but because of his virtue and wisdom he was eventually freed and sent to Corea to govern. Another story has it that he feigned madness and was released by King Wu of the
new Chou dynasty and then fled to Corea.
130. Meng-ford: From the phrase that fol- lows ("t3 houei Meng tsin"), which means "greatly assembled at Meng Ford. " It is part of the first line of the Great Declaration, which consists of three speeches King Wu gave to his officers and people after his con? quest of the Shang dynasty [Pt. IV, Chap. I, Couvreur's Chou King].
131. Heou Tsi . . . Tan Fou: A summary of a Couvreur historical note that traces the history of the royal family of the Chou dynasty, showing the results of the watch- word "our dynasty came in because of a great sensibility," a reprise of the opening of the canto [cf. 2 above]. Grieve has a note that gives much in little: I'Tan Fou . . . was the great-grandfather of Wu Wang, the king who, continuing the rebellion of his father, Wen Wang, defeated the tyrant emperor Chou Hsin [last of the Shang dynasty] and in 1122 B. C. founded the Chou dynasty. It was Tan Fou who first established the Chou state at the foot of Mount Ki in 1326 B. C. King Wan . . . passed on the Chou hereditary dominions to his son . . . Wu Wang. "
132.
38. Ygdrasail: Yggdrasil. In Norse mytholo- gy the great tree whose branches extend throughout' the universe. In Western terms a subject rhyme with "the process" or "the way,"
39. poi: I, "then,"
40. Ideogram: Shih [M5780], "a period of time. "
41. Ideogram: Ch'en [M331], "sincere, trustworthy. "
42. Ideogram: Ch'en. Another form. To- gether, shih ch'en, meaning "to be sincere," comes from a Couvreur passage that Legge translates: "Dh! let us attain to be sincere in these things and so we shall likewise have a happy consummation. "
. . .
44. Hia: Hsia. The first dynasty [53: 44].
45. i moua pou gning: I [M302l] , rna [M4557], pu [M5379], ning [M4725]. Couvreur's French transcription: "likewise
all were in tranquility. "
46. Perspicax . . . : L, "He who cultivates himself is keen. " The line does not occur exactly in this form in Couvreur's Latin, but the idea does.
47. This "leader" . . . pole: The
these lines with the gouged pumpkin are not clearly in the relevant sections of Couvreur or Legge. Thus they probably derive from a Poundian nonphilological examination of some characters. The young king [cf. 55
below] was named T'ai Chiao The second component in his name [cf. 24 above] may have suggested a gouged pumpkin hoisted on a pole. As recorded in the "T'ai Chia", I Yin sent the young king into seclusion by the tomb of his grandfather because he did not follow I Yin's advice.
piece entitled "Deus est Amor," published in 1940, by "Quotations from Richard St Victor" [SF, 71]. The people who inhabit The Cantos, early and late, may be judged as types belonging to Hell, Purgatory, or Para- dise on the basis of several criteria. One of the most important of these is their mode of thought. Said Pound: "Richard St Victor had hold of something: sic: There are three modes of thought, cogitation, meditation and contemplation. In the first the mind fiits aimlessly about the object [Hell], in the second it circles about in a methodical man? ner [Purgatory], in the third it is unified with the object [Paradise]" [GK, 77]. Rich- ard will come up by name and citations from his thoughts with increasing frequency in the later cantos [87/570, 576, 90/607]. Rich- ard's three modes of thought come to be expressed graphically by other clusters of threes: earth, cocoon, wasp; earth, crysalis, butterfly (the kings in their islands); light, crystal, jade; and so on [Neault, Pai, 3-2,
219-227].
53. Erigena: [36:9; 83:8]. To entertain the king (Charles the Bald) he brightened up his style with classical quotes, he being about the only person around in the 9th century who could do so [83: ! O].
54. Y Yin: [cf. 5 above].
55. young king: T'ai Chia [cf. 47 above].
in the palace at T'ung, where he can be quietly near the remains of the former king. "
58. fish-traps: The character for "deceive" is used in a metaphor that translates, "a fish? trap of wicker," suggesting something weak and temporary. If the young king were to go on in his old ways, he would, when ruler, "bitch" the generation he ruled by weak, unprincipled expedients (in a word, Confucian disorder) and not build on solid virtue and humanitas.
59. k'o . . . : K'e [M3320], "competent"; chung [M1500] , "end"; yun [M7759], "sin- cere"; te [M6l62] , "virtue" [cf. 48 above]. Or, "In the end he [the young king] became sincerely virtuous. "
60. elbow-grease: Pound's rendition of, "What achievement can be made without earnest effort? "
61. Szu: [M5592]. "To sacrifice. " Cou- vreur's "seu," "year. " From the "T'ai Chia" "on the first day of the 12th month of the 3rd year, I Yin took the imperial cap and robes, and escorted the young king back to Po" [Legge, IV, V, ii].
43. "Birds
"The earlier sovereigns of Hea cultivated ear- nestly their virtue, and then there were no calamities from Heaven. The spirits . . . were all in tranquillity; and the birds and beasts, the fishes and tortoises, all realized the hap- piness of their nature. " Flood and flame are calamities from heaven.
excess":
Legge translates:
ideas in
56. CONTEMPLA TlO:
calls "chinks," "sophists," and "hindoo im? maturities" which are out to destroy Rich? ard of St Victor's state.
57. T'oung loco palatium": L, "T'ung the place of palaces. " According to I Yin, the young king was not learning to be a 'virtuous sovereign but rather he was being stubborn, with a self? centered mind of his own ("squirrel-headed"), a state of mind which I Yin was not about to encourage by pam? pering. So I Yin said of the young king, "failure to change his course. This is real
'unrighteousness, and is becoming by practice a second nature. I cannot bear to be near such a disobedient fellow. I will build a place
48. Ideogram:
Pound's idea of the character: "the action resultant from this straight gaze into the heart. The 'know thyself' carried into action" [CON,2l].
49. Texv1J: H, "skill in making things. " A 1952 addenda to GK [po 351] says that be- fore Aristotle was "cold in his grave, the compilers of the so? called 'Magna MoraBa' had already omitted TEXNE from the list of mental faculties given in the Nicomachean Ethics. "
SO. aec:WTov: H, "oneself. " 51. Dante: [74:385].
52. St Victor: Richard, ? -1I73, said to be from Scotland, was a celebrated scholastic philosopher and the most important 12th- century mystic; his system, both visionary and down? to-earth, made him significant for both Dante and Pound. Dante wrote: "Rich? ard / Who in contemplation was more than a man" [Far. X, 131-132]. Richard's De Con- templatione [Benjamin Major] is mentioned by Dante in his letter to Can Grande [Epis- tula XIII, 80]. Pound mentions Richard of- ten in his prose works. Richard's distinctions between cogitatio, meditatio, and contem?
platio are, in the design of The Cantos, as important (in my opinion more) as Dante's Hell-Purgatory-Paradise design in The Divine Comedy. Said Pound: "I would say that every book of value contains a bibliography declared or implied. The De Vulgari Eloqui refers us to Richard of St Victor, Sardello, Bertran de Born, and Arnaut Daniel. Dante was my Baedeker in Provence" [SF, 322]. In fact, Pound expresses his own convictions about the way divinity manifests in the world as much by quotations from Richard
as any other way. In 1956 he documented a
TO
[M6l62] ,
"virtue. "
It is what
Pound
62. vain . . . done: From,
eign will not with disputatious words throw the old rules of government into confusion, and the minister will not for favour and gain continue in an office whose work is done;- then the country will lastingly and surely enjoy happiness" [Legge, IV, V, III].
63. i jenn iuen: I [M3016], "one"; jen [M3097], "man"; yuan [M7707], "good. " Together, "let the one man be good. " If the emperor be good, order will flow from him.
64. Ideogram: I [M2932], "whereby. "
65. Ideogram: Chen [M346], "virtue. "
66. reddidit . . . : L, "he restored the gov- ernment to the emperor. " Couvreur's Latin. The context of these words informs the rest of tllis canto page. I Yin, "having returned the government into the hands of his saver" eign, and being about to announce his retire?
"When the
sover-
? 472
85/547-549
85/549-550
473
ment, set forth admonitions on the subject of virtue. "
67. Ideogram: Ch'en [M339], "present. "
and changed the name of the dynasty to Yin. After the move, he exhorted the people to care for the young and helpless and to make the best of their new home. The fol- lowing 5 characters are a part of that exhor- tation: "Seek everyone long continuance in your new abode. "
82. Ideogram: Ko [M3368], "each, all. "
83. Ideogram: Ch'ang [M213], "long, of space or time. "
84. Ideogram: Yu [M7592], "to proceed. "
85. Ideogram: Chueh [M1680], personal pronoun: "he, she, it, etc. "
86. Ideogram: Chu [MI535], "to dwell. "
87. Baros . . . : P, "barons put up as pawns. " In Near Perigord Pound translates the phrase of Bertrans de Born by, "Pawn your castles, lords'" [P, 152]. The idea was to mortgage to the hllt before a battle so that, if you lost, the mortgage would fall on the man you lost to [SR, 48]. For a detailed and different reading see JW, Seven Trouba- dours, pp. 156-157.
88. Alexander: A. the Great, 356-323 B. C. , king of Macedon. His act of largesse to his troops becomes a recurrent musical figure in the later cantos. Pound believes the fall of the Macedonian empire was as great a loss to Western civilization as was the later fall of Rome [GK, SP, indexes}. Dante placed him among the world's foremost bestowers of largesse [Conv. 4. 11. 14], whlch contrasts him with ,Bertrans de Born [89 :230] .
89. Ideogram: Te [cf. 48 above]: "virtue. "
90. The pusillanimous . . . as core: These 16 lines derive from Grenfell's Unconditonal Hatred [cf. 7 above]. Grenfell says Dexter White was the author of the plan to crush Germany. Roosevelt approved, but the plan to reduce Germany to an agrarian state was never put into action [UH, 207]. In the
1860s Napoleon JII made one claim after another for pieces of Germany, but Grenfell shows that Bismarck agreed to none of them
[UH,50-53].
91. Mr. Roosevelt: [46:53].
92. Dexter White: Harry D. W. After the U. S. joined with the USSR in 1941, he be- came a privileged right-hand man, with the status of assistant secretary, to Morganthau, secretary of the treasury, 1934-1945.
A 1955 Senate investigation produced dOCll~ ments that implied that Communists, with the aid of White, were infiltrating the higher branches of the government. According to Eustace Mullins, Old Lampman [97:60], who had worked in the Treasury Depart- ment during the 1930s said: "Men who had been in the Treasury Department all their
1ives were suddenly shunted aside and stripped of their power. We were told to clear everything with new officials, such as Harry Dexter White" [EM, Difficult, 315- 316].
93. Nap III: Napoleon (16:24; 38:59; 74:464].
III,
99. Ideogram: Kao [M3290], "noble"
100. Ideogram: Tsung [M6896], "ances- tor. " The emperor Woo-Ting of the Chang dynasty was known posthumously as Kao Tsung. He ruled from 1324-1265, a total of 59 years, as the text says. He was a good emperor who wanted to restore the values of the dynasty's founder, Ch'eng T'ang.
101. Whetstone . . . clouds: Upon appoint- ing Yueh as prime minister, Kao Tsung outM lined the ways a good minister would serve his emperor, and the way he would make use of his minister: "Suppose me a weapon of steel;-I will use you for a whetstone. Sup? pose me crossing a great stream;-I will use you for a boat with its oars. Suppose me in a year of great drought;-I will use you as a copious rain. "
102. jou tso li: French transliteration of ju [M3142] tso [M6780] Ii [M3909]: "Use
you as a whetstone. "
103. cymba et remis: L, "boat and oar. " The character for lin 2 [M4026],~, which means "long-continued rain," has several components: the lower ones mean "trees"; the upper one means "rain. " Pound sees "trees prop up clouds. "
104. Praecognita . . . moveas: L, "Know (beforehand) the good so that you may move yourself. " Part of Kao Tsung's advice to his minister. The sentence is followed by another which translates, "And act only if the time is right. "
105. Ideogram: French "lill," lu [M4292], "consider. " Ideo: French "cheu," shih [M5780] , "time. "
106. "Fatigare . . . revereri": L, "Immoder- ate sacrifice is called irreverence. " Advice of Prime Minister Yueh to the emperor. He added: "Ceremonies when burdensome lead to disorder. To serve the spirits properly is difficult. " These ideas are repeated in Apol- lonius of Tyana as a subject rhyme . (94:42].
107. Fou iue: French form of Fu Yueh, the name of Kao Tsung's prime minister.
68. Ideogram: nitions,"
Chiai
[M627],
"admo-
69. pivot: NB: "Chung Yung," or "the Un- wobbling Pivot. " The emperor will become such a pivot from which all goods will flow if he follows the precepts of Yin.
70. quam . . . Imperatoris: L, "how [pure] is the soul of the emperor. "
simple
71. III. 6 xi: Couvreur 1II, VI, 9, 11, pp. 130-131 has the Latin and French for the following, but Pound inserts the characters (in his own order) for the expostulation from Legge IV, VI, iv, 9,11, pp. 218-219.
72. Ideogram: Huo [M2412], "to seize" (1st character, right-hand column).
73. Ideogram: Tzu [M6960], "self. " 74. Ideogram: Chin [M! 082], "all. "
75. Ideogram: P'i [M5l70], "an ordinary person. "
76. Ideogram: Fu [MI908], "husband" (lst character, left-hand column).
77. Ideogram: P'i [M5170], "one of a pair; a mate. "
78. Ideogram: Fu [MI963], "wife. "
79. Bill of Rights: In the seven characters, Pound has left Qut a negative in his source. Legge, with the negative condition, gives: "If ordinary men and women do not find the opportunity to give full development to their virtue," The sentence ends: "the peo- ple's lord will be without the proper aids to
complete his merit. "
80. P'an: The name of the reign of the 17th emperor of the Chang dynasty: P'an Keng. Legge says that more than 3 centuries were left blank in the histories between the young king, T'ai Chia, and P'an Keng.
81. Ideogram: P'an Keng [M4903], emper- or, 1401-1373. He moved the capital to Yin
94. Proclamation:
elected as president of the French Republic in 1848, made plans and arrangements to outfox his enemies and successfully became by proclamation, Dec. 1, 1852, emperor of the French. He cultivated different groups in different ways and only a few knew what he was up to before faced with the fait accomM plio This thought leads to a reflection about U. S. university education, by which students are kept off the labor market and never learn anythlng about the economic conspiracy being practiced against them.
T
Louis Napoleon
95. prezzo giusto: I, "just price. " A major concept in Poundian economics in which an important document is 11 Giusto prezzo nel Media Aveo by Sac. L. P. Cairoli [SP,323].
96. UBI JUS VAGUM: L, "Where law is uncertain. " Prob. a variant on the adage, Ubi jus incerturn, ibi jus nullurn ("Where law is uncertain, there is no law"), as well as on Aristotle's maxim, "Good law means good order" [Politics VII, 4] [DJN].
97. Alexander: [cf. 88 above].
98. T'ang: [53:40; 74:29] The "Make it New" emperor.
? 474
85/550-551
85/551-552
475
108. III. viii, II. : Location of the Latin quote in Couvreur.
109. Ideogram: French "tchoung," chung [76:54].
110. in rites not flame-headed: The charac- ter for "burdensome" [106 above] is fan: 'j( ~: the left component is "fire"; the right
component is "head. " Hence, Pound's "Flame? headed. "
111. "Up to then . . . : The emperor, Kao- Tsung, said to his minister Yueh: "Come, 0 Vue. I, the little one, first learned with Kan Pwan. Afterwards, I lived concealed in the rude country. . . and the result has been that I am unenlightened. "
119. Tch'eng T'ang: Ch'eng T'ang [cf. 5 above ] .
120. Ideogram: Chen [M346], "direction. "
121. You will go . . . : Yueh answers Kao's appeal for advice On how to be a good em? peror by defining the proper subjects of study. Pound summarizes by the 1/2- research-l/2? observation? etc. device, adding to this the practices of T'ang, the founder of the dynasty. He says if Kao Tsong will do these things he will not slip or slop over in his rule.
122. Nisi . . . regil: L, "Unless he does not rule with the wise. " Kao responds to Yueh's advice and says in effect, "an emperor must rule through ministers who are wise. "
123. "Best you retire: Pound jumps 200 years to the end of the Shang dynasty. The grand tutor, viscount of Ki, tells Wei, son of the emperor Shou, to retire from the court before ruin comes.
124. nunquam ego: L, "not 1. " Ki said: "You go but not 1. "
125. Ideogram: Wang [M7045], "not. "
126. Ideogram: Pou, p'u [M5401] ,"servant. "
127. Ki: The grand tutor to Prince Wei. 128. Corea: Korea.
129. "abire decere": L, "it is best to go. " The passage that ties these lines together is Ki's advice to the prince: "Calamity now befalls the house of Shang. I will arise and share in its ruin; for when Shang has fallen, I will not be servant or minister to another dynasty. I recommend, that for you, the emperor's son, it is best to go away. . . . If the emperor's son does not leave, we (the house of Shang] will perish. " Wei did leave and Ki remained to be imprisoned for a while; but because of his virtue and wisdom he was eventually freed and sent to Corea to govern. Another story has it that he feigned madness and was released by King Wu of the
new Chou dynasty and then fled to Corea.
130. Meng-ford: From the phrase that fol- lows ("t3 houei Meng tsin"), which means "greatly assembled at Meng Ford. " It is part of the first line of the Great Declaration, which consists of three speeches King Wu gave to his officers and people after his con? quest of the Shang dynasty [Pt. IV, Chap. I, Couvreur's Chou King].
131. Heou Tsi . . . Tan Fou: A summary of a Couvreur historical note that traces the history of the royal family of the Chou dynasty, showing the results of the watch- word "our dynasty came in because of a great sensibility," a reprise of the opening of the canto [cf. 2 above]. Grieve has a note that gives much in little: I'Tan Fou . . . was the great-grandfather of Wu Wang, the king who, continuing the rebellion of his father, Wen Wang, defeated the tyrant emperor Chou Hsin [last of the Shang dynasty] and in 1122 B. C. founded the Chou dynasty. It was Tan Fou who first established the Chou state at the foot of Mount Ki in 1326 B. C. King Wan . . . passed on the Chou hereditary dominions to his son . . . Wu Wang. "
132.
