No More Learning

All this demanding repeated observation by senile correspondent/BUT goDDDAMMIT the WORST impediment to Ez learning a little more is the
NON-presence of ODES bound facing the SEAL text/
until that, no way to answer various wild guesses/ AND . . . also the question
of whether when the possibly greatest intellectual operation in history, the metamorphosis from seal to square character/whether the blokes who squared, followed precedent ALWAYS, or in several (? quite a few) cases improved the combination of signs.
All of which not a querry to be answered ''straight oV the bat'' as Muss [olini]/sd/re/elimination of taxes by having money represent work done.
benedictions.
P. S. wotTheHell I mean IZ: does Fang see any way to accelerate the Laughlin, Kimball etc/ to GIT bloody ON with printing the ODES?
The T'ang had ALREADY attained a graphic representation eliminating various ambiguities (to say nothing of the satisfactory proportion of the graphs).
a. fang and pound's bilingual confucius 69
DAWN the sloppy callig/rz and type cutters who have degenerated from this level. [In DP's hand:] and, P. S. what kind of stone has been used?
Chiang Heng: the calligrapher of the Qing Stone-Classics.
Laughlin, Kimball: see Glossary on Laughlin, James and Kimball, Dudley.
46 EP to Fang (TL-1; Beinecke)
[St Elizabeths Hospital] [Washington, DC] [25 November 1951]
INcidentally Monsieur FANG
your preface is very well written, and the translation from CH'ien-Lung thus
showing that familiarity with the classics in one language, especially that of the Middle Kingdom, conduces to admirable use of another.
I trust the imperfections of the artigianato [artisan, craftsman] will not unduly disturb you, perfection cannot be attained by mere ten months of not stepping on gas.
yours fraternally
I TRUST the egregious Laughlin has caused his slaves to post copies to you simultaneously with his sending them hither.
your preface: ''A Note on the Stone-Classics'' with a translation of an extract from Qianlong's 1794 preface to the Qing Stone-Classics (Confucius, 11-15).
47 Fang to EP (TLS-1; Lilly)
[Cambridge, Mass. ] Nov 28, 1951
Dear Mr Pound,
Just received a copy of the PIVOT. It looks very good; I like to believe that
New Directions has not brought out a more perfect book. In fact, a student writing his thesis here was so attracted to it that he had to buy a copy.
I have just written Laughlin asking him why the printing of the Odes is delayed and oVering to help Kimball out. Meanwhile if you tell me what sort of a seal text you are having printed, I may be able to send you that text from the library here, provided we have it. Will you please send me the sample sheet you showed me last year?
I am afraid I can't satisfy Mrs Pound's justiWable curiosity: the books I consulted do not say what sort of stone was used. Perhaps granite? or is it marble?
70 a. fang and pound's bilingual confucius
I have here a copy of Legge's Shu-king [Book of History], pirated, looking exactly similar to your Four Books. If you are interested in this Liber Librorum [Book of Books] of China I shall mail it to you immediately.
Yours respectfully [signed] Achilles Fang
Kimball: see Glossary on Kimball, Dudley.
48 EP to Fang (TL-1; Beinecke)
[St Elizabeths Hospital] [Washington, DC] [6 December 1951]
? [phoenix] O FANG (FENG)
TWO years ago the BLOODY Kimball HAD all the fotos/ of lesser seal odes (sd/ to be foto/d) fr/ only seal text in this dummy/sphere.
AND he measured out the sample page/ about 9 by 6 to take translation <TO FACE the seal text, divided strophe by strophe indicating articulation of the ODE> AND the romanj [sound key] spaced out to indicate a POSSIBLE, or at least interesting scansion of the SOUND of the blinkink text (not in archaic, save one or two spots where one wanted the onomatopoeia of the plop of the Wshtails. )
also NOT uniform, BEcause wanted a diagram to test conjecture that the variations took place in a dimension that does NOT interfere with the prosody and tone leading.
AND gramPAW canNOTTTTT git on proWtably, with his meditation on the Shih [Odes] UNTIL he has it bound up in this CONvenient form.
UNTIL STONE klassikcz are face to face with the yanki's thus like certain points continue (continued) to avoid senile eye of
yr/ anonYmouse kurryspondink.
49 EP to Fang (TL-1)
O FANG
and the tribe of FANG for the new year.
[St Elizabeths Hospital] [Washington, DC] [24 December 1951]
a. fang and pound's bilingual confucius 71
Does Fang think there is a way of getting STONE edition to the councilor or ex-councilor Tcheou (or however he spells it now)? After all it was Tcheou who, when I took him the italian Ta S'eu, asked if I had read Pivot.
I have no address book of those days/I am not sure whether Tcheou's son has been put in charge of the Oriental Institute in Roma /
or that the delicacies of politics wd/ encourage him to communicate with Washington address. BUT the dignity of Harvard, possibly on oYcial stationary, addressed to the Istituto Studi Orientali, Roma, Italy by the hnbl/Fang might elicit an answer or an address. Of course the frowsy ole Insteroot ought to buy a copy/ after all their one time geographer and head under the deplorato regime, told me about Karlgren (wotever F's opinion of that tongue blocking Sweede). I mean Tuci HAD heard of a sweedish organization.
My ''son-in-row'' has sent on a hieroglyphic vocabulary, which designs, according to local hellenist ''are as good as animal crackers. ''
? Benedictions anon Y mouse
Tcheou: Tchu (Zhu); see Letter 9 n.
Karlgren: see Glossary on Karlgren, Bernhard.
Tuci: see Glossary on Tucci, Giuseppe.
My ''son-in-row'': see Glossary on De Rachewiltz, Boris.
50 Fang to EP (TLS-1; Lilly)
Dear Mr Pound,
During the late twenties and early thirties there used to be a ? ? in the
Chinese Legation at Rome. But he could not have spelt his name as Tcheou, which would stand for ? .
My colleague here, former ex-consul (Boston) Wang, has written to his N. Y. friends. If this source fails, I shall write to Tucci.
Yesterday I mailed you my Chronicle of Three Kingdoms; but it is so dull. Vol. 2, which will contain the facts about
Lieou-Tchin died in hall of the forebears-- when his father wd/ not die Wghting--
by suicide, slaying his children and consort [54/281] is to appear next summer.
Jas. Laughlin was here sometime ago. He is going to turn over your Ode MSS to me so that I may sort out the seal-script text for you. J. L. told me that old Kimbal seems to be losing his mind.
[Cambridge, Mass. ] Dec. 29, 1951
? 72 a. fang and pound's bilingual confucius
With best wishes for the New Year,
Respectfully [signed] Achilles Fang
? ? : in a letter to EP of 4 January 1952 (Lilly), Fang forwards the address of ? ? (EP's Sig. Tcheou). See Letters 12 and 23.
my Chronicle of Three Kingdoms: see Letter 43 n. Jas. Laughlin: see Glossary on Laughlin, James. old Kimbal: see Glossary on Kimball, Dudley.
51 EP to Fang (TL-1; Beinecke)
[St Elizabeths Hospital] [Washington, DC] [4 January 1952]
O FANG
Thanks re/ Tsheou, who did NOT spell it like the dynasty/either in ideogram
or in wop [Italian].
O, FANG, godddDAMMIT
ALL that odes ms/ is measured out to a milligram, so that the ENGLISH and the romanj can be set page by page, so as to SHOW the strophic form of the original. WHEN the english strophes etc/ are COMposed, as pages then one can cut up the seal text so that a strip of SEAL would face and correspond, with and to the translation. ALL of which the Kimball SWORE he understood/and made sample page of english and romanj/and SAID he wd/ then cut the metal plates for the seal, AS
I should indicate by cutting up the fotos/ benediction
and WHOOF.
[In DP's hand:] Private P. S.
I do wish this could be got under way- - -
EP wants it for his own use . . . & the delay makes him furious. This was all two years ago.
a very pretty page, after several tries.
52 EP to Fang (TL-2; Beinecke)
[St Elizabeths Hospital] [Washington, DC] [14 January 1952]
O FANG
Gloria enjoying yr/ history, wants [to] know if yu hv/ published anything
else (apart from note on Stones). I dont dare tell her she took the bk/ by mistake
a. fang and pound's bilingual confucius 73
before I had read it, as she is already too much overawed, and wd/ be too distressed at having done so.
Than' Q. for the volume. In mean time the ignote but admirable Schmidt has sent in 8 vols/ southern anthol/ plus 5 or 6 of Chu Hsi's commentary. <? ? ? ? > How many characters are going into yr/ new Dictionary? I note that
Mathews seems to hv/ omitted ? ?
a lot of combines seem to keep und fu, which wd/ here be fu fu? ? ? 2-5 as with
? which makes sense as it applies to dust, line preceding has whirl-wind.
As to cultural discipline, young Pablos charged in yester with 6 or 7 copies Stone Edtn/ 4 or 5 bought for his friends and 2 for Valle. He sd/ Bob NEEDED
it and that I wd/ prob/ get writers cramp signing the lot.
The impertinence on back of cover is, as I trust you have recognized, a whim
of the producer and pub/r, and was not submitted for my approval.
Another I cant Wnd in our beloved Mathews is earth under hemp/ ? rad[ical]
32/ under rad 200. Fog like hemp plantation? underbrush, or dirty cloth?
whoever this moralizing bloke is, his continual e^rh pu, is VURRY NOT music.
? this is ridiKUlus, must hv/seen it dozen times, but cant Wnd in M/ ? having 2
todowithjou 3133/orwott'ell? oftenmeaningnotimportant. butwantsome indication of approx sound.
yeh3 ? ?
Gloria: Gloria French, wife of the American poet and musician William French.
Schmidt: unidentiWed.
southern anthol . . . <? ? ? ? >: Chuci, an anthology of poems by Qu Yuan and other ancient
Chinese poets annotated by Zhu Xi.
Valle: retired lieutenant general Pedro A. del Valle, a defender of EP, is listed in Canto 105/771.
53 Fang to EP (TLS-1; Lilly)
[Cambridge, Mass. ] Jan 15, 1952
Dear Mr Pound,
Exceedingly glad to hear that you've got Ch'u-tz'u [Southern Anthology], for
you will meet again a number of familiar faces. ? ? is Ch'u ? Yu ? an (*kiu t ngiOn <*6th cent. sounds; we are not certain of earlier sounds>): you have AFTER CH'U ? YUAN, which seems to be based on Giles' History (text ? ? , ? ? : ? ? ? ? ? ? ? . . . ) and SONG OF THE BOWMEN OF SHU, which in 1915 Cathay was attributed to KUTSUGEN (which is Jap. pronunciation of our poet).
? ? is So ? -Gioku of Canto 4, sinice^ Sung Yu ? (*Suong ? ngiwok) but the text of ''This wind, sire, is the king's wind, . . . '' (a fu poem on Wind ? ? ) is not in Ch'u-tz'u.
You will Wnd HIGHTOWER's Topics (chapter 4) quite informative in this connexion.
e
74 a. fang and pound's bilingual confucius
The poet who aVects erh-pu ? ? (* ? n ? z ? i piu t) is Liu Hsiang (Hightower p. 22).
? fou (*biu t ? ), ''dusty''
? mo (*mua^ ? ) & mei (* ? mua^i), ''dust, dirt''
? (more correctly ? ) 1/4 ? 1/4 ? .
I really don't know how many characters our dictionary is going to contain.
Certainly more than Mathews. I think of putting all the ideograms in ? ? in ours. Very Xattered to hear Gloria (? ) ''enjoying'' my dull book. (By the way, if you need another copy, I can manage to send you one. ) This is my Wrst book (oh, yes, I wrote a German grammar in Chinese some years ago. ) In the Monumenta Serica (published in Peking by Catholic fathers, I am neither Cath. nor Christian), a sinological quarterly I used to be an editor of, contains some dozen or more articles, all pretty dull. Besides the 3 pieces in Harv. Journ. of Asiatic Studies, there is going to be another in the coming issue (6 weeks more): translation of Wen-fu. Perhaps you've looked through The Art of Letters by Reverend E. R. Hughes, M. A. (Wrst class FOOL) published by Bollingen. My translation is, as I hope, quite accurate and not unreadable (MacLeish has gone through it). Then, there's a 24-page review of ex-
missionary H[ughes]'s fool book. Both of these I shall send to you.
Yours respectfully [signed] Achilles Fang
Ch'u ? Yu ? an: see Glossary on Qu Yuan.
SONG OF THE BOWMEN OF SHU: Cathay opening poem, ''Song of the Bowmen of Shu,'' a variant
on Ode 167.
So ? -Gioku . . . Sung Yu ? : EP alludes to ''The Wind'' by Song Yu (So ? -Gyoku in Japanese, 3rd century bc)
in Canto 4.
HIGHTOWER's Topics: James Robert Hightower, Topics in Chinese Literature: Outlines and Bibliog-
raphies (Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press, 1950).
Liu Hsiang: Liu Xiang (c. 77-6 bc). His ''Nine Laments'' is collected in Southern Anthology.
? ? : Cihai dictionary. See Letter 38 n.
German grammar in Chinese: Te-wen chin-liang or Gesprochenes Deutsch (1941).
translation of Wen-fu: ''Rhymeprose on Literature: The We^n-fu of Lu Chi (A. D. 261-303) ? ? :
? ,'' Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, 14/3 & 4 (1951).
The Art of Letters: see Fang, ''Review: E. Hughes, The Art of Letters, Lu Chi's 'Wen Fu,' A. D. 302,''
Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, 14/3 & 4 (1951).
? 54 EP to Fang (TL-2; Beinecke)
FANG fuss
isn't yu ? 2 ? [I, me] rather like the dative? ? seems to Wt a number of examples.
[St Elizabeths Hospital] [Washington, DC] 25 Jan [1952]
e
e
a. fang and pound's bilingual confucius 75
Erinnerung deutsches GrammatiKKKK [memory of German grammar]
(NO I am NOT going to look up hun spellink) if not why Mat/ 7606 [7605] AND 7601
go to/out got
Gornoze wotthe choinilists [sinologists] do with 'em NOW.
enclose exercise/got to Wnd some means of Wxing approx sound in remains of
disjecta mente [scattered mind].
Any arguments for Hawley, who seems to think ideograms are mere hiero-
glyphics/i. e. just pictures without concepts tied into 'em? (this prob/an exag- geration de ma parte <but I dont believe they just procede [proceed] on mere basis of melting diVerences down into sames. >
When F/ has nothing better to do/cd/he spare a few words re/the trans- formation from old seal to modern forms? when done, by whom? how long it took to do it?
F/seen a poor rag called ''Philosophy of East and West. '' Hawaii Univ/ unreadable save for grain of sense from Santayana.
? ? ? ?
? ? ? ?
? ? ? ?
? ? ? ?
1. does this make sense
2. does it scan, according to an accepted chinese ear?
3. wd/ 4th line be considered bad taste, stunt merely changing tone? nacherly SOURCE of diVerent sounds, and prob/ earlier diVerences in total FOG. grampaw Wnd berry dif 'kult merember noise appertaining pixchoor abbrev/ if F/objects to Wnal character we can change it/cant fall into Foe and Lao
''Philosophy of East and West'': Essays in East-West Philosophy: An Attempt at World Philosophical Synthesis, ed. Charles A. Moore (1951).
Santayana: see Glossary on Santayana, George.
? ? ? ? . . . ? ? ? ? : a poem of EP's own composition. See also Letters 55 and 66. Lao: see Glossary on Laozi.
55 Fang to EP (TLS-1; Lilly)
[Cambridge, Mass. ] Feb. 5 [1952]
Dear Mr Pound,
Excuse me this delay; have been a bit unwell, weather. ? 1/4 ? ling. ? 1/4 ?
huang.
76
a. fang and pound's bilingual confucius
The four lines
? ? ? ? ? kan ? z ? ? ? a ? ng ? si k ? ? Ong ? ? ? ? ? ? a? ien ^ts ? i ? ? ^ts ? ? ? u ? a? wa ? ? ? ? ? sien ? ^ts ? i ? tsa^: i ? ^t ? ? ung ? ? ? ? ? s ? ? a ? n dz'a^i ? ? mjie aien ?
(1/4 ? , to appear)
kien ? (to look at)
cannot mean what you intend (granted that I do understand you). As for the
sounds, there are too many gutturals and too many of what the vorchristlicher Christ called snake sounds; one labial does not seem to relieve the overwrought alliteration. And rhyme? The fourth line sounds like a jeu d'esprit. Sorry to disappoint you.
Yes I saw Philosophy of East and West; the people in Hawaii seem to be a strange lot, I am sure.
Of course I have time to write on the transformation from great seal to little seal (which is the script conventionalised from the reform script of Li Ssu, Li-sse ? in Canto LIV; cf. ? ? ? . . . ? ? ? <Some critics think this sentence to be an interpolation. > in Pivot 28), but I should like to know what you exactly want me to write: history? comparison of the two? (The so-called great seal scripts are not all too numerous, whereas the Shuo-wen is entirely based on the lesser seal. )
Yours respectfully [signed] Achilles Fang
Li Ssu: Li Si (c. 280-208 bc). , prime minister to the First Emperor of Qin (r. 246-210 bc), made the ''lesser seal'' a standard Chinese script.
Shuo-wen: see Glossary on Xu Shen.
56 EP to Fang (TL-3; Beinecke)
[St Elizabeths Hospital] [Washington, DC] [February 1952]
O Fang
Mat/ 1848 fei4/? I take it variants alle sameee
?