No More Learning

116 EP to Fang (AL-1; Beinecke)
[St Elizabeths Hospital] [Washington, DC] [3 September 1954]
150 a. fang and pound's classic anthology
? opposite p. 155 stone classics, or rather is it a way of writing p'ing ? [just, equal, peaceful]
mathews 5303.
& if not what?
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near to benevolence but the strokes sure do seem to be put on diVerently.
? : in Unwobbling Pivot EP renders ? ? ? ? ? as ''energy is near to benevolence'' (Confucius, 155). See also Canto 93/648-9:
? li4
? hsing2 ? chin4 ? hu1 2154 ? je^n2
holding that energy is near to benevolence.
117 Fang to EP (TLS-1; Beinecke)
[Cambridge, Mass. ]
9/12/54
Dear Mr Pound,
Under the date of Dec. 6, I wrote to Farrar as follows:
Harvard University Press has forwarded to me your letter of inquiry about The Classic Anthology of Ezra Pound. I am sorry to disappoint you but I have no information as to when and under what circumstances Mr Pound pro- duced the work you admire so much. All that I know is that Mr Pound executed the translation all by himself and that he spent much eVort on the scholarly apparatus to be published soon in the second edition of the book.
Once more I apologize for my inability to oVer you any information. ''All by himself,'' because a number of people have asked me, just because
I wrote the introduction, if I had helped with translation.
''The second edition''--loose language, of course.
Abstained from entering into the matter concerning Bollingen. Since I were
not to quote you, I can't take the matter into my hand.
The Press is mailing a copy of the book to Mr Moore as you desire.
Yours [signed] Achilles
Farrar: Robert Farrar and Stanley Rinehart in New York issued the Wrst American editions of A Draft of XXX Cantos (1933) and The Fifth Decad (1937).
Mr Moore: The American poet and psychiatrist Merrill Moore (1903-57) visited EP in 1952 and 1954.
? ? ? a. fang and pound's classic anthology 151
118 EP to Fang (TL-1; Beinecke)
[St Elizabeths Hospital] [Washington, DC] [29 January 1955]
ages before the year of the sheep [1955]/Herr [Mr] Fang sent a work in krautisch/nippisch und chink/by KUNZE. given my imperfect knowledge of krautisch, HAS Mr Fang ANY idea what bloodysodam Herr Kunze thought he was up to?
A totally unreliable source told me Weenie's [Harvard] were GOING to print a decent edtn/of the ODES.
a man of probably very bad character enquires IF?
I gather Mr Personal-violence (or Force-of-Nature) [Tze-chiang] Chao is unknown to you. He has an admiration, most respectable, for Tu Fu.
whether any celestial [Chinese] can be mentioned in presence of, or in letter to, any OTHER celestial (any more than with a damWOpp [Italian]) I do not know. Li Ki may have some light on subject but it has not reached me. Neither has
current Hudson YET, tho I hear that blue ink has been employed. ----------
29 Jan/and will be posted I spose domani [tomorrow] o lunedi [Monday]
this day recd/one dried tortoise shell with remarks in probably hindoostani, possibly sanscrit, and arabic. Any demand for this ware among the high intelligentsia?
KUNZE: Reiner Kunze, Praktisches Zeichenlexikon chinesisch-deautsch-japanisch: 6000 Zeichen etymolo- gisch erklart mit neum praktischen Schlasse (1938). See Letter 119.
current Hudson: Hudson Review, 7/4 ([1954/]1955) with Canto 85.
119 Fang to EP (TLS-1; Beinecke)
[Cambridge, Mass. ]
3/II/55
Dear Mr Pound,
I haven't heard that Herr Kunze passed sinological aptitude test, nor does his
Zeichenlexikon indicate its author as possessing high sinological I. Q.
I forced the book upon you imprimis [Wrstly] because I (or rather meine Gattin [my wife]) thought (at that time she did not know that you had thumbed through Mathews more than she had done) the book with numerous clear-type ideograms might be of some use to you, secundo [secondly]--I (not Ilse) thought you might take kindly (not that you weren't kind) to the unfortunates
in S. Liz's, who seemed to me saner than Herr Kunze.
152 a. fang and pound's classic anthology
Who's this Chao? Not Chao Yuen-ren. (Half of Chinese verse-mongers are for Li Po, and the other half for Tu Fu. ) A certain William Hung, D. D. (here at Harvard), native missionary, in 1952 published an unreadable book (Harvard Press) entitled TU FU, China's Greatest Poet. (Preface: Bible and Tu Fu are the two greatest books to Hung pater Wliusque [father and son]. )
Please enlighten me on Weenie's project. Haven't heard anything about the Odes project.
As for the scratched tortoise-shell, I am really interested. I always thought that Chinks were the only ones who had socalled oracle-bones. It would be very interesting to see what the East Indians scratched on crustacean. I know no Sanskrit, but there are people here who read it without much trouble (I hope). It may turn out to be a real Ch. specimen (Hsia Dynasty). Grateful if DP could consign the shell to mail when she goes to the PO next time.
Notice a short prose-piece in japonaise by Reck (on VOU) in that egregious ''Poetlore. ''
Yours [signed] Achilles
Chao Yuen-ren: mathematician, linguist, and composer Zhao Yuanren compiled Concise Dictionary of Spoken Chinese (1947).
William Hung: William Hung, Tu Fu, China's Greatest Poet and Notes for Tu Fu, China's Greatest Poet, 2 vols. (1952).
Reck: Michael Reck traveled to Japan in 1953. In a letter Katue Kitasono, of the avant-garde poetry journal VOU, reports: ''I was surprised to see him speak Japanese so Xuently'' (Pound/Japan, 125).
120 EP to Fang (TL-1)
[St Elizabeths Hospital] [Washington, DC] 7 Feb [1955]
o ACHilles/estimated age of turtle (shell) about 80 years/age of animal at date of demise, uncertain.
Inscription presumably made by friend of Gege, as I don't spose SHE knows enuf snskrt or even aRABik to have done it herself.
The term WEENIE, diminutive of one of the minor poets of the Spewsfeld era/both of 'em Harvard men of the WORST variety hence application of term to institution for degradation of learning which feeds yu
? ? ? ?
mr Chao Tse-Chiang (''personal violence'' or ''force of nature,'' as yu choose
to select from Mathews' list of whichwhats. He LIKES his Tu Fu. AT any rate brot in several Tu Fu that I did not know and was glad to read.
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? a. fang and pound's classic anthology 153
''Gege'' is I take it diminutive for ''Virginia,'' whether blonde or brunet, I do not know. I LIKE to get letters and even oddities from the enthusiastic (presumably) young.
As Stock is sailing from Orstraliaaa to Napoli, I am telling Igor to see him/ and asking Boris to certify nature of his kid broth.
Gege: ''Gege'' corresponded with EP from 1955 to 1956 (Lilly). Stock: see Glossary on Stock, Noel.
Igor: see Glossary on De Rachewiltz, Igor.
Boris: see Glossary on De Rachewitz, Boris.
121 Fang to EP (TLS-3; Beinecke)
Dear Mr Pound,
Here are errata for [Canto] 85 489: i ? i
moao ? /read/ moua ?
po ? u
gn^? ng
(last line). palatiam/read/palatium
492: cymba et remis/read/cymba et remus
Praecognita/read/Praecogita
494: ta ? houe ? i Meng ts ? ? n/read/Me ? ng
Heo ? u Tsi/read/Heo ? u Ts ? i
Ping/read/Pin
Ts'oung ta`n ming/read/Ts'o ? ung ta`n m^? ng ? ? ?
Don't you want to write
Ta`n ts'o ? ung m^? ng ? ? ?
(as in Couvreur)? tso ? iue^n heo^u / read / heo ? u
495: che`u t's`? / read / tche`u ts'^?
na`i tcheu` t's`? / read / na`i tche`u ts'^?
? Shouldn't it be ? ? For ? is Pt IV, Ch. III while both ? and ? ? are in pt. IV, Ch. IV.
496: ? /read ? (the Wrst is li4, M3854)
? p'ei/read p'e ? i
497: (t'ien4)/read/t'ien1 (presuming that it is ? ). 498: T'SOU KIA/read/TSOU KIA
[Cambridge, Mass. ] 4/III/55
? ? ? 154 a. fang and pound's classic anthology
OU' TING/read/OU TING
wei tcheng tcheu/read/we^i tche ? ng tche ? u/or/wei tcheng tcheu.
499: kiao ? , chiao 1-4 ?
hsu ? , in the Wrst tone Shouldn't the lines be inverted? ? Hio ? ko`u jo ? u koua`n/read/Hio ? ko ? u jo ? u kou ? an (? ? ? ? )
500: Halloran/read/Holohan (assuming that it refers to Major William V. Holohan)
Houng Ieo/read? Houng Iao
501: ? read ? (the Wrst doesn't exist). M 4373.
- - - - - -Query
487: Galileo's Dialogo sopra i due massimi Sistemi del Mondo Tolemaico e
Copernicano (Wnished in 1630 and published in 1632) was put on the Index per Decr. 23 Aug. 1634 (cf. Index, ed. 1758).
Copernicus' De Revolutionibus orbium coelestium was indexed March 5, 1616, with the priviso usque corrigetur (Encyclopedia Br. s. v. Galileo). 1758 Index lists this book with the priviso nisi fuerint correcti juxta emendationem editam anno 1620, Decr. 15 Maii 1620 (this refers to the fact that Cardinal Gaetani completed his revision of the book in 1620).
Now, in 1616 G had to recant his heliocentric theory. Perhaps by ''indexed'' you
are referring to this.
Failed to discover anywhere that Cleopatra wrote of the currency.
May I have the source? And the sources of
1. che funge (500) (Mussolini? If so, ubi? )
2. e canta la gallina (495) ? ? ? ? (Courveur p. 185)
3. ''Liking some, disliking others, doing injustice to no man''(495) 4.
the sheltered grass hopes, chueh, cohere (488) ? ? ?
5. Hulled rice and silk at easter
(with the bachi held under their aprons From T'ang's time until now)
6. UBIJUSVAGUM(doesitrefertoUBIJUSINCERTUM,IBIJUSNULLUM? ) 7. ''cui ditta e` dentro'' (does it refer to Purg. 24. 53-54: ed a quel modo che
ditta dentro, . . . ? )
8. SAGETRIEB (bis) ? (Frobenius? ubinam? )
Otherwise 85 is perlucid to me. Shall be very happy to have my mind cleared about the 8 hard nuts.
Yours [signed] Achilles Fang
By the way, Couvreur's tone system is:
1 ? 2^ '3 4' 5'
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? a. fang and pound's classic anthology 155
490-491
? perhaps better ? ? ? ? ?
errata for 85: in the Wrst Italian and American editions of Rock-Drill (September 1955, March 1956)
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ''moao ? '' becomes ''moua,'' ''Meng'' becomes ''Me ? ng,'' and ? (not ? ) is inserted to justify 4
''tien . ''
Frobenius: see Glossary on Frobenius, Leo.
122 Fang to EP (TLS-1; Beinecke)
[Cambridge, Mass. ]
May 3, 1955
Dear Mr Pound,
Jack Hawkes, to whom I forwarded your letter, has expressed his apology and
promises to please you when he takes care of the major edition. (I met him weeks ago, but have been too busy to convey his message to you. )
Have been educating myself by taking the Cantos as my sextant: gone through JeVerson, Adamses, Van Buren, as well as Zobi, Mengozzi (Monte dei Paschi), Monumenta del Palazzo Ducale di Venezia, Muratori (Antichita` Estense), Sanudo (Vite), etc. Am grateful for the Cantos and like to express my wonder at the immense reading you have made.
Mary de Rachewiltz has sent me a copy of Confucio, a neat production. (Since the publisher has also sent me two copies, I shall deposit one in the Harvard Library). In what stage are the two Cantos announced for the next issue of the Hudson? If they contain Chinese items, I oVer myself as a proof-reader, if you
are willing.
Yours [signed] Achilles Fang
Zobi: Antonio Zobi, Storia civile della Toscana dal MDCCXXXVII al MDCCCXLVIII, 5 vols. (1850-2), source of Cantos 42-5, 50 (Terrell, 170, 192).
Mengozzi: Narciso Mengozzi, ed. , Il Monte dei Paschi di Siena e le Aziende in Esso Riunite, 9 vols. (1891-1925), source of Cantos 35, 42-5, 50 (Terrell, 139, 170, 192).
Monumenta . . . Venezia: Giambattista Lorenzi, Monumenti per servire alla storia del Palazzo Ducale di Venezia (1868), source of Canto 25 (Terrell, 99).
Muratori: L. A. Muratori, Rerum Italicarum Scriptores, xxii (1733), source of Canto 26 (Terrell, 103). Confucio: Confucio (1955) with Mary de Rachewiltz's Italian translation of Fang's ''A Note on the
Stone-Classics. ''
the two Cantos: Cantos 88-9 in Hudson Review, 8/2 (Summer 1955).
? 156 a. fang and pound's classic anthology
123 EP to Fang (TL-1; Beinecke)
[St Elizabeths Hospital] [Washington, DC] 4 Feb [1956]
Pleasant to Wnd Ch. El Norton in Santayana Letters
saving what a lousy hole is Haaavud.
IF Wilson has grounds for puttin the blame on yu/<if you are waiting to
satisfy your letch for precision> Gaw Damn it/there is NO alphabetic repre- sentation of chinese sound, let alone any fad of spelling it in amurkn alPHAbet that will Wt 27 diVerent kinds of chinkese thru 3000 years/
You can identify Hou Chi with fertility hoocheyKoochey if yu spell it CHI but as they pronounce it JE/
it takes ten years if you dont HEAR sombuddy SAY it Wnd a nice li'l JE-tzu in
his presepio [crib] long before the deWlements of kikery.
and HOW the HELL do yu expect me to improve the translations UNTIL I
have some approx sound AND the seal text opposite the present version/[? ] which is intended as where to go ON From / not that the dambastids ever do
go ON.
I give 'em frog [French] in 1918 / nobuddy took the chance / left fer grampaw
to tidy up NOW, etc.
Am I to start quoting Walter Scott and the serpent's tooth . . . . . . Rustichello da Pisa has just done a beaut to beat LaPira etc.
Norton: Charles Eliot Norton (1827-1908), Harvard's Wrst professor of Wne arts (1873-97). Santayana: see Glossary on Santayana, George.
Hou Chi: ''Hou Tsi'' of Ode 245 (Classic Anthology, 161-3), ancestor of King Wen of Zhou (Chou). Walter Scott: Scottish poet and novelist Walter Scott (1771-1832).
Rustichello da Pisa: Italian romance writer to whom Marco Polo (1254-1324) dictated The Travels of
Marco Polo.
124 EP to Fang (TL-1; Beinecke)
[St Elizabeths Hospital] [Washington, DC] 2 March [1956]
Dear Fang
Wilson on his own showing did NOT discuss english edition with D. P. however.
He now says he can not do the proper decent and complete edition because
you haven't given him the manuscript.
ever yrs.
a. fang and pound's classic anthology 157
125 EP to Fang (TLS-1; Beinecke)
[St Elizabeths Hospital] [Washington, DC] 18 Jan 57
Dear Fang
Hawley said Harvard had wanted some pages of seal text replaced.
He seems to think this means publication. If it takes place I trust the enclosed note as to how we got the fotos will appear, giving due credit to W. H[awley].
Best for '57 Ez P
seal text: in a letter to EP of 11 January 1957, Hawley writes, ''I see Harv'd is Wnally coming across with seal ed! ''(Beinecke).
126 EP to Fang (TLS-1; Beinecke)
St Elizabeths Hospital Washington D. C. [October 1957]
Dear Dr. Fang
I have just recd/a letter from Wilson, of which he indicates that you have a
copy.
As I read it, this puts ALL the blame on you for the delay in publication of the
Odes in the ONLY form that interested me in the least. <I naturally wait for your side of the story before accepting it. >
As I recall it there was NO mention of added materials. All that was asked of you was to correct the obvious errors in typing the syllab[l]es which were intended MORE as a graph of the metric than as a phonetic equivalent of the MUCH disputed chinese sound, re/which no two sections of China are agreed, let alone re/the original phonetics that Kung would have, conjecturally, heard.
You professed some interest in the subject. And I thought you agreed that the lack of any seal text <text in seal character> for students should be remedied. I should be glad if you can tell me when in YOUR opinion the necessary matter will have been presented to Mr Wilson, so as to come to a decision re/withdrawing the whole thing, which would of course imply complete freedom to use it where I liked along with the <matter of my own> truncated popular edition which he now says he wormed out of me by promising to do a proper text from which I could myself more conveniently work toward improving the english.
? ? 158 a. fang and pound's classic anthology
sincerely yours [signed] Ezra Pound
P. S.
Your editing was not supposed to commit you to agreeing with my interpret- ations. There was no intention of implicating you in an agreement, which you could have disavowed in a single sentence.
At a time when I was physically too exhausted to correct the proofs and when anyone familiar as you are with your own language could have caught errors in the alphabetic representation which wd/have needed veriWcation one by one, by me.
The hatred of the Chinese Classics boils thru most of our Universities. Whether it rages more corruptly at Yale than elsewhere I don't know. They print handsome text book to guide their victims to newspapers printed in ideogram, and at least one of their degraded stooges and brain-washers has plainly said that they are NOT trying to interest pupils in the great literature.
127 Fang to EP (TLS-2; Beinecke)
[Cambridge, Mass. ]
24/X/1957
Dear Mr Pound
Last Saturday (19/X) I happened to make one of my angelic visits to my former
oYce (the dictionary project is now thrown out of the window since January, when the new director of the Harvard-Yenching Institute took oYce; I stay home now, but shall continue to get my salary until next June) where a copy of Wilson's letter to you was waiting for me. This week I managed to contact Mrs Kewer of the Editorial Department (Wilson was busy and the Production Manager Burton Stratton was not in his oYce) and found out Wilson is waiting for my ''introduc- tion,'' insisting that he must have everything together once for all.
The fact is, Mrs Kewer has almost everything in her oYce: the complete seal- script text (I am told that Hawley has supplied her with the missing sheets) and the sound-key.
As for the sound-key I followed your wishes and did the minimum to it. I did not adopt the pronunciation of Kung's time (Archaic Chinese), nor that of every scholar (Ancient Chinese), nor even that of what I call orthophony (which resembles the system employed by Couvreur and Karlgren). In fact, all I did was to revise errors and supply lacunae, all in accordance with Mathews.
The sound-key was veri-typed and delivered to Mrs Kewer last January, when we had a conference (Mrs Kewer, B. Stratton, and myself ) in order to speed up the matter. At that time I asked the Press to go ahead and print (or rather photograph) the whole (ideograms, sound-key, and translation) immediately.
? a. fang and pound's classic anthology 159
For the past 10 months I have been waiting to hear that the work was all done. (When Omar [Pound] came to see me in June, or was it May? , I could assure him that the book will be out by if not before Xmas. )
As for the ''introduction'' I insisted at the afore-mentioned January confer- ence that there is no necessity, except the one written by E. P. himself. However, I told the people that if Wilson insists on having a short note on the seal-script text and the phonetic system you have employed, it could be done in a short while as soon as the photographing is done.
For some reason Wilson and the Syndics of Harvard University Press seem to set value on that introduction.
All I have now to do to ''expedite'' is write the required introductory note (I shall ask Wilson to put it rather at the end of the book; after all, the book is yours).
If I promise to you that I shall write a dull matter-of-fact note, I hope you will not raise Cain with poor Wilson, who is a[n] honest and honorable man, about it.
We may see the book out next spring.
Between you and me, the cause of all this delay is David Livingston DuVy, so named in commemoration of the African trip the DuVys made. Ever since the boy was born, Chase DuVy has been playing the happy mother at home; she seems to be doing editorial job for the H. U. P. only occasionally. The whole process of coordinating seal-script, sound-key, translation, and restoring your notes cut from the Wrst volume, can be completely done only by Mrs DuVy, who went through the said Wrst volume. Wilson probably is waiting for her to Wnd time to do the work.
Now, my advisement (not advice) at this moment is: Please forget what Wilson wrote to you, and have (sorry to use the word) patience. At any rate, leave everything to me to act in between. (It is unfortunate that the author and the publisher should irritate each other; but the main thing is to have the author's book published by the agreed publisher. Let me take all the blame from each side if need be. Let's have the book at all costs. ) Barring accidents, we may see the book out next year.
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I am now compiling An Anthology of Chinese Literature (2 vols. ) for Grove Press, New York. This is meant to be a school book, about 300 pages each. If you could give me advice, as you have done so to so many others, I shall be very grateful.
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Allow me to oVer you my heartfelt congratulations on your birthday. I do hope that Bridson succeeds in making the promised BBC broadcast on that day.
Cordially yours, [signed] Achilles Fang
Bridson . . . BBC broadcast: D. G. Bridson interviewed EP in 1956 and 1959. He presented edited tapes of the interviews on BBC in July 1959. See Poetry and Prose, ix. 293-309.
? 160 a. fang and pound's classic anthology
128 EP to Fang (TLS-1; Beinecke)
3514 Brothers Place Washington s. e. D. C. 18 May [1958]
Dear Fang
The spring is advancing, but there is no sign that the nature of the Harvard
Press is improving, or that your ''friend'' whats his name has ANY intention of publishing a decent edition of the ODES.
I am sorry to draw this matter to your attention again,
but curious as to whether you still retain ANY vestige of optimism.
The sabotage, the blocking of my work remains.
I cannot do any more toward improving the translations until I have a
convenient edition to work FROM. I. E. the sound, the seal text in front of me. The inWnite vileness of the state of education under the rump of the present
organisms for the suppression of mental life is not your fault. etctera/
in fact et cetera is about all that CAN be said for the state of scholarship under the pestilence.
cordially yours [signed] E. P.
129 Fang to EP (TLS-1; Beinecke)
[Cambridge, Mass. ]
29/V/1958
Dear Mr Pound,
Thank you for your note on the Anthology. I shall see to it that the Press
starts on the work after summer vacation.