It's pleasant that the young
debutante
is very satisfied.
Ezra-Pound-Japan-Letters-essays
I am very glad you have selected the vital points so well in the note on me.
I learn to read all too slowly: And I forget the ideograms too fast.
However I have now the Li Kil as well as the Kung and Mang and the Odes; all with some sort of translation that helps me to practice.
Ideogramic dictionary wastes too much time.
The proper way for occidental to learn ideogram is with an interpage or interlinear crib.
Will you write to
Science Service
2101 Constitution Ave
Washington D. C. , U. S. A. for information re/ microfilm reader
and their service.
That ought to accelerate the availability of the 100 best ideogramic and Japanese texts in the original.
? 64 SECTIONII: 1936-66
From that we cd/ get on with at least typescript translations. Price of projectors should come down. Do you know, or can you find out what Tokio University has done along these lines?
I am doing what I can to stir up the Washington people both about mu- sic study and oriental studies by means of this new system.
It will encourage them to hear from Japan, and of course col- laboration between the two governments should follow. Here is a field where there can be no clash of interests, and where better understanding between the two peoples wd/ be automaticly promoted.
Kagekiyo and Kumasaka can not be boycotted like silk stock- ings. I hear there is a professor in the University of Formosa whose good offices we might enlist.
When dealing with government departments, it is always well to get someone whose respectability is official.
I believe I am now almost officially respectable because I am part of the Institute of Arts and Letters. But I am not really respectab- le . . . among the idiots of the more reactionary American un- iversities . . . not yet. Although a very small Western college has at last invited me to profess in the wilderness.
//another point/ you better write to Harcourt, Brace and co.
383 Madison Ave. New York
for review copy of e:e:cummings' poems. (Collected Poems. ) Laughlin will have sent you W. C. Williams' Life on the Passaic River, these are the two best American books of the season. We have a couple of good historians. W. E. Woodward, New American History/ and Claude Bowers' Tragic Era. Bowers is now ambassador to Spain.
The University of Tokio and yr/ government departments can certainly afford Argus microfilm reader-projectors.
I don't know what you Japs have done in the way of lense grinding. The Germans will certainly make much cheaper projectors soon. Poets etc/ can not afford Argus de luxe microfilm readers, simpler mechanism can be made by almost any good optician, I think. At any rate Fox recom- mended me to have one made locally.
In any case if your lense industry isn't developed, you cd/ get German lenses and do the rest as well or better than occidentals.
Delphian Quarterly, 307 North Michigan Ave. , Chicago would probably exchange with VOU, if you send them current issue of VOU and say you
? SECTIONII: 1936-66 65
wd/ like to see Olga Rudge's article on Vivaldi and my curse on Amer- ican University torpor.
there is never time enough to write everything in one letter.
ever
Ezra Pound
66: Ezra Pound to Katue Kitasono
TLS-2 Anno XVI, Via Marsala 12-5, Rapallo, with Gaudier-Brzeska profile head. 2 June 1938
Dear Kitasono
I don't yet know enough to deal properly with the rest of Fenollosa's notes. I have a good translation of the Li Ki (Bk of Cere- monies, with the original text, french and latin).
I am in the middle of de Mailla's Histoire Generaie de la Chinel transla- tion of Tong Kien Kang Mou/ but only in french; not printed with the original.
Do you know of any (good) History of Japan, translated into any eu- ropean language from original sources?
//
I have found mention of the "Ti-san" sort of notes left by Emperor Tai- tsong/ Tang a. d. 648, for his son.
I am trying to think out the "100 best books" for proper Ideogramic library/
Possibly this ought to be one of them? If it still exists.
The first government note (state ticket not bank note) that I have yet found record of is of Kao tsong 650/ but the form already de- veloped, so I suppose Tai tsong knew the system. Sane economics, very interesting.
BUT all this is Chinese/ Whether de Mailla gets round to notice of inter- course with Japan later, I dont know. At least by 800 a. d. there ought to be Japanese records// in detail/
What sort of Japanese history do you people get in schools?
? 66 SECTIONII: 1936-66
Also Japanese poetry before the Noh? Another awful blank in my ac- quaintance.
Prof. Mori seems to have treated the literature (or FenoL/ has left notes showing)
Chinese poetry/
///// Noh <2 vols of Japanese short poems. )
and a lot of notes in which the chronology isn't very clear.
Mr. Matsumiya hasn't sent on his typescript/ 1 think he is worrying too much about getting it entirely free from small defects of english. //
Pardon brevity/
(Tai tsong very respectable emperor. )
67: Ezra Pound to Katue Kitasono TCS-1 Via Marsala 12-5. 10 July 1938
Dear K
Duncan (Townsman at 6d. ) hasn't means to publish music.
E. P.
Miss R/ has played me the separate parts of Isida's. but we haven't the three instruments here to do the whole thing.
Duncan says you want it returned so am sending it.
cordiali saluti EP
68: Katue Kitasono to Ezra Pound TLS-3 Tokio, Japan. 23 July 1938
Dear Mr. Ezra Pound,
Thank you for your letters of May 5 and July 2.
In Formosa the climate is not good and I cannot encourage you to
become a professor there.
I think Tokio Imperial University or Kyoto Imperial University is most
suitable to you.
? SECTIONII: 1936-66 67
I will watch to obtain such an opportunity, if you wish.
Reading your "Notes on Micro-Photography" in May's issue of GJobe, I see how effectively this new system is acting on musical study.
Indeed it's a splendid idea to use it on the Oriental study, and of course we Japanese ought to willingly cooperate with you.
In Japan, so far as I know, nobody has turned his attention to the utilization of micro-photography on musical and Oriental studies.
I will speak about this on every occasion.
I don't think Japan is in financial embarrassment.
I am sorry I couldn't find out a Japanese history translated from the
original. I promise you to send it, as soon as I will find a good one.
As for the "Ti-San," (
790).
An anthology of Waka { i^o r^"^ ] or Vta [ -sj"/^
i^ ^^>>
) we have some records, but not so detailed. I suppose it may be just in the same degree as mentioned in
Mailla's Chinese History.
The source of Japanese poetry was ( t^ '^ -^ )
^ ^,
) (a form of short poem consisting of 31 letters [syllables]). This is in 20 volumes. Next we have Kokinsyu ( "^ ^ -? ^ ), also an anthology of waka (790-1190). And then we have Sinkokinsyu [ %'^ '^ ^ %: ] (1190-1603). Noh
( fi^L ) plays were in full flourish in this period.
Chinese poetry was carried on through all the ages, sometimes over-
whelming \NQka and sometimes being subdued by VV^aka.
Of course, this is a terribly rough explanation. I will write you again
about this more minutely.
Thank you very much for your Guide to Kulchur, a very pleasant book,
which will make the world march at double-quick for half a century. Faber & Faber wrote me to send back your essay "No, Diplomacy can
not do it" for an advance copy.
But the other day I lend it to an editor of a professional literary maga-
zine, because I wanted to let many more readers besides VOU read it. Then the editor suddenly died, and I have barely taken back your copy. But the first one page has been missing, and they are very sorry that they can
not find it out.
I have retranslated that part from the Japanese one in VOU. Will you
please improve it into your own?
This is an inexcusable blunder.
I wish you will be lenient with me.
Very glad of Miss Mary's nice dessins, very becoming illustrations to
her narratives.
it -s; fir
Manyosyu (670-
? 68 SECTIONII: 1936-66
Under separate cover I am sending you A Guide to Japanese Studies, and some pamphlets.
If there are any books you want in the catalogue of K. B. S. publications, please tell me and I will arrange them to be sent you. And also any foreign books relating to Japan published even in foreign countries, will be sent you, if you like. Any copies you and your friends may need.
Do you wish any Japanese-English dictionary?
Enclosed:
No, Diplomacy Can Not Do It
I
This title has been taken from the discourse with a Japanese diplomatist; we were talking about the mutual understanding between the Orient and the Occident.
I am convinced that the philosophy of Confucius and Mencius is the cogent convergence. Buddhism came from India and in the Occident, they have Christianity similar to Buddhism. The two doctrines do not lead to clear thinking or at least to such a calm clearness as men of different races can understand in each other.
Ernest Fenollosa who would have been respected in his lifetime in Japan, but he and his work, so far as we Occidentals know, was almost forgotten away as soon as he was buried in the sacred ground of Miidera.
It was a right permitted to me to preserve some of his work in the Occident, exerting myself in the obscurity and the unknown. If I couldn't get Japanese cooperation from Japan, it was perhaps because I didn't know the means to get it.
FenoUosa's note on Noh play has, at least, stimulated Yeats to the experiment of new drama.
Still now, the impression of poetry of Noh play is often expressed in a small theatre of England, and one of them was announced by televie.
Yours ever, Katue Kitasono
? SECTIONII: 1936-66 69
69: Katue Kitasono to Ezra Pound TLS-l Tokio, Japan. 23 August 1938
Dear Ezra Pound,
I am sorry I cannot find you a book on Japanese history translated from theoriginal. ButI wastoldthatJapan;AShortCuituraJHistorybyG. B. Sansom (London: The Cresset Press, 1931) is written comparatively in detail. The author had been in Japan for some twenty years. If you have not read it yet and wish to read, I will send you.
I wrote of your Guide to KuJchur in Sept. issue of Mita Bungaku which is a literary magazine published monthly by those who concern Keioh Gijiku University in Tokio.
Mr. T. Kinosita, one of the editors, will send you a copy. He sometimes writes an essay for VOU, though not a member.
ever yours, Katue Kiiasono
70: Ezra Pound to Katue Kitasono
TLS-l Anno XVII, Via Marsala 12-5, Rapallo, with Gaudier-Brzeska profile head. 10 December 1938
Dear K/K
Thanks very much for Cactus 1/ 1 have copied the lines on Wyn- dham L/ and am sending them to Duncan.
I dont yet know enough ideogram to form an opinion of the original/ and of course have no idea of its sound.
I suppose a world of perspective is inhabitable and one of approaching projectiles is not.
Have just seen W/L/ in London, (his) Head on duck/ he has done new portrait of me/
you can judge the two worlds when you get a photo of it/ which I will send when 1 get one.
theWyndhamdrawing(doneabout1912)that1 havebroughtbackisbet- ter than the Max Ernst that Laughlin introduced here circuitously. The Max that I had from him (Max) seven years ago is very fine.
In fact it goes away and the other Max approaches revolving. / If I don't send this brief note now, it will be lost in mountain of papers.
ever EP
? 70 SECTIONII: 1936-66
71: Katue Kitasono to Maria Pound ALS-1 Tokyo, Japan. 25 December 1938
My dear Maria,
I wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. I have translated the charming stories about Tyrol into Japanese and have contributed them to the Reijo Kai for current number. I am sending it to you under separate cover.
This is the most refined girl's monthly in Japan and cj "^ ^ means "girl's circle. "
I think Japanese girls have been attracted by your beautiful stories and touched by your tender heart for the poor.
Ihavesubscribedforthe" J"^^^ "forayearasarewardtoyou,and so you will see it every month hereafter.
I wish you will write again about interesting things for Japanese girls.
ever yours Katue Kitasono
72: Ezra Pound to Katue Kitasono
TLS-2 Anno XVII, Via Marsala 12-5, Rapallo, with Gaudier-Brzeska profile head. 14 January 1939
Dear K 2?
I trust my daughter will be properly sensible to the honour of being translated by you and that she wont get a swelled head.
I am telling my American bank to bother you with a draft for ten bucks (i. e. dollars] for various small errands. (For which any apolo- gy, but I have no other means to hand. )
I tried a year ago to get the Tokio or Japan Times but they re- turned my personal cheque saying they couldn't cash it. I dont think they can have tried very hard.
However when you do get the (bank) cheque will you send me 8 copies of the Girl's Circle containing "gais or the Beauties of the Tyrol. " (as discipline for other members of the family. ) and one month of the Japan Times, (and hold the rest of the ten bucks for future trials). NouseinmygettingalongersubscriptionoftheTimes(now)asI may
? SECTIONII: 1936-66 7^
beinAmericaoratanyratenotinRapalloafterMarcii. I willstarttak- ing it again when I settle for the Autumn.
It is great fun having the child make a debut at such distance. I hope it will have a civilizing effect (on her). School hasn't quite quen- ched her intelligence. But of course impossible to tell whether she will ever be able to write anything again after having been taught Grammar etc/
Her English is now more Japanese than any Japanese english from Tokio. The idea that dont and cant contain both verb and negative, just wont enter her head.
Her mother holds me personally responsible for effect of Amer- ican magazine illustrations on Japan, despite Fenollosa's efforts the other way.
Porteus has a word about VOU in the last Criterion.
Williams' Life on the Passaic River might interest you. In fact some of that ought to be of interest to Tokio editors.
I suppose Laughlin sends you his pubctns/
and so forth. ever
Ezra Pound
73: Katue Kitasono to Ezra Pound
TLS-1 vou CLUB 1649 1-tiome-nisi magome-mati, omoriku, tokio. 10 February 1939
My dear Pound,
I have just received your letter dated Jan. 14.
It's pleasant that the young debutante is very satisfied. A hundred years after, Mary's idea about can't and don't will go current, I believe.
I told them to send you the Japan Times from Feb. 7 for a month, and I have despatched 8 copies of Reijyokai to you. It pleases us that Mary's mother, too, has a good will on my country.
Though we have a rise in prices in some degree in Japan, our life is little changed, we are very peaceful.
The general concern with cultural affairs has become more active than before.
? 72
SECTIONII: 1936-66
Two young poets from VOU have gone to the front. They often write me lively. Even in the battle field, they wish to read books in high class rather than amusing books.
The other day received a letter from Charles Henri Ford inviting us to their Chain poem, and we decided to make 6 from us join in it.
with good wishes, Katue YAiasono
74: Ezra Pound to Katue Kitasono
TLS-2 Anno XVII, Via Marsala 12-5, Rapallo, with Gaudier-Brzeska profile head. 3 March 1939
Dear K 2?
Thanks for yours of 10th Feb. Townsman wd/ 1 think like the names of the two poets at the front.
//
I have (had strong) nostalgia for Japan, induced by the fragment of Noh in Miisnco. If you can continue such films nothing in the West can re- sist. We shall expect you at last to deliver us from Hollywood and un- bounded cheapness.
ALL the Noh plays ought to be filmed/ or at any rate all the music shd/ be recorded on the sound \. vQiC\^.
It must be 16 years since 1 heard a note of Noh (Kume [Tami] and his friends sang to me in Paris] but the instant the Noh (all too little of it in that film] sounded I knew it.
It is like no other music.
There is a mention of Japan at the edge of my Chinese Cantos/ now on desk, hope to publish in Autumn
52/61 China/ 62/71 John Adams, pater patriae U. S. A. more than Wash- ington or Jefferson/ though all three essential and (aJI) betrayed by the first congress.
I must go on making clean typescript of them. Now on Canto 67 I want a "Tong Kien Kang Mou"
of Japan
and a translation of the economic volume of the Chinese encyclopedia. I
? SECTIONII: 1936-66
I'i
think it is vol 3/ I havea
Nipon O Y)q\ itsi ran
but it is mere chronicle, as far as I have time to read.
(Klaproth, translation) (here's io meeting Sometime. )
75: Katue Kitasono to Ezra Pound
TLS-1 vou CLUB 1649 1-tiome-nisi magome-mati, omoriku, tokio. 7 March 1939
Dear Mr. Ezra Pound,
I got, all right, the cheque of 10 dollars issued by Jenkintown Bank, and cashed it Y36. 60 in Japanese currency.
I paid for the /apan Times, as you will see in the enclosed. On that occasion I met Mr. Moori, the chief editor of the /apan Times, and told him of your hope of writing culture news for Tokio as you told me last year.
I ought to have met him more quickly, because he agreed to this proposal with his all heart.
If you hadn't yet given up your desire (how I hope you hadn't], I would pray you to write and send it to me.
We are expecting to it.
I received a very lonely letter in English from Mary.
Ever yours, Katue YAidsono
76: Ezra Pound to Katue Kitasono
TLS-l Anno XVII, Via Marsala 12-5, Rapallo, with Gaudier-Brzeska profile head. 10 March 1939
Dear K/
I enclose review copy of my latest and shortest book. I hope the
Yours
Ezra Pound
? 74. SECTIONII: 1936-66
Times (Japan Times] will review it. It contains the part of American his- tory NOT taught in American Universities/ Rothschild and Sassoon wd/ spend millions to maintain their system of murder (by world wars etc. ) and for 120 years the understanding of this page has been obscured.
Roosevelt's gang are unlikely to introduce this text book in American schools.
The great infamies/ Bank of England and Banque de France dare not face this one page.
Japan Times (First lot, arrived this morning. )
11: Katue Kitasono to Ezra Pound TCS-1 [Tokyo]. 20 March 1939
Dear Ezra Pound,
Yours EP
I fear 1 might have astonished the bon papa of Mary by writing in my former letter, "I received a very lonely letter from Mary. "
It was, of course, a very lovely letter that she gave me. Please disregard the mistype of my forefinger.
ever yours Katue
78: Ezra Pound to Katue Kitasono
TLS-2 Anno XVII, Via Marsala 12-5, Rapallo, with Gaudier-Brzeska profile head. 27 March 1939
Dear K 2?
Sincere thanks for all your various disbursements of energy. I am sending two brief notes for the Japan Times.
Please salute Mr. Morri, and between you let me know more ex- actly what you want me to do.
I mean:Howoften? How long?
Whether I am to stick to art, music and poetry or whether I am allowed to consider the arts as happening in an ambience, expressive of states of
? SECTIONII: 1936-66 75
mind coincident with different dispositions toward organized society.
I have been cited in Italian press as "poeta economista" Will the Japan Times stand that?
I send two brief notes, rather than one long one, as the subjects do not form a unity.
Also short notices are more convenient for a newspaper. Cultural NEWS?
How far does Mr. Morri want me to "hold down" to notices of events, and how far am I to criticize them?
///
In all cases will he understand that my writing is subject to his editing. He can cut whatever he thinks is of no interest to his readers, and I will not take offence.
I expect to go to America. Does he want any special reports from there? Whether on art or the state of the general mind?
I have been out of that country for 28 years and don't know what I can effect. I should like my trip to result in better triple understanding (Japan/America/Italy). But I am not on a mission or anything save my own affairs.
in any case please answer
E. Pound (to await arrival)
c/o I/B. Mapel, 3301 P. Street, Washington D. C. , U. S. A.
/// ///
I trust my beloved young novelist isn't wringing your heart with sob stuff. The copies of her first opus have all arrived safely.
//
I should think a monthly letter wd/ be the best thing for me to do for the //Times but do ask Mr. Morri to write me and say what he thinks wd/ be best. Also the editor alone knows what space he has free for these fea- tures.
You spell him "Moori"/ The Times spells it "Morri" the address on yr/ printed stationery differs from that I have used for several years and which has worked. One of Fenollosa's friends was "Mori" with one r.
And what you will make of "Shinbu," "Miaco" and "Undertree's inva- sion of Corea" in my 62/71 Cantos, I dont know. Spelling is very mysterious. The "mandate" has shifted. Did you see my Mencius in the Criterion last summer? (possibly unfashionable author? how can I tell? )
ever E. P.
? 76 SECTIONII: 1936-66
79: Katue Kitasono to Ezra Pound
TLS-2 vou CLUB 1649 1-tiome-nisi magome-mati, omoriku, tokio. 11 April 1939
Mr. Ezra Pound,
I received your letters March 3, and March 10. 1 tried in vain to assign "Tong kien kang mou" to ideograms. You must be patient and give me a few explanatory words about it, or rather the ideograms themselves.
In Tokio I couldn't find the translation of Chinese Encyclopedia. But at any rate I am making inquiry about it to Peking.
I wrote a short review of your introductory Text Book and sent it to the Japan Times. I will send you the paper, as soon as it will be printed.
I agree with you on the debouchement to the West of Noh plays by films and gramophone records. Some of Noh plays are recorded, I ask if you have any.
Duncan has written to me to find for him some early Chinese plays, but at present there are no adequate ones.
The Chinese incident, however, has stimulated Japan to more profound study of China, and so we shall soon be able to get easily many Chinese books.
I have become very imaginative about your Chinese Cantos.
I have read the echo of VOU in the last number of Criterion.
I only hope the coming of the day when we shall be compensated for the
sacrifice we are now making for superior culture in the West and in the East. We are growing international chainpoems by the proposal of Charles
Henri Ford in America.
The scores of Igor Markewitch have recently arrived at my friend.
Ever yours, Katue Kitasono
80: Katue Kitasono to Ezra Pound
TLS-2 vou CLUB 1649 1-tiome-nisi magome-mati, omoriku, tokio. 28 April 1939
Dear Ezra Pound:
Thank you for the letter March 17. The articles you kindly sent for the ]apan Times are very interesting to us.
? SECTIONII: 1936-66 77
Immediately I handed them over to Mr. Moori.
I think he will soon write to you, but at any rate 1 tell you. He wish you to write on anything concerned with culture. It is left to your own free will how far to hold down to notices of events and how far to criticize them.
Mr. Moori, especially wants to have your reports from America. In short Mr. Moori trusts me and I trust your sense, and so you can write everything in your own way.
The Japan Times would be very grateful, if you could write twice a month, within 2,000 words each time.
Mr. Moori is very sorry for that the payment for your manuscripts will prove very small owing to the bad condition of foreign exchange.
I ask if you would permit me to translate your manuscripts for ]IT and print them in Japanese journal. A few days ago the young writer in Firenze pleaded me with a letter promising to try to write about her college life during the vacation. Hereafter I send the magazine directly to her.
Many thanks for the sending of the Picture Post. Mr. Lewis has made a great progress in his painting, I think. It's very funny that Royal Academy was so much afraid of his leonine head.
It seems to me, however, his dessin is too much stretched out like Greco or Modigliani, but it gives to his portrait a sort of nobility which I like as
well as that of Greco or Modigliani. ^
I spell by Japanese system (but not faithful, sometimes change as I like), and Mr. Moori does by the old system, not being banned its use.
I expect next manuscript from you in America.
Wishing you bon voyage. ever yours.
Katue Kitasono
The regrettable death of Yeats had instantly been reported within Japan by radio, newspapers, and magazines.
It's a great pity that Bwletto and Criterion have ceased their publica- tion; oui various literary magazines have written about the latter.
^
-j^j^ , and Mr. Moori is ^ if^'J . There
Fenollosa's friend Dr. Mori is
had been long used the Hepburn system of Romaji (writing of the spoken Japanese language in an ordinary foreign alphabet) until a new one, the Japanese Romaji was officially agreed several years ago.
--
78 SECTIONII: 1936-66
81: Yasotaro Morri to Ezra Pound
TLS-1 The Japan Times, Hibiya Park. 15 May 1939
Dear Mr. Ezra Pound
Thank you for your articles. One about the tri-lingual international means of communications is published in paper of May 14, a copy of which I'm mailing to you under separate cover. The other, concerning Yeats, we'll publish in our Book Page, on the first Sunday of June.
We shall be pleased to have you send us something of literary nature dealing with the general literary trend, or with some big giants in the literary world or something of the sort. It is quite refreshing to read articles, specially written for our paper by a person of your prominence, regarding the literary matters, when we have enough of "dopes" dealing with crises, war threats and general unrest.
The length of that tri-lingual article is just right. More later; I just dash these lines to acknowledge the receipt of your articles from Mr. Kitasono some time ago.
Trusting this will find you well,
Yours truly, Yasotaro Morri
N. B. --Going over a copy of your letter to Mr. Kitasono, 1 think 1 should say something more. You may give us three articles a month or four. More than, we may be imposing too much on you.
Art, poetry, music--all right. So is cultural news. We know you are not on a special mission to iron out the Japan-U. S. relations, if ever there are any jagged surface, but naturally would prefer nothing which will provoke Americans in political issues. Kindly stick to literary subjects; if your criticism of current American literature is found unfavorable to Americans, for instance, it can't be helped. Have I said sufficiently to indicate what we want?
? ? SECTIONII: 1936-66 79
82: Ezra Pound to Katue Kitasono and Yasotaro Morri
TLS-2 Anno XVII, Via Marsala 12-5, Rapallo, with Gaudier-Brzeska profile head. 28 October 1939
Dear K/K/ and Dear Mr. Morri
(or Dear K. K. will you please pass on this letter to Mr. Morri? )
You may have wondered where and why etc. {I have been. ) 1 reed. Mr. Morri's letter while in America. No copy of the Japan Times, for 1st sun- day in June has reached me. May have gone astray. Mr. M. said it wd. contain my note on Yeats.
As you can imagine, the war interferes with one's income.
The proper way for occidental to learn ideogram is with an interpage or interlinear crib.
Will you write to
Science Service
2101 Constitution Ave
Washington D. C. , U. S. A. for information re/ microfilm reader
and their service.
That ought to accelerate the availability of the 100 best ideogramic and Japanese texts in the original.
? 64 SECTIONII: 1936-66
From that we cd/ get on with at least typescript translations. Price of projectors should come down. Do you know, or can you find out what Tokio University has done along these lines?
I am doing what I can to stir up the Washington people both about mu- sic study and oriental studies by means of this new system.
It will encourage them to hear from Japan, and of course col- laboration between the two governments should follow. Here is a field where there can be no clash of interests, and where better understanding between the two peoples wd/ be automaticly promoted.
Kagekiyo and Kumasaka can not be boycotted like silk stock- ings. I hear there is a professor in the University of Formosa whose good offices we might enlist.
When dealing with government departments, it is always well to get someone whose respectability is official.
I believe I am now almost officially respectable because I am part of the Institute of Arts and Letters. But I am not really respectab- le . . . among the idiots of the more reactionary American un- iversities . . . not yet. Although a very small Western college has at last invited me to profess in the wilderness.
//another point/ you better write to Harcourt, Brace and co.
383 Madison Ave. New York
for review copy of e:e:cummings' poems. (Collected Poems. ) Laughlin will have sent you W. C. Williams' Life on the Passaic River, these are the two best American books of the season. We have a couple of good historians. W. E. Woodward, New American History/ and Claude Bowers' Tragic Era. Bowers is now ambassador to Spain.
The University of Tokio and yr/ government departments can certainly afford Argus microfilm reader-projectors.
I don't know what you Japs have done in the way of lense grinding. The Germans will certainly make much cheaper projectors soon. Poets etc/ can not afford Argus de luxe microfilm readers, simpler mechanism can be made by almost any good optician, I think. At any rate Fox recom- mended me to have one made locally.
In any case if your lense industry isn't developed, you cd/ get German lenses and do the rest as well or better than occidentals.
Delphian Quarterly, 307 North Michigan Ave. , Chicago would probably exchange with VOU, if you send them current issue of VOU and say you
? SECTIONII: 1936-66 65
wd/ like to see Olga Rudge's article on Vivaldi and my curse on Amer- ican University torpor.
there is never time enough to write everything in one letter.
ever
Ezra Pound
66: Ezra Pound to Katue Kitasono
TLS-2 Anno XVI, Via Marsala 12-5, Rapallo, with Gaudier-Brzeska profile head. 2 June 1938
Dear Kitasono
I don't yet know enough to deal properly with the rest of Fenollosa's notes. I have a good translation of the Li Ki (Bk of Cere- monies, with the original text, french and latin).
I am in the middle of de Mailla's Histoire Generaie de la Chinel transla- tion of Tong Kien Kang Mou/ but only in french; not printed with the original.
Do you know of any (good) History of Japan, translated into any eu- ropean language from original sources?
//
I have found mention of the "Ti-san" sort of notes left by Emperor Tai- tsong/ Tang a. d. 648, for his son.
I am trying to think out the "100 best books" for proper Ideogramic library/
Possibly this ought to be one of them? If it still exists.
The first government note (state ticket not bank note) that I have yet found record of is of Kao tsong 650/ but the form already de- veloped, so I suppose Tai tsong knew the system. Sane economics, very interesting.
BUT all this is Chinese/ Whether de Mailla gets round to notice of inter- course with Japan later, I dont know. At least by 800 a. d. there ought to be Japanese records// in detail/
What sort of Japanese history do you people get in schools?
? 66 SECTIONII: 1936-66
Also Japanese poetry before the Noh? Another awful blank in my ac- quaintance.
Prof. Mori seems to have treated the literature (or FenoL/ has left notes showing)
Chinese poetry/
///// Noh <2 vols of Japanese short poems. )
and a lot of notes in which the chronology isn't very clear.
Mr. Matsumiya hasn't sent on his typescript/ 1 think he is worrying too much about getting it entirely free from small defects of english. //
Pardon brevity/
(Tai tsong very respectable emperor. )
67: Ezra Pound to Katue Kitasono TCS-1 Via Marsala 12-5. 10 July 1938
Dear K
Duncan (Townsman at 6d. ) hasn't means to publish music.
E. P.
Miss R/ has played me the separate parts of Isida's. but we haven't the three instruments here to do the whole thing.
Duncan says you want it returned so am sending it.
cordiali saluti EP
68: Katue Kitasono to Ezra Pound TLS-3 Tokio, Japan. 23 July 1938
Dear Mr. Ezra Pound,
Thank you for your letters of May 5 and July 2.
In Formosa the climate is not good and I cannot encourage you to
become a professor there.
I think Tokio Imperial University or Kyoto Imperial University is most
suitable to you.
? SECTIONII: 1936-66 67
I will watch to obtain such an opportunity, if you wish.
Reading your "Notes on Micro-Photography" in May's issue of GJobe, I see how effectively this new system is acting on musical study.
Indeed it's a splendid idea to use it on the Oriental study, and of course we Japanese ought to willingly cooperate with you.
In Japan, so far as I know, nobody has turned his attention to the utilization of micro-photography on musical and Oriental studies.
I will speak about this on every occasion.
I don't think Japan is in financial embarrassment.
I am sorry I couldn't find out a Japanese history translated from the
original. I promise you to send it, as soon as I will find a good one.
As for the "Ti-San," (
790).
An anthology of Waka { i^o r^"^ ] or Vta [ -sj"/^
i^ ^^>>
) we have some records, but not so detailed. I suppose it may be just in the same degree as mentioned in
Mailla's Chinese History.
The source of Japanese poetry was ( t^ '^ -^ )
^ ^,
) (a form of short poem consisting of 31 letters [syllables]). This is in 20 volumes. Next we have Kokinsyu ( "^ ^ -? ^ ), also an anthology of waka (790-1190). And then we have Sinkokinsyu [ %'^ '^ ^ %: ] (1190-1603). Noh
( fi^L ) plays were in full flourish in this period.
Chinese poetry was carried on through all the ages, sometimes over-
whelming \NQka and sometimes being subdued by VV^aka.
Of course, this is a terribly rough explanation. I will write you again
about this more minutely.
Thank you very much for your Guide to Kulchur, a very pleasant book,
which will make the world march at double-quick for half a century. Faber & Faber wrote me to send back your essay "No, Diplomacy can
not do it" for an advance copy.
But the other day I lend it to an editor of a professional literary maga-
zine, because I wanted to let many more readers besides VOU read it. Then the editor suddenly died, and I have barely taken back your copy. But the first one page has been missing, and they are very sorry that they can
not find it out.
I have retranslated that part from the Japanese one in VOU. Will you
please improve it into your own?
This is an inexcusable blunder.
I wish you will be lenient with me.
Very glad of Miss Mary's nice dessins, very becoming illustrations to
her narratives.
it -s; fir
Manyosyu (670-
? 68 SECTIONII: 1936-66
Under separate cover I am sending you A Guide to Japanese Studies, and some pamphlets.
If there are any books you want in the catalogue of K. B. S. publications, please tell me and I will arrange them to be sent you. And also any foreign books relating to Japan published even in foreign countries, will be sent you, if you like. Any copies you and your friends may need.
Do you wish any Japanese-English dictionary?
Enclosed:
No, Diplomacy Can Not Do It
I
This title has been taken from the discourse with a Japanese diplomatist; we were talking about the mutual understanding between the Orient and the Occident.
I am convinced that the philosophy of Confucius and Mencius is the cogent convergence. Buddhism came from India and in the Occident, they have Christianity similar to Buddhism. The two doctrines do not lead to clear thinking or at least to such a calm clearness as men of different races can understand in each other.
Ernest Fenollosa who would have been respected in his lifetime in Japan, but he and his work, so far as we Occidentals know, was almost forgotten away as soon as he was buried in the sacred ground of Miidera.
It was a right permitted to me to preserve some of his work in the Occident, exerting myself in the obscurity and the unknown. If I couldn't get Japanese cooperation from Japan, it was perhaps because I didn't know the means to get it.
FenoUosa's note on Noh play has, at least, stimulated Yeats to the experiment of new drama.
Still now, the impression of poetry of Noh play is often expressed in a small theatre of England, and one of them was announced by televie.
Yours ever, Katue Kitasono
? SECTIONII: 1936-66 69
69: Katue Kitasono to Ezra Pound TLS-l Tokio, Japan. 23 August 1938
Dear Ezra Pound,
I am sorry I cannot find you a book on Japanese history translated from theoriginal. ButI wastoldthatJapan;AShortCuituraJHistorybyG. B. Sansom (London: The Cresset Press, 1931) is written comparatively in detail. The author had been in Japan for some twenty years. If you have not read it yet and wish to read, I will send you.
I wrote of your Guide to KuJchur in Sept. issue of Mita Bungaku which is a literary magazine published monthly by those who concern Keioh Gijiku University in Tokio.
Mr. T. Kinosita, one of the editors, will send you a copy. He sometimes writes an essay for VOU, though not a member.
ever yours, Katue Kiiasono
70: Ezra Pound to Katue Kitasono
TLS-l Anno XVII, Via Marsala 12-5, Rapallo, with Gaudier-Brzeska profile head. 10 December 1938
Dear K/K
Thanks very much for Cactus 1/ 1 have copied the lines on Wyn- dham L/ and am sending them to Duncan.
I dont yet know enough ideogram to form an opinion of the original/ and of course have no idea of its sound.
I suppose a world of perspective is inhabitable and one of approaching projectiles is not.
Have just seen W/L/ in London, (his) Head on duck/ he has done new portrait of me/
you can judge the two worlds when you get a photo of it/ which I will send when 1 get one.
theWyndhamdrawing(doneabout1912)that1 havebroughtbackisbet- ter than the Max Ernst that Laughlin introduced here circuitously. The Max that I had from him (Max) seven years ago is very fine.
In fact it goes away and the other Max approaches revolving. / If I don't send this brief note now, it will be lost in mountain of papers.
ever EP
? 70 SECTIONII: 1936-66
71: Katue Kitasono to Maria Pound ALS-1 Tokyo, Japan. 25 December 1938
My dear Maria,
I wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. I have translated the charming stories about Tyrol into Japanese and have contributed them to the Reijo Kai for current number. I am sending it to you under separate cover.
This is the most refined girl's monthly in Japan and cj "^ ^ means "girl's circle. "
I think Japanese girls have been attracted by your beautiful stories and touched by your tender heart for the poor.
Ihavesubscribedforthe" J"^^^ "forayearasarewardtoyou,and so you will see it every month hereafter.
I wish you will write again about interesting things for Japanese girls.
ever yours Katue Kitasono
72: Ezra Pound to Katue Kitasono
TLS-2 Anno XVII, Via Marsala 12-5, Rapallo, with Gaudier-Brzeska profile head. 14 January 1939
Dear K 2?
I trust my daughter will be properly sensible to the honour of being translated by you and that she wont get a swelled head.
I am telling my American bank to bother you with a draft for ten bucks (i. e. dollars] for various small errands. (For which any apolo- gy, but I have no other means to hand. )
I tried a year ago to get the Tokio or Japan Times but they re- turned my personal cheque saying they couldn't cash it. I dont think they can have tried very hard.
However when you do get the (bank) cheque will you send me 8 copies of the Girl's Circle containing "gais or the Beauties of the Tyrol. " (as discipline for other members of the family. ) and one month of the Japan Times, (and hold the rest of the ten bucks for future trials). NouseinmygettingalongersubscriptionoftheTimes(now)asI may
? SECTIONII: 1936-66 7^
beinAmericaoratanyratenotinRapalloafterMarcii. I willstarttak- ing it again when I settle for the Autumn.
It is great fun having the child make a debut at such distance. I hope it will have a civilizing effect (on her). School hasn't quite quen- ched her intelligence. But of course impossible to tell whether she will ever be able to write anything again after having been taught Grammar etc/
Her English is now more Japanese than any Japanese english from Tokio. The idea that dont and cant contain both verb and negative, just wont enter her head.
Her mother holds me personally responsible for effect of Amer- ican magazine illustrations on Japan, despite Fenollosa's efforts the other way.
Porteus has a word about VOU in the last Criterion.
Williams' Life on the Passaic River might interest you. In fact some of that ought to be of interest to Tokio editors.
I suppose Laughlin sends you his pubctns/
and so forth. ever
Ezra Pound
73: Katue Kitasono to Ezra Pound
TLS-1 vou CLUB 1649 1-tiome-nisi magome-mati, omoriku, tokio. 10 February 1939
My dear Pound,
I have just received your letter dated Jan. 14.
It's pleasant that the young debutante is very satisfied. A hundred years after, Mary's idea about can't and don't will go current, I believe.
I told them to send you the Japan Times from Feb. 7 for a month, and I have despatched 8 copies of Reijyokai to you. It pleases us that Mary's mother, too, has a good will on my country.
Though we have a rise in prices in some degree in Japan, our life is little changed, we are very peaceful.
The general concern with cultural affairs has become more active than before.
? 72
SECTIONII: 1936-66
Two young poets from VOU have gone to the front. They often write me lively. Even in the battle field, they wish to read books in high class rather than amusing books.
The other day received a letter from Charles Henri Ford inviting us to their Chain poem, and we decided to make 6 from us join in it.
with good wishes, Katue YAiasono
74: Ezra Pound to Katue Kitasono
TLS-2 Anno XVII, Via Marsala 12-5, Rapallo, with Gaudier-Brzeska profile head. 3 March 1939
Dear K 2?
Thanks for yours of 10th Feb. Townsman wd/ 1 think like the names of the two poets at the front.
//
I have (had strong) nostalgia for Japan, induced by the fragment of Noh in Miisnco. If you can continue such films nothing in the West can re- sist. We shall expect you at last to deliver us from Hollywood and un- bounded cheapness.
ALL the Noh plays ought to be filmed/ or at any rate all the music shd/ be recorded on the sound \. vQiC\^.
It must be 16 years since 1 heard a note of Noh (Kume [Tami] and his friends sang to me in Paris] but the instant the Noh (all too little of it in that film] sounded I knew it.
It is like no other music.
There is a mention of Japan at the edge of my Chinese Cantos/ now on desk, hope to publish in Autumn
52/61 China/ 62/71 John Adams, pater patriae U. S. A. more than Wash- ington or Jefferson/ though all three essential and (aJI) betrayed by the first congress.
I must go on making clean typescript of them. Now on Canto 67 I want a "Tong Kien Kang Mou"
of Japan
and a translation of the economic volume of the Chinese encyclopedia. I
? SECTIONII: 1936-66
I'i
think it is vol 3/ I havea
Nipon O Y)q\ itsi ran
but it is mere chronicle, as far as I have time to read.
(Klaproth, translation) (here's io meeting Sometime. )
75: Katue Kitasono to Ezra Pound
TLS-1 vou CLUB 1649 1-tiome-nisi magome-mati, omoriku, tokio. 7 March 1939
Dear Mr. Ezra Pound,
I got, all right, the cheque of 10 dollars issued by Jenkintown Bank, and cashed it Y36. 60 in Japanese currency.
I paid for the /apan Times, as you will see in the enclosed. On that occasion I met Mr. Moori, the chief editor of the /apan Times, and told him of your hope of writing culture news for Tokio as you told me last year.
I ought to have met him more quickly, because he agreed to this proposal with his all heart.
If you hadn't yet given up your desire (how I hope you hadn't], I would pray you to write and send it to me.
We are expecting to it.
I received a very lonely letter in English from Mary.
Ever yours, Katue YAidsono
76: Ezra Pound to Katue Kitasono
TLS-l Anno XVII, Via Marsala 12-5, Rapallo, with Gaudier-Brzeska profile head. 10 March 1939
Dear K/
I enclose review copy of my latest and shortest book. I hope the
Yours
Ezra Pound
? 74. SECTIONII: 1936-66
Times (Japan Times] will review it. It contains the part of American his- tory NOT taught in American Universities/ Rothschild and Sassoon wd/ spend millions to maintain their system of murder (by world wars etc. ) and for 120 years the understanding of this page has been obscured.
Roosevelt's gang are unlikely to introduce this text book in American schools.
The great infamies/ Bank of England and Banque de France dare not face this one page.
Japan Times (First lot, arrived this morning. )
11: Katue Kitasono to Ezra Pound TCS-1 [Tokyo]. 20 March 1939
Dear Ezra Pound,
Yours EP
I fear 1 might have astonished the bon papa of Mary by writing in my former letter, "I received a very lonely letter from Mary. "
It was, of course, a very lovely letter that she gave me. Please disregard the mistype of my forefinger.
ever yours Katue
78: Ezra Pound to Katue Kitasono
TLS-2 Anno XVII, Via Marsala 12-5, Rapallo, with Gaudier-Brzeska profile head. 27 March 1939
Dear K 2?
Sincere thanks for all your various disbursements of energy. I am sending two brief notes for the Japan Times.
Please salute Mr. Morri, and between you let me know more ex- actly what you want me to do.
I mean:Howoften? How long?
Whether I am to stick to art, music and poetry or whether I am allowed to consider the arts as happening in an ambience, expressive of states of
? SECTIONII: 1936-66 75
mind coincident with different dispositions toward organized society.
I have been cited in Italian press as "poeta economista" Will the Japan Times stand that?
I send two brief notes, rather than one long one, as the subjects do not form a unity.
Also short notices are more convenient for a newspaper. Cultural NEWS?
How far does Mr. Morri want me to "hold down" to notices of events, and how far am I to criticize them?
///
In all cases will he understand that my writing is subject to his editing. He can cut whatever he thinks is of no interest to his readers, and I will not take offence.
I expect to go to America. Does he want any special reports from there? Whether on art or the state of the general mind?
I have been out of that country for 28 years and don't know what I can effect. I should like my trip to result in better triple understanding (Japan/America/Italy). But I am not on a mission or anything save my own affairs.
in any case please answer
E. Pound (to await arrival)
c/o I/B. Mapel, 3301 P. Street, Washington D. C. , U. S. A.
/// ///
I trust my beloved young novelist isn't wringing your heart with sob stuff. The copies of her first opus have all arrived safely.
//
I should think a monthly letter wd/ be the best thing for me to do for the //Times but do ask Mr. Morri to write me and say what he thinks wd/ be best. Also the editor alone knows what space he has free for these fea- tures.
You spell him "Moori"/ The Times spells it "Morri" the address on yr/ printed stationery differs from that I have used for several years and which has worked. One of Fenollosa's friends was "Mori" with one r.
And what you will make of "Shinbu," "Miaco" and "Undertree's inva- sion of Corea" in my 62/71 Cantos, I dont know. Spelling is very mysterious. The "mandate" has shifted. Did you see my Mencius in the Criterion last summer? (possibly unfashionable author? how can I tell? )
ever E. P.
? 76 SECTIONII: 1936-66
79: Katue Kitasono to Ezra Pound
TLS-2 vou CLUB 1649 1-tiome-nisi magome-mati, omoriku, tokio. 11 April 1939
Mr. Ezra Pound,
I received your letters March 3, and March 10. 1 tried in vain to assign "Tong kien kang mou" to ideograms. You must be patient and give me a few explanatory words about it, or rather the ideograms themselves.
In Tokio I couldn't find the translation of Chinese Encyclopedia. But at any rate I am making inquiry about it to Peking.
I wrote a short review of your introductory Text Book and sent it to the Japan Times. I will send you the paper, as soon as it will be printed.
I agree with you on the debouchement to the West of Noh plays by films and gramophone records. Some of Noh plays are recorded, I ask if you have any.
Duncan has written to me to find for him some early Chinese plays, but at present there are no adequate ones.
The Chinese incident, however, has stimulated Japan to more profound study of China, and so we shall soon be able to get easily many Chinese books.
I have become very imaginative about your Chinese Cantos.
I have read the echo of VOU in the last number of Criterion.
I only hope the coming of the day when we shall be compensated for the
sacrifice we are now making for superior culture in the West and in the East. We are growing international chainpoems by the proposal of Charles
Henri Ford in America.
The scores of Igor Markewitch have recently arrived at my friend.
Ever yours, Katue Kitasono
80: Katue Kitasono to Ezra Pound
TLS-2 vou CLUB 1649 1-tiome-nisi magome-mati, omoriku, tokio. 28 April 1939
Dear Ezra Pound:
Thank you for the letter March 17. The articles you kindly sent for the ]apan Times are very interesting to us.
? SECTIONII: 1936-66 77
Immediately I handed them over to Mr. Moori.
I think he will soon write to you, but at any rate 1 tell you. He wish you to write on anything concerned with culture. It is left to your own free will how far to hold down to notices of events and how far to criticize them.
Mr. Moori, especially wants to have your reports from America. In short Mr. Moori trusts me and I trust your sense, and so you can write everything in your own way.
The Japan Times would be very grateful, if you could write twice a month, within 2,000 words each time.
Mr. Moori is very sorry for that the payment for your manuscripts will prove very small owing to the bad condition of foreign exchange.
I ask if you would permit me to translate your manuscripts for ]IT and print them in Japanese journal. A few days ago the young writer in Firenze pleaded me with a letter promising to try to write about her college life during the vacation. Hereafter I send the magazine directly to her.
Many thanks for the sending of the Picture Post. Mr. Lewis has made a great progress in his painting, I think. It's very funny that Royal Academy was so much afraid of his leonine head.
It seems to me, however, his dessin is too much stretched out like Greco or Modigliani, but it gives to his portrait a sort of nobility which I like as
well as that of Greco or Modigliani. ^
I spell by Japanese system (but not faithful, sometimes change as I like), and Mr. Moori does by the old system, not being banned its use.
I expect next manuscript from you in America.
Wishing you bon voyage. ever yours.
Katue Kitasono
The regrettable death of Yeats had instantly been reported within Japan by radio, newspapers, and magazines.
It's a great pity that Bwletto and Criterion have ceased their publica- tion; oui various literary magazines have written about the latter.
^
-j^j^ , and Mr. Moori is ^ if^'J . There
Fenollosa's friend Dr. Mori is
had been long used the Hepburn system of Romaji (writing of the spoken Japanese language in an ordinary foreign alphabet) until a new one, the Japanese Romaji was officially agreed several years ago.
--
78 SECTIONII: 1936-66
81: Yasotaro Morri to Ezra Pound
TLS-1 The Japan Times, Hibiya Park. 15 May 1939
Dear Mr. Ezra Pound
Thank you for your articles. One about the tri-lingual international means of communications is published in paper of May 14, a copy of which I'm mailing to you under separate cover. The other, concerning Yeats, we'll publish in our Book Page, on the first Sunday of June.
We shall be pleased to have you send us something of literary nature dealing with the general literary trend, or with some big giants in the literary world or something of the sort. It is quite refreshing to read articles, specially written for our paper by a person of your prominence, regarding the literary matters, when we have enough of "dopes" dealing with crises, war threats and general unrest.
The length of that tri-lingual article is just right. More later; I just dash these lines to acknowledge the receipt of your articles from Mr. Kitasono some time ago.
Trusting this will find you well,
Yours truly, Yasotaro Morri
N. B. --Going over a copy of your letter to Mr. Kitasono, 1 think 1 should say something more. You may give us three articles a month or four. More than, we may be imposing too much on you.
Art, poetry, music--all right. So is cultural news. We know you are not on a special mission to iron out the Japan-U. S. relations, if ever there are any jagged surface, but naturally would prefer nothing which will provoke Americans in political issues. Kindly stick to literary subjects; if your criticism of current American literature is found unfavorable to Americans, for instance, it can't be helped. Have I said sufficiently to indicate what we want?
? ? SECTIONII: 1936-66 79
82: Ezra Pound to Katue Kitasono and Yasotaro Morri
TLS-2 Anno XVII, Via Marsala 12-5, Rapallo, with Gaudier-Brzeska profile head. 28 October 1939
Dear K/K/ and Dear Mr. Morri
(or Dear K. K. will you please pass on this letter to Mr. Morri? )
You may have wondered where and why etc. {I have been. ) 1 reed. Mr. Morri's letter while in America. No copy of the Japan Times, for 1st sun- day in June has reached me. May have gone astray. Mr. M. said it wd. contain my note on Yeats.
As you can imagine, the war interferes with one's income.
