The "every peasant" con- cerns Indian farmers who ought not be politically
inactive
no matter how hot the day or how many flies are around.
A-Companion-to-the-Cantos-of-Ezra-Pound-II
Romano Ramona: Prob.
a guard in the
DTC cadre.
116. VA1): H, "shit. "
117. Margherita: An abandoned child brought up by the same family Mary was housed with. Everyone called her Margit. On a visit once Pound brought little Mary "a diapason" (tuning fork) as a gift: "He said it served to set the right tone when singing or playing an instrument. I said Margherita could give the right tone by ear and if we sang at two voices she first started out on my note and then found hers"
[M de R, 44].
118. 0 . . . griefs: Reminiscence of Hopkins,
"Spring and Fall: To a young child," a
IS-line lyric which starts, "Margaret, are you
grieving. " [MSB note: "Margaret Cravens committed suicide back in 1912. "]
119. Lanier: Sidney L. , 1842-1881, Ameri- can poet and musician who wrote The Symphony, a long epic poem in which he discusses the interaction of trade and ethics
[89:123]_
120. Jeff Davis: Jefferson D. , 1808-1889, president of the Confederate States of America (1861-1865).
121. Atreus: King of Mycenae_ Son of
Pelops, who brought a curse on his house. Thyestes, Atreus's brother, seduced Atreus's wife; Atreus murdered three of the four sons of Thyestes and served them to their father. Thyestes iaid a curse on the house of Atreus which descended upon his sons, Agamemnon and Menelaus: hence, the doom which seemed to haunt the South as a similar curse.
77/471-472 122. Mercury: The Roman equivalent of the
god Hermes; the caduceus o f Mercury,
the insignia of the medical branch of the U. S. Army, is a wing-topped staff with two snakes winding about it.
123. Buddha: The past participle of the verb budon ("to enlighten"). Thus Gautama Siddhatha became "the Enlightened One" and the central prophet of certain branches of Hindu-Sino-Japanese religions. Pound's anti-Buddhist bias [98: 65-67] makes the phrase "Born with B's eye" pejorative.
124. Mason and Dil<on: The imaginary line
that separated slave states in the South from nonslave states in the North. From the English astronomers Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon, who surveyed the line between Pennsylvania and Maryland.
125. lis . . . existence: F, "They don't exist,
their surroundings confer an existence upon them. "
126. Emanuel Swedenborg: 1688-1772, the
Swedish scientist and inventor who after 1747 became a visionary and religious writer because of what he took to be divine revela- tion. His theosophic system as set forth in Divine Love and Wisdom rhymes with Pound's light / intelligence metaphors for divinity manifest in the universe. In ES a divine sphere, which emanates from God, appears in the spiritual world as a sun from which flows the sun of the natural world: "The spiritual sun is the source of love and intelligence, or life, and the natural sun the source of nature or the receptacles of life. " There are three spheres all deriving from God incarnate as the Word in Scripture: "This word is an eternal incarnation, with its threefold sense-natural, spiritual, celestial. " It is in the celestial sphere that one should not argue.
127. the lotus: In Oriental religions, the
lotus rhymes somewhat with the "multi- foliate rose" of the West. Pounri may con- ceive it as above the "celestial sphere" because it stands finally for the source of all spheres: "The lotus flower growing out of the navel of Vishnu symbolizes the universe
77/472
growing out of the central sun-the central point or the 'unmoved mover'. . . . In lotus symbolism, the idea of emanation and of realization predominated over that o f the hidden Centre, which is a Western accretion"
[Cirlot, 185].
128. nenuphar: The European water lily or lotus.
129. Kuanon: [74:81].
130. Lethe: [74:505].
131. Barzun: Henri-Martin B. (b. 1881), a
French poet and critic who advocated simultaneisme, an idea Pound discussed in "The Approach to Paris, VII": "Barzun has an idea that we should write poems like orchestral scores with a dozen voices at once . . . I suppose one could learn to read five or ten at once . . . . Of course, there are any number of objections" [New Age, Oct. 16, 1913, 728]. But in a letter to John Quinn in 1918, Pound refers to Barzun as among the lunatics with the Lowells and
Lindsays [L, 134] .
132. anno domini: L, "year of the Lord. "
133. raison: F, "argument" or "proof. " Pound valued Barzun's maxim "Pourquoi doubler ! 'image? " and may well be referring
411
to this idea rather than
[cf. 131 above] [HK].
134. old Andre: A. Spire,
simultaneism
1868-1966,
in returning them lest his servante should see what I was carrying" [PE, 129].
135. Rousselot: Abbe Jean Pierre R. , 1846- 1924, French pioneer in experimental phonetics and in the study of dialect as related to geography and genealogy; author of Precis de Prononciation Franraise (1902). Said Pound: "M. Rousselot . . . had made a machine for measuring the duration o f verbal components" [ibid. ]. Pound wrote in 1920: "M. l'Abbe made such handy little discoveries for . . . the locating of sub- marines, . . . the cannon is just a large beast that roars, and the submarine is someone walking who cannot absolutly muffle the sounds of his footsteps" [Dial, Dec. 1920].
136. De Sousa: Robert de Souza, 1865- 1946, a minor French symbolist poet [cf. 134 above].
137. fin oreille: [fine oreille]: P, "a good
ear. "
138. "Un cure . . . cteguise: F, "A disguised
priest . . . Looks to me like a disguised priest. " At the door / "Don't know, Sir, he looks like a disguised priest. "
139. Cocteau: [74:246].
140. Maritain: Jacques M. , 1882-1973,
French neo-Thomist theologian and
philosopher.
141. men of letters: Cocteau is disguised as HZ" here: " 'I thought I was among men of letters,' said Z. 'and suddenly saw they were garage assistants' " [GK,89].
142_ Daudet: Leon D. , 1867-1942, son of Alphonse Daudet, was a leader of the Royalist Action Franraise and one of the ten members of the Goneourt Academy who held an annual meeting in the Restaurant Drouant [SH, Paris, 343]. An arch conserva- tive, he would be unlikely to help elect Cocteau as a member.
143. Academie Goncourt: F, "the Goncourt Academy," founded in the will of Edmond G. to encourage letters. The Academy elects meritorious writers as members and makes
French poet and strong advocate of Zionism.
Said Pound: "(I have not counted the
successes in Spire's new volume Le Secret, but it contains abundant proof that Andre Spire is a poet, however much time he may spend in being a Zionist, or in the bonds of
[Dial, LXIX,
necessity"
407]. Also, "Allowing for personal differ- ence, J should say that Spire and Arcos write 'more or less as I do myself" [LE, 288]. Again in "Retrospect: Interlude": "There was in those days still a Parisian research for technique. Spire wrangled as if vers libre were a political doctrine. De Souza had what the old Abbe called une oreWe Ires fine, but he, the Abbe, wrapped up De Souza's poems and asked me to do likewise
4 Oct.
1920, p.
? 412
77/472-473
77/473-474
156. (del Cossa):
1435-1477, Italian
Glorification of March, April, and May frescoes in the Schifanoia Palace.
157. SI. Louis Till: [74:116].
158. Green: [74:256].
159. Hobo Williams: DTC trainee.
160. Crawford: DTC trainee. The fragments in quotes here and elsewhere in the Pisan Cantos are meant to characterize the quality or nature of the repartee floating to Pound's ears as he sat typing in the medical tent. He said that you can tell who is talking by the noises they make.
161. Roma . . . terras: L, "Fleeing to Rome from the land of the Sabines," variant spelling of Horace line [Satires II, 6; 78 :34].
162. Sligo: County in Ireland Yeats was fond of.
163. uncle William: W. B. Yeats. He lived at Rapallo (about one-half of each year from 1928 to 1934), which is situated on the Gulf of Tigullio. He seems to have remarked once that the misty scene evoked a kind of paradisal Sligo.
164. Mr Joyce: James J. , the Irish novelist Pound spent years promoting.
165. Kitson: Arthur K. , 1860-1937, British author who wrote a number of works on money and monetary systems which Pound publicized, such as The Money Problem, Trade Fallacies, and A Fraudulent Standard. Pound mentions him often among the truth-tellers about money [SP, 179,339, 341,448].
166. Vetta: I, "summit. " Name given to the Portofino Promontory, a public park near Rapallo.
413 him for lengthy periods in the late 20s and
early 30s in Rapallo. Pound dedicated Guide to Kulchur to Bunting and Zukofsky. Bunting learned classical Persian in order to translate parts of the Shah Namah for Ezra and Dorothy Pound. By this means, he became overwhelmed by the musical nature of Persian poetry [CFT, Bunting, 53-55; 81:19].
171. Shah Nameh: or Shah Namah [The book of kings], the great Persian epic composed during the years around A. D. 1000.
172. Firdush': Firdausi, ca. 940-1020, the nom de plume of Abul Kasim Mansur, author of the Shah Namah. The characters are his name in Persian.
173. Kabir: One of the 12 disciples of Ramananda and a notable reformer who flourished in northern India 1400-1450. Myth has it that he was exposed as an infant and found on a lotus in a pond near Benares. His teaching aimed at the fusion of Hindu- ism and Islam and he was famous for speak- ing in the tongue of the people, a quality that may have endeared him to Pound, who, with Kali Mohan Ghose, translated some of his poetry: "Certain Poems of Kabir" appeared in The Modern Review (Calcutta), vol. 13, no. 6, Jan. 1913, 611-613 [Fang, IV, 30]. The refrain "Thus said Kabir" occurs often in the poems.
174. Rabindranath: R. Tagore, 1861-1941, the Bengali poet who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1931. Pound knew him over the years and admired and pro- moted his work. He also (with Evelyn Underhill) translated Kabir (Songs o f Kabir, 1915).
175. Sir Montagu: Sir Montague de Pomeroy Webb [74:32].
The "every peasant" con- cerns Indian farmers who ought not be politically inactive no matter how hot the day or how many flies are around.
176. bunya: [banya]: Hindu, "money- lender. "
177. hypostasis: [81:55].
an annual award for fiction known as the Goneaurt Prize.
144. La Comtesse . . . : Rousseliere-Clouard, who married in 1901 Guillaume-Joseph-Marie, Comte de Rohan- Chabot. Her salon is mentioned by Huddleston [ibid. , 156] .
145. Mr Martin: The Comtesse de Rohan lived in Paris at 39 avo Henri-Martin. Pound may have recalled the address, which sug- gested another Martin, Joseph William M. , 1884-1968, Republican representative from Mass. (from 1925) who became a powerful leader during WWIl. His wrong was to be against Uncle George Tinkham [76:176].
146. "30,000 . . . ": Pound said he had heard that someone's manager spent $30,000 "gettin' the nomination" when he could have had it for $6,000, which showed the "temporary debility of a so-called great party" [EP, Speaking, 208]. Prob. Alf Landon is the nominee [BK].
147. Landon: Alfred Mossman L. (b. 1887), American businessman, governor of Kansas (1933-1937), and Republican nominee for president in 1936.
148. Wendell Willkie: Wendell Lewis W. , 1892-1944, Republican nominee for presi- dent in 1940. Pound mentioned him 10 times in the broadcasts in unflattering terms as another weak victim of the international monetary conspiracy; e. g. , "And when you have got six hundred billion in debt _. . then will come Wee Willie Willkie or some other trump card . . . and quadrupple the burden, by putting you back onto a solid dollar, worth five Or ten the one wherein you got indebted" [Doob, Speaking, 328].
149. Roi . . . daigne: F, "I am not the king; I do not condescend to be the prince. " This is one of the several variants of the motto of the House of Rohan. Pound's version seems to derive from a reported reply of Mussolini to the king's offer to make him a noble_ M said: "No _. . a title of that kind would make me ridiculous. . . . I shan't be so vain as to say: Rai ne puis, prince ne daigne,
Rohan je suis, but I beg of you not to insist" [Fang, II, 189].
150. Citizen . . . ginocchion': Mussolini had been made an honorary citizen of Florence, June 12, 1923, a fact which recalls Farinata degli Dberti of the Commedia, about whom Mussolini had written: "he who, after the battle of Arbia, had saved the city of Florence from destruction at the hands of the Ghibelline Council, after their victory. Here he says: 'But I was the sole one there who, when all consented to destroy Florence, defended her with open face'" [Fang, II,
190].
151. Arbia: River near Siena.
152. "in gran dispitto": I, "with great disdain" [Int. X, 36] ; description of Dberti. Continuing the quote [150 above], we have: "Scornful, as if he held hell in great dis? dain . . . he rises from his torture to a battle of wits with his political enemy. " The passage is a favorite with Pound: "It is part of Dante's aristocracy that he conceded nothing to the world, or to opinion-like Farinata, he met his reverses, 'as if he held hell in great disdain'" [SR, 160; 78:79].
153_ King: Victor Emanuel. These lines concern Mussolini's henchmen, including Ciano [cf. 98 above], who used to obey orders, but who in the Fascist Grand Council meeting held during the night of July 24-25, 1943, divested M of his power. The king had to (and did) sign the decrees which also authorized Italy's surrender to the Allied Forces [78:1].
154. se casco . . . : I, "If I fall, I do not fall on my knees. " Bianca Capello, a Medici duchess of Florence, made this proud statement which Pound seems to think reflects the attitude of Mussolini, who did not surrender but went north to establish the Sal6 RepUblic.
ISS. Schifanoja:
built by Alberto d'Este in Ferrara in 1391, and extended by Borso d'Este [10:20], which is famous for the frescoes of Cosima Tura and Francesco del Cossa.
Francesco del C. , painter who did
fl. the
Nadajda
de la
Schifanoia. The
palace
167.
168.
169.
170. poet
Tellus-Helena: [cf. 75, 81 above]. Arno: [cf. 95 above].
"How is it . . . ": [cf. 30 above].
Basil: B. Bunting [74:153], English who knew Pound in Paris and visited
? 414
77/474-476
78/477 415
178. Hancock's wharf: [71/414].
179. Kohinoor: The most famous Indian diamond now among the British crown jewels.
180. Tom: A DTC trainee. The "tin disc" prob. refers to dog tags, the identification tag all service men are required to wear around the neck. It gives name and serial number.
181. Wanjina: [74:42].
182. obstruct future wars: A theme devel? oped at length in later cantos [88/passim; 89/passim].
183. Frascati:
central Italy. After Italy signed an armistice on Sept. 8, 1943, but before Eisenhower announced her unconditional surrender at 5:30 P. M. that day, "Flying Fortresses bombed the Roman suburb of Frascati, destroying German headquarters" [Miller, History, 702].
184. Das Barikgeschiift: G, "The banking business. "
185. Wabash: Fragment of popular Ameri? can song heard over DTe sound system: "The Wabash Cannonball. "
186. Ferrarese: Around Ferrara [8:30].
187. Taishan: [74:46].
188. Del Cossa: [cf. 156 above].
189. Schifanoja: [ef. 155 above]. The con- stellations Ram and Bull are shown in the Cossa paintings used as end papers in Dante and Pound, by J. Wilhelm.
and no. 2, 1927, 117; MIN, 232;SR, 120, 160; CON, 247, 248; GK, 247, 166, 246; Michael King, "Ezra Pound at Pisa: An Interview with John L. Steele," Texas Quarterly, Vol. XXI, no. 4, Winter 1978, 49-61 [King, "Steele"]; Ivancich, Ezra Pound in Italy, New York; Rizzoli, 1978; Thomas Taylor, the Platonist: Selected Writings, eds. Kathleen Raine and George Mills Harper, Princeton, 1969; Achilles Fang, "Materials for the Study of Pound's Cantos," Ph. D. dissertation, Harvard University, 1958, Vols. II, III, IV; H. Finer, Mussolini's Italy, New York, 1935; M. I. Rostovtzeff, History of the Ancient World, 1924-26, Social and Economic History o f the Hellenistic World, 1941; Lady Anne Blunt, The Celebrated Romance o f the Stealing o f the Mare, 1892; NS, Life, 243; Odon Por, Finanzia nuova (/taly's Policy of Social Economics, 1939-1940), Bergamo; Instituto d'Arte Grafiche, 1941; Harriet Wilson, Memoirs, 1825 (ed. J. Laver, 1929).
Exegeses
Peck, Pai, 1-1,3-37; Anderson, Pai, 6-2, 244, Pai, 5-1,47; M de R, Discretions, 190; Riccardo M. degli Uberti, "Ezra Pound and Ubaldo degli Uberti: History of a Friendship," Italian Quarterly, XVI, 64, Spring 1973, 95-107; Flory,Pai, 5-1, 45-52.
Glossary
T own in
Rarna Province,
192. Cassandra: Trojan prophetess who was
considered mad. Apollo gave her the gift of true prophecy but later ordained she should never be believed.
193. Sorella . . . zecchin': I,' "Sister, my sister / who danced on a golden sequin [coin]. " Perhaps, an Italian popular song heard on the DTC loudspeaker [78:3]. It connects with the "10 son 1a Luna" theme
[Nassar,Pai, 1-2,211].
194. Ch'eng: [M379] "to perfect. " The right component of [M3 81] is also "Ch'eng," which Pound uses for sincerity: "The precise definition of the word . . . "etc [76:57].
195. Zagreus: One of the various names of Dionysus [17:3].
196. Explication: Analects, Two, XXIV: "1. He said: To sacrifice to a spirit not one's own is flattery. 2. To see justice and not act upon it is cowardice" [CON,201].
CANTO LXXVIII
Sources
The Bible, Micah 4. 5; EP, CON, 247, 248; Homer, Od. VI, XXIV, I; James Legge, "The Works of Mencius," The Four Books, Shanghai, 1923 [Legge]; Virgil, Aeneid, trans. Bishop Gawin Davis.
Background
EP,SP, 313, 272, 261, 306,311,89,274-282,87;LE, 245,265; P, 252; ABCE, 119; PE, 101, 126;Exile, no. 4, Autumn 1928, 5,
1. Ida: [77:50] Perhaps a scene at the DTC with a number of people arguing (or gab- bling like geese) reminded Pound of the Judgment of Paris which was made on Mt. Ida and resulted in the abduction of Helen, the Trojan War, the enslavement of Cassan- dra, and so on. Or maybe an ironic reference to the peace treaty signed by King Emmanuel with the Allies [77:153].
2. pax mundi: L, "peace of the world. "
3. Sobr'unzecchin': [77:193]. Italianequiv- alent of "on a saxpence" [HK].
4. Cassandra: [77:192]. The image of eyes becomes more pronounced from here on in the Pisan Cantos [Peck, Pai, 1-1,3-37] .
5. war . . . come to an end: The bankers and munitions makers who promote and main- tain wars in order to sell guns and ammuni- tion. A recurrent theme early and late in the poem.
6.
DTC cadre.
116. VA1): H, "shit. "
117. Margherita: An abandoned child brought up by the same family Mary was housed with. Everyone called her Margit. On a visit once Pound brought little Mary "a diapason" (tuning fork) as a gift: "He said it served to set the right tone when singing or playing an instrument. I said Margherita could give the right tone by ear and if we sang at two voices she first started out on my note and then found hers"
[M de R, 44].
118. 0 . . . griefs: Reminiscence of Hopkins,
"Spring and Fall: To a young child," a
IS-line lyric which starts, "Margaret, are you
grieving. " [MSB note: "Margaret Cravens committed suicide back in 1912. "]
119. Lanier: Sidney L. , 1842-1881, Ameri- can poet and musician who wrote The Symphony, a long epic poem in which he discusses the interaction of trade and ethics
[89:123]_
120. Jeff Davis: Jefferson D. , 1808-1889, president of the Confederate States of America (1861-1865).
121. Atreus: King of Mycenae_ Son of
Pelops, who brought a curse on his house. Thyestes, Atreus's brother, seduced Atreus's wife; Atreus murdered three of the four sons of Thyestes and served them to their father. Thyestes iaid a curse on the house of Atreus which descended upon his sons, Agamemnon and Menelaus: hence, the doom which seemed to haunt the South as a similar curse.
77/471-472 122. Mercury: The Roman equivalent of the
god Hermes; the caduceus o f Mercury,
the insignia of the medical branch of the U. S. Army, is a wing-topped staff with two snakes winding about it.
123. Buddha: The past participle of the verb budon ("to enlighten"). Thus Gautama Siddhatha became "the Enlightened One" and the central prophet of certain branches of Hindu-Sino-Japanese religions. Pound's anti-Buddhist bias [98: 65-67] makes the phrase "Born with B's eye" pejorative.
124. Mason and Dil<on: The imaginary line
that separated slave states in the South from nonslave states in the North. From the English astronomers Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon, who surveyed the line between Pennsylvania and Maryland.
125. lis . . . existence: F, "They don't exist,
their surroundings confer an existence upon them. "
126. Emanuel Swedenborg: 1688-1772, the
Swedish scientist and inventor who after 1747 became a visionary and religious writer because of what he took to be divine revela- tion. His theosophic system as set forth in Divine Love and Wisdom rhymes with Pound's light / intelligence metaphors for divinity manifest in the universe. In ES a divine sphere, which emanates from God, appears in the spiritual world as a sun from which flows the sun of the natural world: "The spiritual sun is the source of love and intelligence, or life, and the natural sun the source of nature or the receptacles of life. " There are three spheres all deriving from God incarnate as the Word in Scripture: "This word is an eternal incarnation, with its threefold sense-natural, spiritual, celestial. " It is in the celestial sphere that one should not argue.
127. the lotus: In Oriental religions, the
lotus rhymes somewhat with the "multi- foliate rose" of the West. Pounri may con- ceive it as above the "celestial sphere" because it stands finally for the source of all spheres: "The lotus flower growing out of the navel of Vishnu symbolizes the universe
77/472
growing out of the central sun-the central point or the 'unmoved mover'. . . . In lotus symbolism, the idea of emanation and of realization predominated over that o f the hidden Centre, which is a Western accretion"
[Cirlot, 185].
128. nenuphar: The European water lily or lotus.
129. Kuanon: [74:81].
130. Lethe: [74:505].
131. Barzun: Henri-Martin B. (b. 1881), a
French poet and critic who advocated simultaneisme, an idea Pound discussed in "The Approach to Paris, VII": "Barzun has an idea that we should write poems like orchestral scores with a dozen voices at once . . . I suppose one could learn to read five or ten at once . . . . Of course, there are any number of objections" [New Age, Oct. 16, 1913, 728]. But in a letter to John Quinn in 1918, Pound refers to Barzun as among the lunatics with the Lowells and
Lindsays [L, 134] .
132. anno domini: L, "year of the Lord. "
133. raison: F, "argument" or "proof. " Pound valued Barzun's maxim "Pourquoi doubler ! 'image? " and may well be referring
411
to this idea rather than
[cf. 131 above] [HK].
134. old Andre: A. Spire,
simultaneism
1868-1966,
in returning them lest his servante should see what I was carrying" [PE, 129].
135. Rousselot: Abbe Jean Pierre R. , 1846- 1924, French pioneer in experimental phonetics and in the study of dialect as related to geography and genealogy; author of Precis de Prononciation Franraise (1902). Said Pound: "M. Rousselot . . . had made a machine for measuring the duration o f verbal components" [ibid. ]. Pound wrote in 1920: "M. l'Abbe made such handy little discoveries for . . . the locating of sub- marines, . . . the cannon is just a large beast that roars, and the submarine is someone walking who cannot absolutly muffle the sounds of his footsteps" [Dial, Dec. 1920].
136. De Sousa: Robert de Souza, 1865- 1946, a minor French symbolist poet [cf. 134 above].
137. fin oreille: [fine oreille]: P, "a good
ear. "
138. "Un cure . . . cteguise: F, "A disguised
priest . . . Looks to me like a disguised priest. " At the door / "Don't know, Sir, he looks like a disguised priest. "
139. Cocteau: [74:246].
140. Maritain: Jacques M. , 1882-1973,
French neo-Thomist theologian and
philosopher.
141. men of letters: Cocteau is disguised as HZ" here: " 'I thought I was among men of letters,' said Z. 'and suddenly saw they were garage assistants' " [GK,89].
142_ Daudet: Leon D. , 1867-1942, son of Alphonse Daudet, was a leader of the Royalist Action Franraise and one of the ten members of the Goneourt Academy who held an annual meeting in the Restaurant Drouant [SH, Paris, 343]. An arch conserva- tive, he would be unlikely to help elect Cocteau as a member.
143. Academie Goncourt: F, "the Goncourt Academy," founded in the will of Edmond G. to encourage letters. The Academy elects meritorious writers as members and makes
French poet and strong advocate of Zionism.
Said Pound: "(I have not counted the
successes in Spire's new volume Le Secret, but it contains abundant proof that Andre Spire is a poet, however much time he may spend in being a Zionist, or in the bonds of
[Dial, LXIX,
necessity"
407]. Also, "Allowing for personal differ- ence, J should say that Spire and Arcos write 'more or less as I do myself" [LE, 288]. Again in "Retrospect: Interlude": "There was in those days still a Parisian research for technique. Spire wrangled as if vers libre were a political doctrine. De Souza had what the old Abbe called une oreWe Ires fine, but he, the Abbe, wrapped up De Souza's poems and asked me to do likewise
4 Oct.
1920, p.
? 412
77/472-473
77/473-474
156. (del Cossa):
1435-1477, Italian
Glorification of March, April, and May frescoes in the Schifanoia Palace.
157. SI. Louis Till: [74:116].
158. Green: [74:256].
159. Hobo Williams: DTC trainee.
160. Crawford: DTC trainee. The fragments in quotes here and elsewhere in the Pisan Cantos are meant to characterize the quality or nature of the repartee floating to Pound's ears as he sat typing in the medical tent. He said that you can tell who is talking by the noises they make.
161. Roma . . . terras: L, "Fleeing to Rome from the land of the Sabines," variant spelling of Horace line [Satires II, 6; 78 :34].
162. Sligo: County in Ireland Yeats was fond of.
163. uncle William: W. B. Yeats. He lived at Rapallo (about one-half of each year from 1928 to 1934), which is situated on the Gulf of Tigullio. He seems to have remarked once that the misty scene evoked a kind of paradisal Sligo.
164. Mr Joyce: James J. , the Irish novelist Pound spent years promoting.
165. Kitson: Arthur K. , 1860-1937, British author who wrote a number of works on money and monetary systems which Pound publicized, such as The Money Problem, Trade Fallacies, and A Fraudulent Standard. Pound mentions him often among the truth-tellers about money [SP, 179,339, 341,448].
166. Vetta: I, "summit. " Name given to the Portofino Promontory, a public park near Rapallo.
413 him for lengthy periods in the late 20s and
early 30s in Rapallo. Pound dedicated Guide to Kulchur to Bunting and Zukofsky. Bunting learned classical Persian in order to translate parts of the Shah Namah for Ezra and Dorothy Pound. By this means, he became overwhelmed by the musical nature of Persian poetry [CFT, Bunting, 53-55; 81:19].
171. Shah Nameh: or Shah Namah [The book of kings], the great Persian epic composed during the years around A. D. 1000.
172. Firdush': Firdausi, ca. 940-1020, the nom de plume of Abul Kasim Mansur, author of the Shah Namah. The characters are his name in Persian.
173. Kabir: One of the 12 disciples of Ramananda and a notable reformer who flourished in northern India 1400-1450. Myth has it that he was exposed as an infant and found on a lotus in a pond near Benares. His teaching aimed at the fusion of Hindu- ism and Islam and he was famous for speak- ing in the tongue of the people, a quality that may have endeared him to Pound, who, with Kali Mohan Ghose, translated some of his poetry: "Certain Poems of Kabir" appeared in The Modern Review (Calcutta), vol. 13, no. 6, Jan. 1913, 611-613 [Fang, IV, 30]. The refrain "Thus said Kabir" occurs often in the poems.
174. Rabindranath: R. Tagore, 1861-1941, the Bengali poet who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1931. Pound knew him over the years and admired and pro- moted his work. He also (with Evelyn Underhill) translated Kabir (Songs o f Kabir, 1915).
175. Sir Montagu: Sir Montague de Pomeroy Webb [74:32].
The "every peasant" con- cerns Indian farmers who ought not be politically inactive no matter how hot the day or how many flies are around.
176. bunya: [banya]: Hindu, "money- lender. "
177. hypostasis: [81:55].
an annual award for fiction known as the Goneaurt Prize.
144. La Comtesse . . . : Rousseliere-Clouard, who married in 1901 Guillaume-Joseph-Marie, Comte de Rohan- Chabot. Her salon is mentioned by Huddleston [ibid. , 156] .
145. Mr Martin: The Comtesse de Rohan lived in Paris at 39 avo Henri-Martin. Pound may have recalled the address, which sug- gested another Martin, Joseph William M. , 1884-1968, Republican representative from Mass. (from 1925) who became a powerful leader during WWIl. His wrong was to be against Uncle George Tinkham [76:176].
146. "30,000 . . . ": Pound said he had heard that someone's manager spent $30,000 "gettin' the nomination" when he could have had it for $6,000, which showed the "temporary debility of a so-called great party" [EP, Speaking, 208]. Prob. Alf Landon is the nominee [BK].
147. Landon: Alfred Mossman L. (b. 1887), American businessman, governor of Kansas (1933-1937), and Republican nominee for president in 1936.
148. Wendell Willkie: Wendell Lewis W. , 1892-1944, Republican nominee for presi- dent in 1940. Pound mentioned him 10 times in the broadcasts in unflattering terms as another weak victim of the international monetary conspiracy; e. g. , "And when you have got six hundred billion in debt _. . then will come Wee Willie Willkie or some other trump card . . . and quadrupple the burden, by putting you back onto a solid dollar, worth five Or ten the one wherein you got indebted" [Doob, Speaking, 328].
149. Roi . . . daigne: F, "I am not the king; I do not condescend to be the prince. " This is one of the several variants of the motto of the House of Rohan. Pound's version seems to derive from a reported reply of Mussolini to the king's offer to make him a noble_ M said: "No _. . a title of that kind would make me ridiculous. . . . I shan't be so vain as to say: Rai ne puis, prince ne daigne,
Rohan je suis, but I beg of you not to insist" [Fang, II, 189].
150. Citizen . . . ginocchion': Mussolini had been made an honorary citizen of Florence, June 12, 1923, a fact which recalls Farinata degli Dberti of the Commedia, about whom Mussolini had written: "he who, after the battle of Arbia, had saved the city of Florence from destruction at the hands of the Ghibelline Council, after their victory. Here he says: 'But I was the sole one there who, when all consented to destroy Florence, defended her with open face'" [Fang, II,
190].
151. Arbia: River near Siena.
152. "in gran dispitto": I, "with great disdain" [Int. X, 36] ; description of Dberti. Continuing the quote [150 above], we have: "Scornful, as if he held hell in great dis? dain . . . he rises from his torture to a battle of wits with his political enemy. " The passage is a favorite with Pound: "It is part of Dante's aristocracy that he conceded nothing to the world, or to opinion-like Farinata, he met his reverses, 'as if he held hell in great disdain'" [SR, 160; 78:79].
153_ King: Victor Emanuel. These lines concern Mussolini's henchmen, including Ciano [cf. 98 above], who used to obey orders, but who in the Fascist Grand Council meeting held during the night of July 24-25, 1943, divested M of his power. The king had to (and did) sign the decrees which also authorized Italy's surrender to the Allied Forces [78:1].
154. se casco . . . : I, "If I fall, I do not fall on my knees. " Bianca Capello, a Medici duchess of Florence, made this proud statement which Pound seems to think reflects the attitude of Mussolini, who did not surrender but went north to establish the Sal6 RepUblic.
ISS. Schifanoja:
built by Alberto d'Este in Ferrara in 1391, and extended by Borso d'Este [10:20], which is famous for the frescoes of Cosima Tura and Francesco del Cossa.
Francesco del C. , painter who did
fl. the
Nadajda
de la
Schifanoia. The
palace
167.
168.
169.
170. poet
Tellus-Helena: [cf. 75, 81 above]. Arno: [cf. 95 above].
"How is it . . . ": [cf. 30 above].
Basil: B. Bunting [74:153], English who knew Pound in Paris and visited
? 414
77/474-476
78/477 415
178. Hancock's wharf: [71/414].
179. Kohinoor: The most famous Indian diamond now among the British crown jewels.
180. Tom: A DTC trainee. The "tin disc" prob. refers to dog tags, the identification tag all service men are required to wear around the neck. It gives name and serial number.
181. Wanjina: [74:42].
182. obstruct future wars: A theme devel? oped at length in later cantos [88/passim; 89/passim].
183. Frascati:
central Italy. After Italy signed an armistice on Sept. 8, 1943, but before Eisenhower announced her unconditional surrender at 5:30 P. M. that day, "Flying Fortresses bombed the Roman suburb of Frascati, destroying German headquarters" [Miller, History, 702].
184. Das Barikgeschiift: G, "The banking business. "
185. Wabash: Fragment of popular Ameri? can song heard over DTe sound system: "The Wabash Cannonball. "
186. Ferrarese: Around Ferrara [8:30].
187. Taishan: [74:46].
188. Del Cossa: [cf. 156 above].
189. Schifanoja: [ef. 155 above]. The con- stellations Ram and Bull are shown in the Cossa paintings used as end papers in Dante and Pound, by J. Wilhelm.
and no. 2, 1927, 117; MIN, 232;SR, 120, 160; CON, 247, 248; GK, 247, 166, 246; Michael King, "Ezra Pound at Pisa: An Interview with John L. Steele," Texas Quarterly, Vol. XXI, no. 4, Winter 1978, 49-61 [King, "Steele"]; Ivancich, Ezra Pound in Italy, New York; Rizzoli, 1978; Thomas Taylor, the Platonist: Selected Writings, eds. Kathleen Raine and George Mills Harper, Princeton, 1969; Achilles Fang, "Materials for the Study of Pound's Cantos," Ph. D. dissertation, Harvard University, 1958, Vols. II, III, IV; H. Finer, Mussolini's Italy, New York, 1935; M. I. Rostovtzeff, History of the Ancient World, 1924-26, Social and Economic History o f the Hellenistic World, 1941; Lady Anne Blunt, The Celebrated Romance o f the Stealing o f the Mare, 1892; NS, Life, 243; Odon Por, Finanzia nuova (/taly's Policy of Social Economics, 1939-1940), Bergamo; Instituto d'Arte Grafiche, 1941; Harriet Wilson, Memoirs, 1825 (ed. J. Laver, 1929).
Exegeses
Peck, Pai, 1-1,3-37; Anderson, Pai, 6-2, 244, Pai, 5-1,47; M de R, Discretions, 190; Riccardo M. degli Uberti, "Ezra Pound and Ubaldo degli Uberti: History of a Friendship," Italian Quarterly, XVI, 64, Spring 1973, 95-107; Flory,Pai, 5-1, 45-52.
Glossary
T own in
Rarna Province,
192. Cassandra: Trojan prophetess who was
considered mad. Apollo gave her the gift of true prophecy but later ordained she should never be believed.
193. Sorella . . . zecchin': I,' "Sister, my sister / who danced on a golden sequin [coin]. " Perhaps, an Italian popular song heard on the DTC loudspeaker [78:3]. It connects with the "10 son 1a Luna" theme
[Nassar,Pai, 1-2,211].
194. Ch'eng: [M379] "to perfect. " The right component of [M3 81] is also "Ch'eng," which Pound uses for sincerity: "The precise definition of the word . . . "etc [76:57].
195. Zagreus: One of the various names of Dionysus [17:3].
196. Explication: Analects, Two, XXIV: "1. He said: To sacrifice to a spirit not one's own is flattery. 2. To see justice and not act upon it is cowardice" [CON,201].
CANTO LXXVIII
Sources
The Bible, Micah 4. 5; EP, CON, 247, 248; Homer, Od. VI, XXIV, I; James Legge, "The Works of Mencius," The Four Books, Shanghai, 1923 [Legge]; Virgil, Aeneid, trans. Bishop Gawin Davis.
Background
EP,SP, 313, 272, 261, 306,311,89,274-282,87;LE, 245,265; P, 252; ABCE, 119; PE, 101, 126;Exile, no. 4, Autumn 1928, 5,
1. Ida: [77:50] Perhaps a scene at the DTC with a number of people arguing (or gab- bling like geese) reminded Pound of the Judgment of Paris which was made on Mt. Ida and resulted in the abduction of Helen, the Trojan War, the enslavement of Cassan- dra, and so on. Or maybe an ironic reference to the peace treaty signed by King Emmanuel with the Allies [77:153].
2. pax mundi: L, "peace of the world. "
3. Sobr'unzecchin': [77:193]. Italianequiv- alent of "on a saxpence" [HK].
4. Cassandra: [77:192]. The image of eyes becomes more pronounced from here on in the Pisan Cantos [Peck, Pai, 1-1,3-37] .
5. war . . . come to an end: The bankers and munitions makers who promote and main- tain wars in order to sell guns and ammuni- tion. A recurrent theme early and late in the poem.
6.
