Vide Ez' Guide to KuJchur, facilitated by Ez system of Economics, now the program of
Ministers
Funk and Riccardi, tho I dont spose they know it was mine.
Ezra-Pound-Japan-Letters-essays
T.
supplement 18th July.
)
? SECTIONII: 1936-66 95
Laughlin is supposed to bring out Cantos in Sept. American mail comes here via Japan or by air/ when the damn brit/yitts dont swipe it in Ber- mudah.
IF you know of any i. kss glorious period of U. S. diplomacy than the present, tell papa.
And if Willkie so kindly delivers us, I shall have to go home and tell HIM that European history didn't stop in 1919.
HeiJ. ' Banzai. ' AJaLA. '. '
From the pinnacle of your youth look down with at least kindliness on my elderly exuberance.
ever yours E. Pound
95: Ezra Pound to Katue Kitasono
TLS-l Anno XVIII, Via Marsala 12-5, Rapallo, with Gaudier-Brzeska profile head. 5 September 1940
Dear Kit Kat
The poetic life is full of pitfalls. Thanks very much for bothering about the money orders, but 97 yen make something like 450 lire ITALIAN / the 45 or 46 lire marked on the red slip probably meant GOLD lire.
The post office here is looking into the matter. May be they will be able to pay something like the value of the 97 yen.
This note is a howl of caution. If there ever are any more yen, watch the postal clerk and see that the lire are either clearly marked GOLD (oro] or that the number of Italian lire (should be) roughly 4 and half times the (number) of the yen/
Such are the horrors of war/ with no english money, and considerable delay about American money.
One of the jokers in the back page of the Times weekly/ made some remarks about money and humour a few months ago/ meaning it arrived here a month ago.
In the mean time let us erect shrines and/or temples to Aphrodite and Apollo. That is to say let Europe do so.
and don't import sheep-cult-ites into Tokio.
Sorry to bother you with detail in first part of this note. E. Pound
? 96 SECTIONII: 1936-66
96: Katue Kitasono to Ezra Pound
TLS-l vou CLUB 1649 1-tiome-nisi magome-mati, omoriku, tokio. 26 September 1940
Dear Ezra,
I received your bright letter of August 25, which made me laugh a pelican's laugh.
It was a good comic scene that they (K. B. S. ) could do nothing but gave a damn good cup of coffee to such a great poet and said "see you again. " They are nothing more than sparrow eggs.
Chinese pronunciation is very subtle. In Japan we pronounce Ta Hio, "Dai Gaku. " The pronounciation dictionary for middle school published in Shanghaiteachesustopronouncejl_ ^^"TaHsio. "AnotherChinesetext shows to pronounce it "Ta Hsu. "/ \ 3-
I think the J. T. and their readers would be very glad to know your opinion like what is to be the cultural policy in such a country like Japan. On the 20th of August I sent you a money order for the sum of Y34. 20, as you will find the account of J. T.
I shall be able to find the best way to get a copy of Takasi Itoh's book, British Empire and People, and I will send it to you as soon as possible. Before posting this letter, I inquired of the publisher.
ever yours, Katue Kitasono
97: Ezra Pound to Katue Kitasono
TLS-2 Anno XVIII, Via Marsala 12-5, Rapallo, with Gaudier-Brzeska profile head. 2 October 1940
Dear Kit Kat
Sorry to be a damn nuisance. The post office here apparent- ly cant rectify the money order. 97 yen is over 20 dollars and 46 lire ITALIANE makes about two dollars.
Might be a way of pejorating nippo-merican relations but won't convince europe that Japan is on the way to greater asia. Also attacking America in her most exposed part (i. e. old EZ) won't affect the wicked plots/ usurers etc.
? SECTIONII: 1936-66 97
45 lire oro/ gold lire, would come nearer to the worth of 97 yen/
Anyhow, I am chancing the 2 bucks on the possibility you can rectify/ absorption of 90% of value in transit won't do. Wont serve the Japanese cause.
Incidentally I have never used (or heard used) the term Jap as derogative. Nihon Jin is O. K.
The -anese makes very bad sound, and movement of word very difficult to get into elegant sentence. However let manners be manners.
How do you say Li Ki in Japanese? t^ -z^
Also I haven't had copy of Ponder's Modern Poetry/ which supposedly appeared in April. A comfort to see oneself in print. If you can get me a copy without wasting a weeks work, I shd/ be grateful.
Sea is looking O. K. with no brit. cruisers visible.
Am just back from Siena and trying to catch up with work. Mary af-
ter two months in Tyrol "gone native" to her mother's distress, so there is tremendous effort to make her Salonfahig before she goes back to La Quiete/
all after my instructions that she shd/ become Bauern/dhig to keep up with the times. At any rate her tennis is improving. I shall try that pic- ture (on her) of Japanese girls en masse with swords, to see if it will stimulate "union of cultures. "
I don't know whether Times wants me to insist that "Four Scarlatti wont make a Vivaldi. " (Sienese music week. )
They seem to be standing my economic frightfulness pretty
well.
On the other hand will they believe me an economist if they can make me believe in the post office idea of relation of yen to Italian lire?
That seems a subject for Cub Reporter (with my compliments). You can give him these notes if he is a friend.
My venerable father delighted with the Servant of the People article. My New York agent beseeching me to write literary Reminiscence (he wd/ probably faint if he saw a copy of J. T. for Aug. 22). Of course I dont know that you (K. K. ) approve of my crawling down the slopes of Parnas- sus. You have maintained tactful silence.
And confound it why does paper ruck on this machine. (1 will again exhort Meridiano office to send you the paper. ) Yours
Ezra Pound (P. S. post o_ffice is sending back the Vaglia money order to your p. o. )
? 98 SECTIONII: 1936-66
98: Fosco Maraini to Ezra Pound
ALS-l Kita 11, Nishi 3, Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan. 14 October 1940
Dear Sir,
I've been reading your articles in the Meridiano, not constantly as mails are rare up here, but with great intellectual pleasure. I must now write these two words to tell you how I agree with you about the Chinese classics. It is simply monstrous how stuffy our western outlook is still in this very year 1940, a long time after Matteo Ricci's words ought to have had some effect. Wemustsoonsoartotheleveloftheworld:ThenKungufuTsuJ[_ ir ^- Men-tsu etc, will have their places next to the usual heroes of our school days.
It is good that somebody like you should say such things. Some one from beyond the sea has always a wonderful effect: such is the nature of man. Thank you!
Yours sincerely Fosco Maraini
99: Ezra Pound to Katue Kitasono
TLS-3 Anno XIX, Via Marsala 12-5, Rapallo, with Gaudier-Brzeska profile head. 29 October 1940
Dear Kit Kat
Happy New Year, and for Kristzache get an idea of the rela- tive value of YEN and lire.
I have cashed yr/ last postal order for 156 lire/ damn.
That is about six dollars. The regular exchange of the dollar being at 19 lire to the dollar, but as resident foreigner I can get a 20% bonus/ bring- ing it to nearly 24.
Unless the yen has bust, it was worth about 40 cents/ so that 34 wd/ have been worth 13 dollars plus.
I dont mind putting up six or seven bucks to get the Sassoons out of Shanghai, or damaging the opium revenue in Singapore (48% due to hop), but I shd/ hate to have it used to scrag me rough-necked brothers from Iowa.
? SECTIONII: 1936-66 99
As I cant cash american cheques, save at risk to the Brits stealing 'em off the clipper in the Bahamas/ and as nothing (now) comes from English publications, this thin line of supplies from the J/T is, or would be, use- ful if allowed to flow in with proper, i. e. as at the source, dimensions.
If you can't get sense out of the postal system, for gord'z sake try a bank/ must be some Italian bank with an office in Tokio? ? ? Or the American express co/ must exist, and continue bizniz at least until or unless hosti- litiesbustout,whichI hopetheywon't.
///
Cultural notes; possibly for VOU. Appearance of P. Tyler in J. T. reminds me that:
NO editor in America, save Margaret Anderson, ever felt the need of, or responsibility for, getting the best writers concentrated i. e. brought together in an American periodical. She started in Chicago, went to S. Francisco, then N. York and ended by pub/ing The Little Review in Paris. Evidently the aim was alien to American sensibilities.
The Dial might fool the casual observer; but its policy was not to get the best work or best writers. It got some. But Thayer aimed at names, wanted european celebrities, and spent vast sums getting their left overs. You wd/ see the same thing in American picture galleries, after a pain- ter is celebrated (and the Europeans have his best stuff] dealers can sell it to American "connoisseurs. "
European proportions, a. d. 1940. Germans rise at 6 a. m. to good music on the radio/ french radio music soppy, English music and jokes putrid. Incredible vulgarity, and jazz worse than the human mind had hitherto conceived possible.
There still remains a tiny minority of careful players of old mu- sic in England/ but even in that field much is weakly and sloppily played.
As to the J. T. sop about Eddie and Wallie/: you might in Japanese context quote the strictly anonymous
England's EmBOOzador
Getting back to Baltimore.
I don't want it in an English context as I dont want to hurt anyone's feel- ings. Eddie sure is for the old Baltimore boarding house.
You know (? ) Max Beerbohm did a caricature ages ago when Ed. was young: It showed Ed at 40 marrying his landlady's daughter.
? 100 SECTIONII: 1936-66
When I say good music, in Germany, you might note that it is played in time; french, eng/ and Ital music most usually is not.
I don't say it never is played in time, but the good old land of Diirer and Bach just dont like slop in musical measure. In fact there is a Germanic component of civilization, though you will find it hard to mention the subject in american Jewish papers.
If you manage to read my J. T. articles at all, I wish you wd/ comment FREELY. I want guidance. I wish you folks cd/ make a peace in China. Best possible kick in the jaw for the nastiest kikes and pseudo-kikes in America. If you can manage it we might get on and have a little civiliza- tion once again.
Oh, well, Italy has just had a philosophic congress/ i. e. pow wow of blokes who write about philosophy/
Meant to write about the Scarlatti week/ but too much else needing divulgation/ "Four Scarlats don't make a Vivaldi," not by no means but Guarnieri had got the opera into shape/ orchestra etc/ playing properly, which it wasn't last year.
J. T. my last remaining source of information re/ the U/S. I don't even know whether Jas/ has got out the Am/ edtn/ 52/71 Cantos.
Itoh's book (Brit. Emp. 8r Peop. ) ought to be pubd/ at once in some eu- ropean language. Possibly serialized in J. T. or at least summarized. After all in the Ban Gumi the pacification of the country precedes the lofty reflection, or plays of pussy-cology.
Great excitements last month/ thought of going to U. S. to annoy 'em but Clipper won't take anything except mails until Dec 15, so am back here at the old stand/ Thank god I didn't get as far as Portugal and get stuck there.
Pious reflections on my having spent 12 years in London/ 4 in Paris and now 16 or 17 in Italy/ Which you can take as estimate etc/etc/ {of nation- al values. ) I dunno what my 23 (infantile years) in America signify/ 1 left as soon as motion was autarchic; I mean my motion. Curious letch of Americans to try to start a civilization there/ or rather to REstart it: be- cause there seems to have been some up till 1863/. (1 shd still like to. )
Have you ever had the gargantuan appetite necessary for comparing the J. T. with AMERICAN daily or Sunday wypers? ? ? Or to consider what Japan does NOT import in the way of news print? ? Oh well; don't. Let it alone, and get out another issue of VOU.
? SECTIONII: 1936-66 101
Any news of living autiiors wd/ be welcome. Gornoze whats become of Possum and Duncan and Angold, or the pacific Bunting.
Cultural Policy of Japan? ?
Vide Ez' Guide to KuJchur, facilitated by Ez system of Economics, now the program of Ministers Funk and Riccardi, tho I dont spose they know it was mine.
yours E. P.
(re The U. S. vide my Make it New, Remy de Gourmont's letter: "Con- querir J'Amerique n'est pas sans doute votre seuJ but. "] Funny trick of memory,I thoughthehadwritten"civilizerI'Amerique. "Thatmust have been in my note to him.
100: Ezra Pound to Fosco Maraini TL-2 [n. p. ] 11 November 1940
Dear Sig. Maraini
. . . Do you also see my notes in the Japan Times March 3, June 13, July 21, Aug. 22, Sept. 12?
You could assist the (inboosting) Confucian revival if you wd/ write both to the editors of the Jap Times and to Di Marzio backing up what I say. The Meridiano needs more news of oriental books.
Do meet Kitasono Katue, VOU club (unless it is through him that you know of me). Nisi 1 tiome 1649, Magome Mati, Omori, Tokyo. He runs the liveliest magazine in the world.
Am trying to jazz up the Meridiano to the level of VOU. but it is heavy going and damn'd hard to get collaboration. Italians do not spontaneous- ly cooperate until they have a Duce to jam 'em together. A damn furriner can't do it. Then as soon as a man is any good he gets a job in an office and has no time save for his job.
Do for god's sake take up some point in my articles and write on that, with reference to it. If three or four of us start noticing each other's writ- ings, we can get something done.
At present all Italian (writers) either ignore each other or spend their time in irrelevant chatter, except re/ economics. Current issue of Gerar- chia has three articles worth noticing. Meridiano never has more than two in one issue. And no two contributors ever hit the same bullseye, or rather Di Marzio and I did cohere once but quite by accident; or rather
? 102 SECTIONII: 1936-66
without collusion. Not by accident but accidentally as to timing.
Would be most useful if you cd/ do article saying damn Lao-Tsze. Attack idea of studying "chinese philosophy" as if all Chinese philosophy had merit/ whereas some is no better than the shitten old testament/ which is crap, immoral, barbarous/ poison injected into Europe. Xtianity, the sane part of it is a european construction/ stoic morals and cosmogony. Deus est Amor. That is O. K. Believe Ovid knew that, or at least Amor Deus est. Mencius volume is the most modern book in the world. Take that as FROM ME, and do an article on it for Di Marzio.
Also (my econ. book) gives a fairly full list of all the possible varieties of human imbecility. Have you, by the way, any idea what has become of a group of neo-Confucians gathered round a chink named Tuan Szetsun who used to print pamphlets in Shanghai back in 1934? 862 Boone Rd. Shanghai. World prayer, etc.
cordially yours
I think Kitasono has a number of my books, which you may not know. Give you better idea of what I have done re/ [iJJegibiel. Cant get any real news from America.
(What about transiating Itoh? ) (vide enciosure)
101: Ezra Pound to Katue Kitasono
TLS-2 Anno XIX, Via Marsala 12-5, Rapallo, with Gaudier-Brzeska profile head. 15 November 1940
(jAPERICAN? ? )
Dear K/K?
Two articles, one by Mr. Setsuo Uenoda, and one by Dr. Tatsuo Tsukui in the }. T. Weekly for Oct. 17th ought to start discussion in the VOU club, if you are still lucky enough to corral eleven poets in one place.
The Kana syllabic writing is clumsy and cumbersome; I mean that the latin alphabet with 26 or even 24 signs will do all the work of the syll- able signs and is immeasurably easier to remember.
I suggest that in each issue of VOU you print at least one poem, prefer-
? SECTIONII: 1936-66 103
ably the best poem with a transliteration into roman alphabet. Stick to the Italian significance of the vowels. Japanese sounds very much like italian. English and french spelling does not represent the sound of the words as logically as Italian spelling, and is not constant in indicating what sound it implies.
IDEOGRAM is essential to {the exposition of) certain kinds of thought. Greek philosophy was mostly a mere splitting, an impoverish- ment of understanding, though it ultimately led to development of par- ticular sciences. Socrates a distinguished gas-bag in comparison with Confucius and Mencius.
At any rate I need ideogram. I mean I need it in and for my own job, BUT I also need sound and phonetics. Several half-wits in a state of half education have sniffed at my going on with Fenollosa's use of the Japanese sounds for reading ideogram. I propose to continue. As sheer sound "Dai Gaku" is better than "Ta Tsii. " When it comes to the ques- tion of transmitting from the East to the West, a great part of the Chinese sound is no use at all. We don't hear parts of it, (much of) the rest is a hiss, or a mumble. Fenollosa wrote, I think justly, that Japan had kept the old sounds for the Odes long after the various invasions from the north had ruined them in China. Tones can not be learnt at three thousand miles distance any how, or at any rate, never have been.
The national defence of Basho and Chikamatsu can be maintained by use of the latin alphabet. If any young Tanakas want to set out for world conquest, on the lines Ubicumque Jingua Romano ibi Roma (wherever the latin tongue, there Rome) you will invade much better by giving us the sound of yr/ verse in these latin signs that are understood from the Volga to the West coast of Canada, in Australia, and from Finland to the Capes of Good Hope and Horn.
English had conquered vast territories by absorbing other tongues, that is to say it has pouched most latin roots and has variants on them handy for use where french and even Italian have shown less flexibility; it has taken in lashin's of greek, swallowed mediaeval french, while keeping its solid anglo-saxon basis. It then petrified in the tight little is- land, but American seems to be getting into Tokyo. Question of whether want to "preserve" Japanese in test tubes or swallow the American vocabulary is for you to decide.
I still think, as I wrote last year, that with Italian, Ideogram and English (American brand] you can have a tri-lingual system for world use. But spurred on by T. T. and S. U. I wd/ amend my suggestion of us- ing the kana writing with the ideograms and say use the latin letters.
? 104 SECTIONII: 1936-66
One wd/ learn Japanese more quickly if with each chunk of con- versation dictionary offered by the /. T. we could have something worth reading printed bilingually.
Throughout all history and despite all academies, living language has been inclusive and not exclusive.
(japerican) Japerican may well replace pidgin even in our time but Japanese will never become lingua franca until its sound is printed in the simplest possible manner.
102: Ezra Pound to Katue Kitasono
TCS-1 Via Marsala 12-5. 22 November Anno XIX [1940]
Dear Kit Kat
Next time I have a bit of money from /. T. please take out for me a six months subscription to the daily edition. I don't get enough news from the Weekly. However dull you may think the paper, it is a dn/ sight more lively than the usual dailies. Have you had any news of Duncan, or Eliot or anyone? Bloke named Maraini seems to see Meri- diano now and then. I wonder if your copies have come? They promised to send them.
yours
Ezra Pound
(I have told him to see you, hut forget what town he is in; may he half way up Euji. )
103: Ezra Pound to Katue Kitasono
TLS-l Anno XIX, Via Marsala 12-5, Rapallo, with Gaudier-Brzeska profile head. 5 December 1940 (Giovedi)
Dear KitKat
You will be pleased/ relieved/ honour'd/ bored or whatever to hear that the money order allegedly 451/ rearrove today with a supple- mentary order for 405/ also Polite letter in english to local postmaster
yours E. Pound
? SECTIONII: 1936-66 105
from idem in Tokyo/ saying the clerk had err'd. (The one from last Au- gust or September)
You will observe from the enclosed that it needed a "magical aspect" of two major orbs/ etc.
L'OROSCOPO DEL 5. --Questo giovedi pri- vo di configurazioni lunari, passera sotto il dominiediunmagicoaspettotrail Solee Giove che facilitera la conclusione di buoni affari ma per contro dovremo fre- nare le spese, particolarmente se causate dal be! sesso.
MARIO SEGATO.
Do the Jap papers include horror/scopes? Two Italian journals print 'em/ and in London several million ephemerides of the stars (Zadkiel and Old Moore) used to be sold. Yeats potty on the subject.
Not easily perceiving that men {differ one from another)/ he needed some explanation or stimulus to note that some like boiled ham for din- ner, whereas others (genteeJ irish) think it vulgar. Have known him in- sulted by its appearance {at eventide). Ace/ him and his Li Ki/ it shd/ be eaten cold for breakfast only, and so forth.
How long it takes for men of different even if contiguous nations etc//
Chinese diplomat said to me lately/ two peoples ought to be brothers/ they read the same books/ believe he was a Chiang K/Cheker at that.
salve/ banzai/ wan soui/ alala;
und so weiter. yours
Ezra Pound
104: Ezra Pound to Katue Kitasono
TLS-2 Anno XIX, Via Marsala 12-5, Rapallo, with Gaudier-Brzeska profile head. 30 December 1940
Dear Kit Kat
HAPPY NEW YEAR. And thanks for Lahiri's book. How much does he know? How seriously am I to take the book? Several dozen ques-
? 106 SECTIONII: 1936-66
tions. re/ Roppeita Kita. This (school) opposed to Umewaka Minoru's? Or not, as I note the son is called Minoru.
What is the point of the curls? Or are they only used for the red lion's mane?
/
I note that Ito is back/ pp/ in Jap Times a bit queer. May be O. K. Miscio's strong point was never moral fervour, and he may have a sane desire to popularize, (or not? ) however Tami Kume who had studied Noh, though he hadn't in 1915 Ito's inventiveness etc/ had by training something that Miscio hadn't (quite naturally had not at age of 23) got by improvisation.
Do you see these old buzzards who are "in spite of the weight of 55 win- ters" etc. still amazing yr/ hindoo by being alive? I mean does Mushakoji or Kita etc/ know what you are up to? Or are the ages kept in separate compartments?
Antidote for Xtianity? I mean take it early before it poisons Japan with its Semitic elements.
Any useful action to be taken, or does yr/ generation merely ignore it? Obviously almost any religion can be taken up by an artist who will select only its better part and ignore its evils.
Subject not simple. Am wondering whether any good can be done by starting an article in Italian: "Christianity will come out of this war like a plucked chicken. . . . " following or preceding the remark with allusions to collaboration of anglican bishops and the papal gang with usury and jews.
I suppose Y. Yashiro is bloke whose book on Botticelli 1 saw at Yeats' ten years or more ago?
What I dont make out is whether one cd/ talk with Mushakoji/ whether he is SET on Beethoven, or whether that list of three names is due to his unfamiliarity with what I think is better. I mean does he like 'em for their real merits/ or because they are different from Jap work/ or what?
Am all for boom in Confucius/ but hear there is some very poor neo- Confucianism on the Chinese market. Weak generalities/
Mencius is the most modern author. I mean still, today, the most modern/ 1940 whereas Aragon is 1920. Or was.
Put it: do japs of my age live where my elders were when they (jap con- temporaries) were in Europe?
Neue Sachlichkeit sounds O. K. ; naturally Italy hasn't yet heard of it.
? SECTIONII: 1936-66 107
Frobenius was contemporary. Dare say I have touched on these points before. Shd/ like pointers re/ jap Times/ whether I am being too UNchris- tian for 'em/ or whether they are getting bored (nowt printed for some time) or whether my economics are too orthodox. Colliers wouldn't like 'em. But Senator Frazier has caught the boat/ which Volpi has not.
Another line of enquiry: do you, Ito, Mushakoji and Kita agree on any- thing? And if so what?
Or do you set round and never meet (as in England different sects)
Sometimes damn foreigner can introduce proper people across clique frontiers. As activist, shd/ like to know if useful collaboration possible between me and any of 'em/ either to get full sound film of Noh/ or more lively Confucian comprehension.
Anyhow, Happy New Year/ damn Churchill and lets hope that Frankie Roosevelt will lie down now he has a third term to play with.
yours
Ezra Pound
(Why am I not translated? Any one outside VOU club ever read a hook by E. P. ? )
{Don't send compliments--I am interested in knowing why. )
105: Ezra Pound to Katue Kitasono
TLS-3 Anno XIX, Via Marsala 12-5, Rapallo, with Gaudier-Brzeska profile head. 31 December 1940
Dear Kit Kat
FOR VOU
Lahiri's book gives the impression, possibly a wrong one, that Y. Noguchi & Mushakoji may be living in what was in England and Amer- ica the era of 1890 or even of 1888.
I wish I could convince VOU club that economics, and in particular the preoccupation with the nature of money and the effects of usury are not a bee in my sole and personal bonnet.
The surrealists. Max Ernst and the lot of 'em (Crevel being their best writer, and not quite of them) were all represented in The Little Re- view in 1923.
? 108 SECTIONII: 1936-66
A surrealist treatment of money would be contemporary, today, 1940 or still better anno xix del Era fascista.
This awareness is not a mere idiosyncrasy of mine. The most vital poets in the West, Bunting, cummings, Angold are all awake to it. So is W. C. Williams, so is Ron Duncan, editor of Townsman, who pre- ceded Laughlin in printing VOU poems, so is and has been T. S. Eliot from the day he wrote Bleistein: "The jew is underneath the lot.
? SECTIONII: 1936-66 95
Laughlin is supposed to bring out Cantos in Sept. American mail comes here via Japan or by air/ when the damn brit/yitts dont swipe it in Ber- mudah.
IF you know of any i. kss glorious period of U. S. diplomacy than the present, tell papa.
And if Willkie so kindly delivers us, I shall have to go home and tell HIM that European history didn't stop in 1919.
HeiJ. ' Banzai. ' AJaLA. '. '
From the pinnacle of your youth look down with at least kindliness on my elderly exuberance.
ever yours E. Pound
95: Ezra Pound to Katue Kitasono
TLS-l Anno XVIII, Via Marsala 12-5, Rapallo, with Gaudier-Brzeska profile head. 5 September 1940
Dear Kit Kat
The poetic life is full of pitfalls. Thanks very much for bothering about the money orders, but 97 yen make something like 450 lire ITALIAN / the 45 or 46 lire marked on the red slip probably meant GOLD lire.
The post office here is looking into the matter. May be they will be able to pay something like the value of the 97 yen.
This note is a howl of caution. If there ever are any more yen, watch the postal clerk and see that the lire are either clearly marked GOLD (oro] or that the number of Italian lire (should be) roughly 4 and half times the (number) of the yen/
Such are the horrors of war/ with no english money, and considerable delay about American money.
One of the jokers in the back page of the Times weekly/ made some remarks about money and humour a few months ago/ meaning it arrived here a month ago.
In the mean time let us erect shrines and/or temples to Aphrodite and Apollo. That is to say let Europe do so.
and don't import sheep-cult-ites into Tokio.
Sorry to bother you with detail in first part of this note. E. Pound
? 96 SECTIONII: 1936-66
96: Katue Kitasono to Ezra Pound
TLS-l vou CLUB 1649 1-tiome-nisi magome-mati, omoriku, tokio. 26 September 1940
Dear Ezra,
I received your bright letter of August 25, which made me laugh a pelican's laugh.
It was a good comic scene that they (K. B. S. ) could do nothing but gave a damn good cup of coffee to such a great poet and said "see you again. " They are nothing more than sparrow eggs.
Chinese pronunciation is very subtle. In Japan we pronounce Ta Hio, "Dai Gaku. " The pronounciation dictionary for middle school published in Shanghaiteachesustopronouncejl_ ^^"TaHsio. "AnotherChinesetext shows to pronounce it "Ta Hsu. "/ \ 3-
I think the J. T. and their readers would be very glad to know your opinion like what is to be the cultural policy in such a country like Japan. On the 20th of August I sent you a money order for the sum of Y34. 20, as you will find the account of J. T.
I shall be able to find the best way to get a copy of Takasi Itoh's book, British Empire and People, and I will send it to you as soon as possible. Before posting this letter, I inquired of the publisher.
ever yours, Katue Kitasono
97: Ezra Pound to Katue Kitasono
TLS-2 Anno XVIII, Via Marsala 12-5, Rapallo, with Gaudier-Brzeska profile head. 2 October 1940
Dear Kit Kat
Sorry to be a damn nuisance. The post office here apparent- ly cant rectify the money order. 97 yen is over 20 dollars and 46 lire ITALIANE makes about two dollars.
Might be a way of pejorating nippo-merican relations but won't convince europe that Japan is on the way to greater asia. Also attacking America in her most exposed part (i. e. old EZ) won't affect the wicked plots/ usurers etc.
? SECTIONII: 1936-66 97
45 lire oro/ gold lire, would come nearer to the worth of 97 yen/
Anyhow, I am chancing the 2 bucks on the possibility you can rectify/ absorption of 90% of value in transit won't do. Wont serve the Japanese cause.
Incidentally I have never used (or heard used) the term Jap as derogative. Nihon Jin is O. K.
The -anese makes very bad sound, and movement of word very difficult to get into elegant sentence. However let manners be manners.
How do you say Li Ki in Japanese? t^ -z^
Also I haven't had copy of Ponder's Modern Poetry/ which supposedly appeared in April. A comfort to see oneself in print. If you can get me a copy without wasting a weeks work, I shd/ be grateful.
Sea is looking O. K. with no brit. cruisers visible.
Am just back from Siena and trying to catch up with work. Mary af-
ter two months in Tyrol "gone native" to her mother's distress, so there is tremendous effort to make her Salonfahig before she goes back to La Quiete/
all after my instructions that she shd/ become Bauern/dhig to keep up with the times. At any rate her tennis is improving. I shall try that pic- ture (on her) of Japanese girls en masse with swords, to see if it will stimulate "union of cultures. "
I don't know whether Times wants me to insist that "Four Scarlatti wont make a Vivaldi. " (Sienese music week. )
They seem to be standing my economic frightfulness pretty
well.
On the other hand will they believe me an economist if they can make me believe in the post office idea of relation of yen to Italian lire?
That seems a subject for Cub Reporter (with my compliments). You can give him these notes if he is a friend.
My venerable father delighted with the Servant of the People article. My New York agent beseeching me to write literary Reminiscence (he wd/ probably faint if he saw a copy of J. T. for Aug. 22). Of course I dont know that you (K. K. ) approve of my crawling down the slopes of Parnas- sus. You have maintained tactful silence.
And confound it why does paper ruck on this machine. (1 will again exhort Meridiano office to send you the paper. ) Yours
Ezra Pound (P. S. post o_ffice is sending back the Vaglia money order to your p. o. )
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98: Fosco Maraini to Ezra Pound
ALS-l Kita 11, Nishi 3, Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan. 14 October 1940
Dear Sir,
I've been reading your articles in the Meridiano, not constantly as mails are rare up here, but with great intellectual pleasure. I must now write these two words to tell you how I agree with you about the Chinese classics. It is simply monstrous how stuffy our western outlook is still in this very year 1940, a long time after Matteo Ricci's words ought to have had some effect. Wemustsoonsoartotheleveloftheworld:ThenKungufuTsuJ[_ ir ^- Men-tsu etc, will have their places next to the usual heroes of our school days.
It is good that somebody like you should say such things. Some one from beyond the sea has always a wonderful effect: such is the nature of man. Thank you!
Yours sincerely Fosco Maraini
99: Ezra Pound to Katue Kitasono
TLS-3 Anno XIX, Via Marsala 12-5, Rapallo, with Gaudier-Brzeska profile head. 29 October 1940
Dear Kit Kat
Happy New Year, and for Kristzache get an idea of the rela- tive value of YEN and lire.
I have cashed yr/ last postal order for 156 lire/ damn.
That is about six dollars. The regular exchange of the dollar being at 19 lire to the dollar, but as resident foreigner I can get a 20% bonus/ bring- ing it to nearly 24.
Unless the yen has bust, it was worth about 40 cents/ so that 34 wd/ have been worth 13 dollars plus.
I dont mind putting up six or seven bucks to get the Sassoons out of Shanghai, or damaging the opium revenue in Singapore (48% due to hop), but I shd/ hate to have it used to scrag me rough-necked brothers from Iowa.
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As I cant cash american cheques, save at risk to the Brits stealing 'em off the clipper in the Bahamas/ and as nothing (now) comes from English publications, this thin line of supplies from the J/T is, or would be, use- ful if allowed to flow in with proper, i. e. as at the source, dimensions.
If you can't get sense out of the postal system, for gord'z sake try a bank/ must be some Italian bank with an office in Tokio? ? ? Or the American express co/ must exist, and continue bizniz at least until or unless hosti- litiesbustout,whichI hopetheywon't.
///
Cultural notes; possibly for VOU. Appearance of P. Tyler in J. T. reminds me that:
NO editor in America, save Margaret Anderson, ever felt the need of, or responsibility for, getting the best writers concentrated i. e. brought together in an American periodical. She started in Chicago, went to S. Francisco, then N. York and ended by pub/ing The Little Review in Paris. Evidently the aim was alien to American sensibilities.
The Dial might fool the casual observer; but its policy was not to get the best work or best writers. It got some. But Thayer aimed at names, wanted european celebrities, and spent vast sums getting their left overs. You wd/ see the same thing in American picture galleries, after a pain- ter is celebrated (and the Europeans have his best stuff] dealers can sell it to American "connoisseurs. "
European proportions, a. d. 1940. Germans rise at 6 a. m. to good music on the radio/ french radio music soppy, English music and jokes putrid. Incredible vulgarity, and jazz worse than the human mind had hitherto conceived possible.
There still remains a tiny minority of careful players of old mu- sic in England/ but even in that field much is weakly and sloppily played.
As to the J. T. sop about Eddie and Wallie/: you might in Japanese context quote the strictly anonymous
England's EmBOOzador
Getting back to Baltimore.
I don't want it in an English context as I dont want to hurt anyone's feel- ings. Eddie sure is for the old Baltimore boarding house.
You know (? ) Max Beerbohm did a caricature ages ago when Ed. was young: It showed Ed at 40 marrying his landlady's daughter.
? 100 SECTIONII: 1936-66
When I say good music, in Germany, you might note that it is played in time; french, eng/ and Ital music most usually is not.
I don't say it never is played in time, but the good old land of Diirer and Bach just dont like slop in musical measure. In fact there is a Germanic component of civilization, though you will find it hard to mention the subject in american Jewish papers.
If you manage to read my J. T. articles at all, I wish you wd/ comment FREELY. I want guidance. I wish you folks cd/ make a peace in China. Best possible kick in the jaw for the nastiest kikes and pseudo-kikes in America. If you can manage it we might get on and have a little civiliza- tion once again.
Oh, well, Italy has just had a philosophic congress/ i. e. pow wow of blokes who write about philosophy/
Meant to write about the Scarlatti week/ but too much else needing divulgation/ "Four Scarlats don't make a Vivaldi," not by no means but Guarnieri had got the opera into shape/ orchestra etc/ playing properly, which it wasn't last year.
J. T. my last remaining source of information re/ the U/S. I don't even know whether Jas/ has got out the Am/ edtn/ 52/71 Cantos.
Itoh's book (Brit. Emp. 8r Peop. ) ought to be pubd/ at once in some eu- ropean language. Possibly serialized in J. T. or at least summarized. After all in the Ban Gumi the pacification of the country precedes the lofty reflection, or plays of pussy-cology.
Great excitements last month/ thought of going to U. S. to annoy 'em but Clipper won't take anything except mails until Dec 15, so am back here at the old stand/ Thank god I didn't get as far as Portugal and get stuck there.
Pious reflections on my having spent 12 years in London/ 4 in Paris and now 16 or 17 in Italy/ Which you can take as estimate etc/etc/ {of nation- al values. ) I dunno what my 23 (infantile years) in America signify/ 1 left as soon as motion was autarchic; I mean my motion. Curious letch of Americans to try to start a civilization there/ or rather to REstart it: be- cause there seems to have been some up till 1863/. (1 shd still like to. )
Have you ever had the gargantuan appetite necessary for comparing the J. T. with AMERICAN daily or Sunday wypers? ? ? Or to consider what Japan does NOT import in the way of news print? ? Oh well; don't. Let it alone, and get out another issue of VOU.
? SECTIONII: 1936-66 101
Any news of living autiiors wd/ be welcome. Gornoze whats become of Possum and Duncan and Angold, or the pacific Bunting.
Cultural Policy of Japan? ?
Vide Ez' Guide to KuJchur, facilitated by Ez system of Economics, now the program of Ministers Funk and Riccardi, tho I dont spose they know it was mine.
yours E. P.
(re The U. S. vide my Make it New, Remy de Gourmont's letter: "Con- querir J'Amerique n'est pas sans doute votre seuJ but. "] Funny trick of memory,I thoughthehadwritten"civilizerI'Amerique. "Thatmust have been in my note to him.
100: Ezra Pound to Fosco Maraini TL-2 [n. p. ] 11 November 1940
Dear Sig. Maraini
. . . Do you also see my notes in the Japan Times March 3, June 13, July 21, Aug. 22, Sept. 12?
You could assist the (inboosting) Confucian revival if you wd/ write both to the editors of the Jap Times and to Di Marzio backing up what I say. The Meridiano needs more news of oriental books.
Do meet Kitasono Katue, VOU club (unless it is through him that you know of me). Nisi 1 tiome 1649, Magome Mati, Omori, Tokyo. He runs the liveliest magazine in the world.
Am trying to jazz up the Meridiano to the level of VOU. but it is heavy going and damn'd hard to get collaboration. Italians do not spontaneous- ly cooperate until they have a Duce to jam 'em together. A damn furriner can't do it. Then as soon as a man is any good he gets a job in an office and has no time save for his job.
Do for god's sake take up some point in my articles and write on that, with reference to it. If three or four of us start noticing each other's writ- ings, we can get something done.
At present all Italian (writers) either ignore each other or spend their time in irrelevant chatter, except re/ economics. Current issue of Gerar- chia has three articles worth noticing. Meridiano never has more than two in one issue. And no two contributors ever hit the same bullseye, or rather Di Marzio and I did cohere once but quite by accident; or rather
? 102 SECTIONII: 1936-66
without collusion. Not by accident but accidentally as to timing.
Would be most useful if you cd/ do article saying damn Lao-Tsze. Attack idea of studying "chinese philosophy" as if all Chinese philosophy had merit/ whereas some is no better than the shitten old testament/ which is crap, immoral, barbarous/ poison injected into Europe. Xtianity, the sane part of it is a european construction/ stoic morals and cosmogony. Deus est Amor. That is O. K. Believe Ovid knew that, or at least Amor Deus est. Mencius volume is the most modern book in the world. Take that as FROM ME, and do an article on it for Di Marzio.
Also (my econ. book) gives a fairly full list of all the possible varieties of human imbecility. Have you, by the way, any idea what has become of a group of neo-Confucians gathered round a chink named Tuan Szetsun who used to print pamphlets in Shanghai back in 1934? 862 Boone Rd. Shanghai. World prayer, etc.
cordially yours
I think Kitasono has a number of my books, which you may not know. Give you better idea of what I have done re/ [iJJegibiel. Cant get any real news from America.
(What about transiating Itoh? ) (vide enciosure)
101: Ezra Pound to Katue Kitasono
TLS-2 Anno XIX, Via Marsala 12-5, Rapallo, with Gaudier-Brzeska profile head. 15 November 1940
(jAPERICAN? ? )
Dear K/K?
Two articles, one by Mr. Setsuo Uenoda, and one by Dr. Tatsuo Tsukui in the }. T. Weekly for Oct. 17th ought to start discussion in the VOU club, if you are still lucky enough to corral eleven poets in one place.
The Kana syllabic writing is clumsy and cumbersome; I mean that the latin alphabet with 26 or even 24 signs will do all the work of the syll- able signs and is immeasurably easier to remember.
I suggest that in each issue of VOU you print at least one poem, prefer-
? SECTIONII: 1936-66 103
ably the best poem with a transliteration into roman alphabet. Stick to the Italian significance of the vowels. Japanese sounds very much like italian. English and french spelling does not represent the sound of the words as logically as Italian spelling, and is not constant in indicating what sound it implies.
IDEOGRAM is essential to {the exposition of) certain kinds of thought. Greek philosophy was mostly a mere splitting, an impoverish- ment of understanding, though it ultimately led to development of par- ticular sciences. Socrates a distinguished gas-bag in comparison with Confucius and Mencius.
At any rate I need ideogram. I mean I need it in and for my own job, BUT I also need sound and phonetics. Several half-wits in a state of half education have sniffed at my going on with Fenollosa's use of the Japanese sounds for reading ideogram. I propose to continue. As sheer sound "Dai Gaku" is better than "Ta Tsii. " When it comes to the ques- tion of transmitting from the East to the West, a great part of the Chinese sound is no use at all. We don't hear parts of it, (much of) the rest is a hiss, or a mumble. Fenollosa wrote, I think justly, that Japan had kept the old sounds for the Odes long after the various invasions from the north had ruined them in China. Tones can not be learnt at three thousand miles distance any how, or at any rate, never have been.
The national defence of Basho and Chikamatsu can be maintained by use of the latin alphabet. If any young Tanakas want to set out for world conquest, on the lines Ubicumque Jingua Romano ibi Roma (wherever the latin tongue, there Rome) you will invade much better by giving us the sound of yr/ verse in these latin signs that are understood from the Volga to the West coast of Canada, in Australia, and from Finland to the Capes of Good Hope and Horn.
English had conquered vast territories by absorbing other tongues, that is to say it has pouched most latin roots and has variants on them handy for use where french and even Italian have shown less flexibility; it has taken in lashin's of greek, swallowed mediaeval french, while keeping its solid anglo-saxon basis. It then petrified in the tight little is- land, but American seems to be getting into Tokyo. Question of whether want to "preserve" Japanese in test tubes or swallow the American vocabulary is for you to decide.
I still think, as I wrote last year, that with Italian, Ideogram and English (American brand] you can have a tri-lingual system for world use. But spurred on by T. T. and S. U. I wd/ amend my suggestion of us- ing the kana writing with the ideograms and say use the latin letters.
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One wd/ learn Japanese more quickly if with each chunk of con- versation dictionary offered by the /. T. we could have something worth reading printed bilingually.
Throughout all history and despite all academies, living language has been inclusive and not exclusive.
(japerican) Japerican may well replace pidgin even in our time but Japanese will never become lingua franca until its sound is printed in the simplest possible manner.
102: Ezra Pound to Katue Kitasono
TCS-1 Via Marsala 12-5. 22 November Anno XIX [1940]
Dear Kit Kat
Next time I have a bit of money from /. T. please take out for me a six months subscription to the daily edition. I don't get enough news from the Weekly. However dull you may think the paper, it is a dn/ sight more lively than the usual dailies. Have you had any news of Duncan, or Eliot or anyone? Bloke named Maraini seems to see Meri- diano now and then. I wonder if your copies have come? They promised to send them.
yours
Ezra Pound
(I have told him to see you, hut forget what town he is in; may he half way up Euji. )
103: Ezra Pound to Katue Kitasono
TLS-l Anno XIX, Via Marsala 12-5, Rapallo, with Gaudier-Brzeska profile head. 5 December 1940 (Giovedi)
Dear KitKat
You will be pleased/ relieved/ honour'd/ bored or whatever to hear that the money order allegedly 451/ rearrove today with a supple- mentary order for 405/ also Polite letter in english to local postmaster
yours E. Pound
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from idem in Tokyo/ saying the clerk had err'd. (The one from last Au- gust or September)
You will observe from the enclosed that it needed a "magical aspect" of two major orbs/ etc.
L'OROSCOPO DEL 5. --Questo giovedi pri- vo di configurazioni lunari, passera sotto il dominiediunmagicoaspettotrail Solee Giove che facilitera la conclusione di buoni affari ma per contro dovremo fre- nare le spese, particolarmente se causate dal be! sesso.
MARIO SEGATO.
Do the Jap papers include horror/scopes? Two Italian journals print 'em/ and in London several million ephemerides of the stars (Zadkiel and Old Moore) used to be sold. Yeats potty on the subject.
Not easily perceiving that men {differ one from another)/ he needed some explanation or stimulus to note that some like boiled ham for din- ner, whereas others (genteeJ irish) think it vulgar. Have known him in- sulted by its appearance {at eventide). Ace/ him and his Li Ki/ it shd/ be eaten cold for breakfast only, and so forth.
How long it takes for men of different even if contiguous nations etc//
Chinese diplomat said to me lately/ two peoples ought to be brothers/ they read the same books/ believe he was a Chiang K/Cheker at that.
salve/ banzai/ wan soui/ alala;
und so weiter. yours
Ezra Pound
104: Ezra Pound to Katue Kitasono
TLS-2 Anno XIX, Via Marsala 12-5, Rapallo, with Gaudier-Brzeska profile head. 30 December 1940
Dear Kit Kat
HAPPY NEW YEAR. And thanks for Lahiri's book. How much does he know? How seriously am I to take the book? Several dozen ques-
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tions. re/ Roppeita Kita. This (school) opposed to Umewaka Minoru's? Or not, as I note the son is called Minoru.
What is the point of the curls? Or are they only used for the red lion's mane?
/
I note that Ito is back/ pp/ in Jap Times a bit queer. May be O. K. Miscio's strong point was never moral fervour, and he may have a sane desire to popularize, (or not? ) however Tami Kume who had studied Noh, though he hadn't in 1915 Ito's inventiveness etc/ had by training something that Miscio hadn't (quite naturally had not at age of 23) got by improvisation.
Do you see these old buzzards who are "in spite of the weight of 55 win- ters" etc. still amazing yr/ hindoo by being alive? I mean does Mushakoji or Kita etc/ know what you are up to? Or are the ages kept in separate compartments?
Antidote for Xtianity? I mean take it early before it poisons Japan with its Semitic elements.
Any useful action to be taken, or does yr/ generation merely ignore it? Obviously almost any religion can be taken up by an artist who will select only its better part and ignore its evils.
Subject not simple. Am wondering whether any good can be done by starting an article in Italian: "Christianity will come out of this war like a plucked chicken. . . . " following or preceding the remark with allusions to collaboration of anglican bishops and the papal gang with usury and jews.
I suppose Y. Yashiro is bloke whose book on Botticelli 1 saw at Yeats' ten years or more ago?
What I dont make out is whether one cd/ talk with Mushakoji/ whether he is SET on Beethoven, or whether that list of three names is due to his unfamiliarity with what I think is better. I mean does he like 'em for their real merits/ or because they are different from Jap work/ or what?
Am all for boom in Confucius/ but hear there is some very poor neo- Confucianism on the Chinese market. Weak generalities/
Mencius is the most modern author. I mean still, today, the most modern/ 1940 whereas Aragon is 1920. Or was.
Put it: do japs of my age live where my elders were when they (jap con- temporaries) were in Europe?
Neue Sachlichkeit sounds O. K. ; naturally Italy hasn't yet heard of it.
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Frobenius was contemporary. Dare say I have touched on these points before. Shd/ like pointers re/ jap Times/ whether I am being too UNchris- tian for 'em/ or whether they are getting bored (nowt printed for some time) or whether my economics are too orthodox. Colliers wouldn't like 'em. But Senator Frazier has caught the boat/ which Volpi has not.
Another line of enquiry: do you, Ito, Mushakoji and Kita agree on any- thing? And if so what?
Or do you set round and never meet (as in England different sects)
Sometimes damn foreigner can introduce proper people across clique frontiers. As activist, shd/ like to know if useful collaboration possible between me and any of 'em/ either to get full sound film of Noh/ or more lively Confucian comprehension.
Anyhow, Happy New Year/ damn Churchill and lets hope that Frankie Roosevelt will lie down now he has a third term to play with.
yours
Ezra Pound
(Why am I not translated? Any one outside VOU club ever read a hook by E. P. ? )
{Don't send compliments--I am interested in knowing why. )
105: Ezra Pound to Katue Kitasono
TLS-3 Anno XIX, Via Marsala 12-5, Rapallo, with Gaudier-Brzeska profile head. 31 December 1940
Dear Kit Kat
FOR VOU
Lahiri's book gives the impression, possibly a wrong one, that Y. Noguchi & Mushakoji may be living in what was in England and Amer- ica the era of 1890 or even of 1888.
I wish I could convince VOU club that economics, and in particular the preoccupation with the nature of money and the effects of usury are not a bee in my sole and personal bonnet.
The surrealists. Max Ernst and the lot of 'em (Crevel being their best writer, and not quite of them) were all represented in The Little Re- view in 1923.
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A surrealist treatment of money would be contemporary, today, 1940 or still better anno xix del Era fascista.
This awareness is not a mere idiosyncrasy of mine. The most vital poets in the West, Bunting, cummings, Angold are all awake to it. So is W. C. Williams, so is Ron Duncan, editor of Townsman, who pre- ceded Laughlin in printing VOU poems, so is and has been T. S. Eliot from the day he wrote Bleistein: "The jew is underneath the lot.
