No More Learning

29. T'ang: The 13th Dynasty, 618? 907. Pound wrote: "From the day when the Tang Emperors began to issue their state notes . . . the use of gold in the manufacture of money was no longer necessary . . . " [SP, 316].
30. Charlie Sung: Tzu-wen Sung or T. V. Soong became premier of China in 1945. Member of the prominent Soong family. His
21. Sigismundo:
S. Pandolfo
? ? 364
father, Charles Jones Soong, was a Methodist
missionary in Shanghai and made his fortune as a Bible manufacturer and salesman. Chiang Kai-shek resigned his post as premier and appointed Soong, his brother-in-law, in his place. Time [June 11,1945, p. 34] said: "The appointment of U. S. educated T. V. Soong, who more than any other Chinese has in the past showed a grasp of Western methods, men and purposes, could scarcely
fail to please the U. S. and simplify the task
of Chiang's U. S. advisers . . ' ," Pound's reference may be either to the father or the son, one of whom he must have heard, perhaps during his 1939 visit to the U. S. , was trying to negotiate a loan.
31. anonimo: I, "anonymous. "
74/426 33. Oh my England . . . : Restatement of
recurrent theme: "Free speech without freedom of radio is a mere goldfish in a bowl" [Townsman, vol. J1I, no. II, June 1940].
34. Stalin: Joseph Vissarionovich Dzhu- gashvili, 1879-1953, Russian statesman and
o f
35. R. C. : Roman Catholic. A sixteen-page,
cheaply printed summary of major elements
of the Catholic missal used during mass. It was prepared by the Paulist fathers and distributed to all Catholic soldiers who showed up for religious services. Pound kept his copy and drew in the margin next to some of the Latin phrases Chinese characters taken from Legge which were evoked by the missal. The "field book" line reflects the traditional injunction against work on Sunday. The line derives from the "prepara- tion before confession. " A copy of the chaplain's handbook, one of the few books Pound found at the DTC, was examined at Brunnenburg by Hugh Kenner, the source of these details.
36. im Westen nichts neues: G, "Nothing
new in the west": title of novel by Erich
Maria Remarque translated into English as
All Quiet on the Western Front, 1929.
37. "of sapphire . . . sleep": Dante's idea of
this gem is given in a Pound translation: "The sweet color o f oriental sapphire which was gathering on the serene aspect of the pure air even to the first circle, / to mine eyes restored delight" [SR, 137; Nassar, Pai, 1-2, 207-211]. In later lines Dante evokes the idea of a paradisal blue in the sky into which he will rise to come as near as possible to the vision of Beatrice. In "The Flame" he saw in "Sapphire Benacus" (Lake Garda) "Nature herself's turned metaphysical, / Who can look on that blue and not believe? "
[P, 64]. In "Phanopoeia" he connected
74/426-427
"bedposts" and sexual imagery to this gem:
"The swirling sphere has opened / and you are caught up to the skies, / You are en- globed in my sapphire" [P, 179]. The
365
would not have been able to devote himself properly to the important things of life: conversation, dancing, hunting and warfare"
[Townsman, vol. 2, no. 7, August, 1939]. 43. Ouan Jin: C, Wen-Jen [M 7129,3097],
"Man o f Letters; Writer. "
44. Frobenius: Leo F. [38:45]. F. died at Biganzolo, Lago Maggiore, 9 August 1938, but his students carried on his work [Fang, IV, 32].
45. in principio . . . sinceritas: L, "In the
beginning was the Word / the Holy Ghost or the perfect Word: sincerity" [John 1. 1].
46. Mt. Taishan: [Tai or T'ai Shan]. A
sacred mountain of China in W Shantung Province, 32 miles S of Tsinan; there are many shrines on the road to the top, on which stand the temples. A mountain Pound could see from the DTC reminded him of Taishan.
47. Pisa: Tuscan city in Italy noted for its towers. Location of the DTC.
48. Fujiyama: Sacred mountain in Honshu,
Japan.
49. Gardone: Gardone Riviera, a town on Lake Garda in Brescia Province, N Italy, where Mussolini set up the Sal6 Republic after the fall of his government in Rome.
SO. Villa Catullo: The villa on Lake Garda, Italy, where Catullus lived for a time; it was here that he wrote his salutation to the promontory of Sirmio.
51. poluphloisboios: H, "loud-roarings. " Pound said that this often used Homeric kenning has "the magnificent onomatopeia, as of the rush of the waves on the sea-beach and their recession . . . " [LE, 250]. A subject rhyme of Iliad priest walking by sea and Pound walking by Lake Garda [HK].
52. Nicoletti: Giachino N. , prefect at Gar- done. Nicoletti was the go-between ofM and the socialists when he was trying to give Fascism a socialist coloring during the time of the Sal6 Republic.
. . . gold standard: As
32. India
of the exchequer, Churchill returned to the gold standard in 1925 and created a severe depression not only at home but throughout the empire, particularly in India. The phrase "18 per hundred" concerns the relation of the Indian rupee to the English shilling. The government had set the rate at Is. 6d. (18 d. ) which depressed the currency in India. A number o f economists protested. Sir Montague Webb [India's Plight, passim] proposed "that the rupee be derated to some figure less than 18d. (ls. 6d. ) and India revert to silver" [Fang, III, 38]. Webb also wrote [po 8]: "The gross distortion of the purchasing price of the rupee . . . compels
the agriculturalist to give to the Tax Collec-
tor, the local money lender, and other
creditors twice as much of the produce of his fields as he gave five years ago to meet exactly the same amount of Land Revenue, Interest, and other demands! " In Gold and Work Pound wrote: "For every debt in- curred when a bushel of grain is worth a certain sum of money, repayment is de- manded when it requires five bushels or more to raise the same sum . . . . By return-
ing to gold, Mr. Churchill forced the Indian
peasant to pay two bushels of grain in taxes and interest which a short time before he had been able to pay with only one . . . . C. H. Douglas, Arthur Kitson, Sir Montague Webb give the details" [SP,338-339].
chancellor
Communist
Leninism is that "the workers should own the means of production. " Pound thought that if he could talk to Stalin for 20 min- utes, he could explain that all he had to do was control the money and he would solve the problems.
leader. Primary tenet
Marx-
stone sleep [76:145].
theme derives from Prester John
. . .
Analects IV, X where Legge has the Master
say: "The superior man, in the world, does not set his mind either for anything, or against anything; what is right he will follow" [Legge, 4 2 ] . The words "bird- hearted," "timber," and "earth" come from visual aspects of the characters and, accord- ing to Fang, "cannot be reconciled with the Chinese language" [Fang, IV, 133]. But Pound's intent is probably to evoke the intelligence o f nature in process. Neither birds nor trees think: they express them- selves naturally and the right follows. Pound's own translation of Analects IV, X is, "He said: a proper man is n,ot absolutely bent on, or absolutely averse from anything in particular, he will be just" [CON,207].
39. Rouse: William Henry Denham R. , 1863-1950, a classical scholar who translated Homer as well as East Indian literature. In several letters Pound commented on his translations of The Odyssey. Said Pound: "W. H. D. Rouse went to the right place for his Homer-namely, to the Aegean in a sail boat, where they are still telling the same yarns even if they tell them about prophet Elias . . . " [PE, 125-126].
40. Elias: Elijah, the Hebrew prophet.
41. OTTI1:: H, "No Man. " fcf. 17 above].
42. Wanjina . . . things: Wondjina. In Aus- tralian folklore W. , the son of a god (the rainbow snake Ungur), created the world by saying the names of things. But W. created so many objects that his father closed his mouth so that he could not speak. Fox [mentioned in GK twice, 91,133] says ofa story told him in Australia: "As one old man e x p l a i n e d , i f Ungar h a d n o t very wisely done as he did, then the blackfellow would have been burdened with all the glittering claptrap of the white man's culture and
38. words
earth: Pound's
paraphrase of
? ? 366
53. "La Donna": I, "the woman. " Prob. knowing Pound was a poet, Nicoletti recited a sonnet he had written, with the kind of impassioned cadence in these repeated words that only an Italian could give-thus making the moment and measure memorable. [MSB's note says only: Reciting to E. P. an early sonnet of his]. The idea of the lady may have evoked the memory of several famous ones, Claretta Petacci above, Bianca below, as well as others.
54. "Cosa . . . ginnocchion": I, "Why must it go on1 If I fall . . . / I will not fall on my knees. " [Pound supplied MSB with a line that preceded this: "I am married to Capello"; and a note: Defiance when they were trying to crush free spirit in Vienna] .
55. Bianca Capello: 11542? 1587, mistress of Francesco de' Medici, Duke of Tuscany, who married her in 1579 and proclaimed her Grand Duchess of Tuscany four months later. She was said to have been poisoned by Francesco's brother, Ferdinand.
The situa- tion of Clara Petacci may have reminded Pound of this response.
56. the key: The notebooks for Canto 74 at Yale reveal that the key lists Chinese books, the Analects of Mencius and Chung Yung, as well as a few Western authors (Cocteau, Wyndham Lewis, Frobenius), and books on specific subjects: economics, history, and monetary theory [for details see Pai, 12? 1] .
57. Lute of Gassir: The introductory song to the legend collection the Dausi. Gassire, son of Nganamba Fasa, was king of the Fasa tribe. The story of Gassire's envy and its consequences [cf. 134 below] is told in the legend collection, which deals with the history of Wagadu. A summary is given by Frobenius in Erlebte Erdteile [cf. GD, "Pound and Frobenius," LL, Motive, 33-59].
58. Hooo: Af. dial. "Hail! " [cf. 134 belowJ 59. Fasa: A tribe of heroes in N Africa.
60. lion-coloured pup: Prob. a dog running loose in the DTC.
74/427-428
61. les six potences . . . absoudre: F, "the six gallows / Absolve, may you absolve us all" [Villon, Epitaphe de Vii/on: Mais Priez Dieu que taus nous vueille absouldre] .
62. Barabbas: The bandit held in jail at the time of the arrest of Christ.
63. Hemingway: Ernest H. , 1898-1961, the American novelist Pound knew during his Paris years.
64. Antheil: George A. , 1900-1959, Ameri? can composer and pianist who was spon~ sored with several other modern musicians by Pound during the 20s. Pound wrote about him in Antheil and the Treatise on Harmony.
65. Thos. Wilson: A Negro "trainee" at the DTC [ef. 257 below].
66. Mr K. : DTC trainee.
67. Lane: DTC trainee.
68. Butterflies, mint: Paradisal cues [48:42, 50; 79/487; Frags. :38]. Even in hell or purgatory, the paradise-oriented man is conscious of his divine end. Pound takes the metaphor from Dante: "0 proud Chris- tians . . . do You not know that we are worms, born to form the angelic butterfly"
[Pur. X, 121-125J.
69. Lesbia's sparrows: Clodia, wife of the consul MeUelus Celer, was a notorious profligate celebrated by Catullus, who referred to her as Lesbia. Catullus 2, lines 1-4 may be translated: "Sparrow, thing of delight to her I love / Often she plays with you and holds you in her lap, / Offering her fingertip to your eager beak, / Asking for your darting nip".
74/428-429
own poetry based in part on Bernart de
Ventadorn's La terns vai even e vire ["Time goes and comes and turns"]. Also echo of Dante's era gia' lora che volge il disio ["It was now the hour that turns back the longing"] [Pur. VIII, IJ.
72. Ussel: Town in Correze Department, S central France, near Ventadour. Pound had fond memories of it and its 15th- and 16th-century houses. The Hotel des Ducs de Ventadour has on its facade an inscrip- tion honoring the last troubadours.
367
Chinese goddess of Mercy; the compassion? ate bodbisattva [90:29].
82. Linus: St. Linus, pope 167-76. His name appears first in all lists of the bishops of Rome. Earlier glosses [cf. 35, 45 above] and several of those following this one indicate that Pound was attending mass.
83. C1etus: St. Cletus (or Anacletus), pope ? 76? 88.
84. Clement: St. Clement I, pope 188-971. Also known as Clement of Rome. The names of the first three bishops of Rome appear after the names of some of the apostles as the beginning of a list of early church fathers in Canon I of the Mass.
85. the great scarab: Egyptian symbol of fertility and rebirth which was usually carved on basalt or green stone [Hastings, Ency. of Rei. & Ethics, vol. 11, 223-227]. Also conceived as one form of the sun god [Tay, Pai, 4? 1,53]. The design on the back of the priest's chasuble at mass suggested the idea of the scarab [M de RJ .
86. plowed . . . early: At the first conjunc- tion of the sun and moon in spring, the emperor, the Son of Heaven, had to plough the field of God with his own hands, and at late spring, "The empress offers cocoons to the Son of Heaven" [52/258].
87. virtu: I, "creative power" [36:2].
88. Ideogram: Hsien [M2692]: "display, be illustrious. " Pound uses as "tensile light descending" and relates it to the Ming ideogram [M4534]: "The sun and moon, the total light process . . . hence, the intelli- gence. . . . Refer to Scotus Erigena, Gros- seteste and the notes on light in my Cavalcanti" [CON, 20; Michaels, Pai, 1? 1, 37? 54; CFT, Pai, 2? 3, 458].
89_ "sunt lumina": L, "are lights. " From "'Omnia, quae sunt, lumina sunt" [trans. on line 22, p. 429 of the text as "all things that are are lights"] . Passage derives from Erigena as quoted by Gilson [La Philosophie du Moyen Age, 2d ed. , 1944, p. 214; cf. LE, 160].
70. voiceless . . . roosts:
the Wagadu legend; Pound relates the four gates of the legend to the four corner guard towers at the DTC [cf. 57 above; 96 below]. The "voiceless" may be the drum message about the tempest in Baluba [38:41].
71. el triste . . . rivolge: I, "the sad thought turns / toward Ussel. To Ventadour / goes the thought, the time turns back. " Pound's
74. Limoges: Manufacturing and commer- cial city of Haute-Vienne Department, W central France, not far from Ventadour. Perhaps the polite salesman is the same one celebrated by T. S. Eliot in "Gerontion" as Mr. Silvero. Pound said that all the trouba? dours who knew letters or music had been taught "at the abbeys of Limoges" [SR, 91].
75. which city: Fang identifies the forgot? ten city as Les Eyzies, a small town near which "are numerous sites of pre-historic Europeans" [II, 223J.
76. Urochs: Aurochs, the European bison [cf. 152 belowJ.
77. Mme Pujol: A landlady in Provence. Excideuil, between Limoges and Perigueux, was the place where Mme. Pujol or Poujol kept an inn. Pound told HK that Madame would be dead but the inn would still be there.
78. white bread: Observation on the adul? teration of food by additives. Cf. "is thy bread ever more of stale rags / " [45/229] .
79. Mt Taishan: [cf. 46 above].
80. Carrara: The city in Tuscany, Italy. The marble used in building the leaning tower of Pisa came from its quarries.
81. Kuanon: Kuan? yin (J: Kuanon). The
Prob.
reference
to
73. V entadour: department of near Limousin.
Former Correze,
duchy S central
in the France,
? ? ? 368
90. Erigena:
[36:9], medieval philosopher and theolo?
gian. His book, De Divisione Naturae, was condemned in 1225 by Pope Honorius III [80:90].
91. Shun: One of the legendary emperors, reigned 2255? 2205 B. C. Pound sometimes calls him Chun [53:14, 23]. We read in Chung Yung: "Kung said: Shun was a son in the great pattern . . . he offered the sacrifices in the ancestral temple and his descendants offered them there to him [CON, 133]. For "precision" see 20 above.
92. Mt Taishan: [cf. 46 above]. The Four Books nowhere say Shun was at Taishan, but the visit is recorded in Shu Ching [I, ii, 8; Fang, IV, 110].
93. paraclete: In John 14. 26, Christ speaks of Paracletus as the intercessor or comforter. Capitalized, the Paraclete is the third person of the Trinity. Here it is "the divine spirit," which Pound believes is the same at all times and all places, East and West.
94. Yao: Legendary early ruler [53:14].
95. Yu: [53:15].
96. 4 giants . . .