fang and pound's classic
anthology
127
Poor old Lash (New Mexico Q.
Poor old Lash (New Mexico Q.
Ezra-Pounds-Chinese-Friends-Stories-in-Letters
See Letter 81.
A rose of Shanghai: Veronica Huilan Sun (see Glossary).
version by wa-lee: Arthur Waley (1889-1966), The Way and Its Power: A Study of the Tao Te Ching and
Its Place in Chinese Thought (1949; rpt. New York: Grove, 1958).
81 Fang to EP (TLS-1; Beinecke)
[Cambridge, Mass. ]
Oct. 27, 1952
Dear Mr Pound,
Completely knocked out for three full weeks--Xu. The heavy shoulders
wouldn't allow the Wngers touch the typewriter keys. Hence this delay in writing.
I am not teaching, nor do I care to play the slave who leads on idiot boys-- pedagogue. Sorry Fred Locke was such a disappointment to you. He was not known for his brilliance while he was here. Essentially a philologist or gram- marian, and Catholic at that.
Met J. Hawkes a few days ago; the printing project going Wne. Mei jin pu hao is too literary, mei jin usually standing for a beauty. Hence Mei-kuo-jin pu hao [Americans not good]. More idiomatically, Mei kuo [? ] ? [America] pu hao [not good]. (Traditionally Chinese did not distinguish the native of a land from the land itself. ) Jin ? is pronounced ren around the northern capital, but elsewhere yin. Ni hao ma sounds really melodious in the mould of a northern girl. The intonation is more or less similar to the phrase Muss es sein? in Beethoven's last string quartet, in F. But the voice is not raised in the last syllable. You know, there is not stress in Chinese. When a word is to be emphasized, it is pronounced in full TONE. The enclitic ma being practically atonal, the whole phrase sounds rather like es and sein transposed: Muss seine es? (One reason why the jap. language sounds so horrible is that the important word--verb--ends a sentence and stress is put on the SUFFIX to the verb and not on the root of the verb itself. Me no savee: wakarimaSENG [I don't know].
I have already made it clear that Waley is too obsessed with sex (v. Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, p. 558, note to ? 122). I am inclined to think that Ta[o]- te-ching can be used as a metaphysical foundation for JeVersonian democracy. It is the later Taozers who misinterpreted him. Lao-tzu was no more Taoistic than you are.
Thank you very much for your comment on NMQ Lu Ki. I still think you should do MONG.
If Guggenheim is willing to be useful, I shall try to translate Wen-hsin tiao- lung next year.
? ? 122 a. fang and pound's classic anthology
? ? ? ? is from the Stone-Classic (we have also T'ang stone-classics here): Analects VI xvi. (Lash should not have put ? ? at the beginning. I gave him choice, but he took both. ) The second ideogram is 5257 Mathews.
Respectfully [signed] Achilles Fang
Wen-hsin tiao-lung: Liu Xie (c. 465-c. 532), Wenxin diaolong (Literary Mind and the Carving of Dragons). See Fang, review of V. Y. Shih's translation of the book in Times Literary Supplement, 4 December 1959.
? ? ? : EP renders the phrase as ''accomplishment and solidity as two trees growing side by side and together with leafage'' (Confucius, 216).
Lash: Kenneth Lush, editor of New Mexico Quarterly.
82 EP to Fang (TL-1; Beinecke)
[St Elizabeths Hospital] [Washington, DC] [4 November 1952]
and az to strange doctrines
ACHILLES
Mr W[aley]'s alledged translation of Lao/being OF the most obscene bks/
printed even in the PerWdious Isle the question of the alledged source might be reduced to enquiry
Does Lao contain ANYTHING useful that is NOT in the Four Books (and their preludes, the Shih [Book of Odes] and the Shu [Book of History]) [? ]
an nif not why bother wiV deh superXuous.
The bamboo grove and so on/cant eggspect the young to eschew all dalliance or rise presto presto to senile calm. we grant THAT.
83 Fang to EP (TLS-1; Lilly)
[Cambridge, Mass. ] Nov 14, 1952
Dear Mr Pound,
Your latest, on Lao and the bamboo grove boys, was forwarded to me in
Mass. General Hospital. Lao certainly is ambiguous to have much value for sensible beings--at any rate he cannot be rendered sexually. BUT Chuang Chou, generally misunderstood to be a Taoist (but he is more Confucian than Taoist), should be of great importance to sensible Confucians.
? a. fang and pound's classic anthology 123
On Nov. 3 I lost balance and fell down 7 steps. Left foot sprained and the heelbone shattered. Went to the above mentioned hospital on the 6th, had the bone set aright, and the foot and ankle in cast. Came home on the 12th.
Yesterday was invited to Faculty Club: lunch with MacLeish, Hawkes, and Wilson (host).
The boss of the press showed me a sample sheet of your Odes. Both the Syndics (or is it Syndicate) and Wilson have come to decision: they will publish.
Only that they are Wguring out how to reduce the production cost.
Gathered that the press is toying with the idea of publishing a de-luxe ed. of text-cum-ideogram-cum-sound and another ed. of text solus simultaneously.
Wilson wants to communicate to you directly--I encouraged him. By the way, Wilson used to teach frog lit.
W is a nice chap: wants to have the Odes out as soon as possible. Old Mac joined in, of course.
(The preceding paragraph is strictly between us. You will hear from W soon, I think. )
This compulsory vacation is exasperating.
Oh yes, e. e. cummings asked me to come and see him. Wrote him that when I get a bit agile with the crutches I shall come. Thanks.
With respect [signed] Achilles Fang
Chuang Chou: see Glossary on Zhuang Zhou.
MacLeish: see Glossary on MacLeish, Archibald.
Wilson: see Glossary on Wilson, Thomas James.
e. e. cummings: see Glossary on Cummings, Edward Estlin.
84 EP to Fang (TL-1 + ALS-2; Beinecke)
[St Elizabeths Hospital] [Washington, DC] 19 Nv [1952]
yes, my Achilles
(doing it thoroughly) I got hit on the heel over 50 years ago by a base ball/and
there being v. litl circulation in that part of the corpus, I know it takes d/n/long time to git over soreness.
***
oVset is a printing METHOD, at low cost, once the kumperzishn is did. ***
O. K. re Chuang Chou/but I still want [to] know WHAT he ADDED.
124 a. fang and pound's classic anthology
It is my hypothesis, based on NO data (that is no extraneous data) whatso- dam, that every intelligent chinYman fer 1000 years has meditated the Four bks/ trying to see wot he cd/leave out, or add/result being dam little.
Before that they spent 1400 years deciding Mencius cd/be added to the THREE bks/
**puzzled by the one about wot he (K) ate and his night gown/of course quite simple. IF one consider that it had to get aYrmed that Kung was not a solar myth or the incarnation of hindoo djinn procreated by a Wsh swallowing the etc/(wot them hindoos wont think of ? /? ) ! ! !
as per Voltaire: the Wrst man who did NOT.
Regnery has reprinted Wyndham L[ewis]'s ''Revenge fer Luvv'' mebbe that wd/beguile yr enforced ex-deskness/
the kumrad kumminkz [Cummings] is abl/bodied/tell him to come to YU with my kumplimentZ.
---------
Condolences ye compleat Achilles.
a heel fer
a heel
Ez P
incidentally
young Chien recognized yr friends calligraphy on the wall. Thank
Kuanon arrows are out of date
or unobtainable in Boston
as per Voltaire: in Ancient and Modern History Voltaire (1694-1778) refers to Confucius as a philoso- pher who ''does not pretend to inspiration, or the gift of prophecy,'' one who ''places all his merit in a constant endeavor to gain the mastery over his passions, and . . . writes only as a philosopher'' (The Works of Voltaire, trans. William Fleming (New York: St Hubert Guild, 1901), xv/2. 173). Cf. Confucius, 191.
''Revenge fer Luvv'': Wyndham Lewis (see Glossary), The Revenge for Love (1937).
Chien: T'sai Chien. See Letter 79.
yr friends calligraphy: see Letter 36 n.
Kuanon: Kuanon (Guanyin), Goddess of Compassion, is honored in Cantos 74, 77, 81, 90, 97, 101,
and 110.
a. fang and pound's classic anthology 125
85 EP to Fang (TL-1; Beinecke)
[St Elizabeths Hospital] [Washington, DC] [November 1952]
No, my Fang
D. P. has just recd/a thoroughly DIRTY letter from yr/friend Wilson.
NO soap. letter from . . . Wilson: this letter is lost or discarded.
86 Fang to EP (TLS-1; Beinecke)
[Cambridge, Mass. ]
Nov. 25, 1952
Dear Mr Pound,
Thank you very much for the condolences. The damaged heel will be
repaired in 3 more weeks. Cast meanwhile.
Am sorry to hear that Wilson has disappointed you. I didn't expect him to do
so, for he was very willing to do whatever you wanted. I still think he can be made reasonable.
A few days ago John H. Randall, JR (Columbia), editor of Journal of the History of Ideas, wrote me a two-page insulting letter together with the MS (Imagism & Ch. Renaissance). I don't mind the rejection, but the letter was too much. It was so stinking, that I doubt if it could have been written by anyone but a Yankee or a Britisher. Well, I did not deem it worth even answering. <So, the MS lies in the drawer. >
What's matter with homo americanus academiensis? A chronic campus- follower that I am, I am sometimes nonplussed.
As for the Ode-Wilson mix-up, can I do anything for you?
Respectfully [signed] Achilles
87 EP to Fang (TL-1; Beinecke)
[St Elizabeths Hospital] [Washington, DC] 15 Jan 16 Jan [1953]
O FANG
moderation is the thief of time (perhaps).
anyhow have telegraphed Kasper to WAIT, bloody WAIT
126 a. fang and pound's classic anthology
But whether he will hv/left N. Pork [New York] and be howling at yr/door, having missed telegram, I dont know.
At any rate I shd/like clariWcation before chucking the Odes at some other publisher. AS Cairns whispered an incomprehensible message, re decent inten- tions at Haaavud/
AND I suppose it wd/be more convenient fer Fang to do his part of the Herculean, in Cambridge.
BUT no harm to know that the impulsive Kasp/has two other publishers interested.
The contrast between K[asper]/going oV half cocked/and C[airns]/thinking two weeks absence is NOT a delay. Oh yes, he was coming back with two holy doves of Picassian peace etc.
Any how Kasper's instructions are to WAIT, whether he has recd/'em in N. York or gets 'em from yu when he produces a tommy-gun.
anyhow the KasPER is NOT to have the ms/until I know quite a lot more about who, whom, wherefore etc.
Kasper: see Glossary on Kasper, John.
Cairns: see Glossary on Cairns, Huntington.
two other publishers: in letters to EP of 31 December 1952 and 14 January 1953 (Lilly) Kasper reports
Macmillan's and Twayne's interest in the Odes project.
88 Fang to EP (TLS-1; Lilly)
Jan. 19, Monday, 1953
Dear Mr Pound,
Your telegram at 5 Friday afternoon. Checked with Hawkes if impulsive
Kasper had appeared. Apparently he also got your wire in time: he did not turn up on Saturday morning, as he said he would, per his letter received Sat. morning.
I am really glad that you've changed your mind: I think the Odes should be printed here at Harvard. The people here are not so bad: Wilson gave me the impression that he has the best of all intentions toward the book. It takes time, of course, to handle the Syndics. I am sure everything will turn out as you wish.
Two weeks ago a fellow here in Boston announced (N. Y. Times Book Review) that he was about to write a biography of E. P. Authorized?
Again, some two weeks ago I read in the same paper that Aaron Copland's record (Vienna) of your Lustra poem, An Immorality, is in market.
Social Crediter is not in our storehouse. Re/Yale & Xtianity, I hope to get some information soon.
[Cambridge, Mass. ]
a.
fang and pound's classic anthology 127
Poor old Lash (New Mexico Q. ) has sent me his last appeal: shall have to sit down and write a ''review'' of your Confucius this evening.
The foot, still limping. Carrying the cane.
Yours respectfully [signed] Achilles Fang
a fellow here: Charles Norman, whose Ezra Pound: A Biography was published in 1960 (New York: Macmillan).
Aaron Copland: American composer Aaron Copland's record of ''An Immorality'' was released in 1926 (Gallup E4j).
89 EP to Fang (TL-2; Beinecke)
[St Elizabeths Hospital] [Washington, DC] [24 January 1953]
O FANG
IF the hawk [John Hawkes] has wings, he might save a little time by doing a
sample page/UNLESS a Wnal sample by Kimball is with the ms/
I thought K[imball]/HAD solved the problem, but the sheets I still have do
NOT show the result.
It does NOT take a Copernicus to conceive a page I forget if it was 91/2 or 101/4
(but in either case, as page that wd take on left side the SEAL in present size and on the right side 24 lines english/i. e. maximum of TWO unbroken 12 line strophes AND 24 lines romanj, spaced out as might be musical bars (if no Kimball sample has this, I can send something to show how the romanj shd/go/ IF same is not laid open to the meanest capacity by MY typewritten pages.
This should save such idiocy as that shown by Wilson's letter the photos to be cut up AFTER the page proofs of the translation and romanj have been achieved/
PAGE proofs, not galleys/then the photos can be cut to correspond.
ALZO a sample page might serve to satisfy the Rev. Elephant [Eliot] who SAID Faber wd/take it on condition it shd/LOOK like a two guinea book.
Of course our eminent contemporary is a damn Xrister/and NOT keen on Oriental wisdom (or much else) BUT he is not wholly responsible for the goddam delay/the pusillanimous and blithering Bubblegum wasted a year/ apparently from sheer stincgking vigliaccherian What happened to Kimball, god knows, he was all enthusiasm and had measured out the pages. May be black mail, gorNOZE/
the egregio Sig. H. C[airns]. murmured something incomprehensible but seems incapable of measuring TIME. These people to whom a fortnight is as nothing //
128 a. fang and pound's classic anthology
in short UNtergang des goddam
Abendland/
mania for gathering last year's peaches
AND the unclean desire of most of my friends, pubrs/etc. that all further
edtns/shall be posthumous.
The impulsiFFFF kaspeRRRR had two pubrs/''lined up'' BUTT until Cairns
makes coherent communication either in writ/or verbattt/
let us remain in suspense.
All heal to the heel, and the quicker the sooner. BUT I dun tell yu that part of
the anaTOMY is slow to recover.
Kimball: see Glossary on Kimball, Dudley.
Wilson's letter: in a letter of 25 November 1952, Wilson proposed to hold oV the ''desire for
immediate publication of the Odes with complete apparatus'' (Beinecke).
two guinea book: T. S. Eliot (1888-1965) visited his career-long friend EP on every trip to Washington in 1946-58. Probably on one of those visits he agreed to print EP's Odes on the condition that it be like ''a two guinea book. '' During that period Eliot corresponded also with DP, Omar Pound, Olga Rudge, Archibald MacLeish, and others in eVorts to help EP. The EP/Eliot relation is treated in Robert Langbaum's ''Pound and Eliot'' in Ezra Pound among the Poets,
ed. George Bornstein (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1985). kaspeRRRR had two pubrs/''lined up'': see Letter 87 n.
Cairns: see Glossary on Cairns, Huntington.
90 Fang to EP (TLS-1; Beinecke)
[Cambridge, Mass. ]
Jan. 31 1953
Dear Mr Pound,
Ignorant as I am of the profound thinking of American professors of litera-
ture, I like to believe that Leary is quite ? [sincere].
Obviously nothing much can be said in 40 minutes. But the discussion period,
participated by some hundred professors and sub-professors (so I was told by someone here), can be quite fruitful. Instead of wasting time by answering inane questions, I plan to give them a lecture on EP as Confucian (things which I have left unsaid in my ''review'' of your CONFUCIUS for New Mexico Quarterly)/or try to overwhelm them by making a line-after-line exegesis of Pisan Cantos (I shall write Leary that I wish all the participants to bring their copies of the Cantos or, at least, the Pisan volume--this will make Laughlin happy, I hope). Either way, their mouths will be shut.
As for Leary's postscriptum, it would be a Wne thing if you would (and could) meet his request. If ''message'' is abhorrent to you, I personally will be very grateful if you could read the Wrst 3 passages of Pisan (ending with the Wanjina passage), which I like to make an exegesis of. If even that is unfeasible, I wonder
a. fang and pound's classic anthology 129
if you would let me tape-record a poem (or a canto) from Harvard Library. Of course, any recording you make should be used for the nonce, if you so request. I am looking for a competent violinist to play the music of the second Pisan canto--a few dollars and a nice exhibit for my paper. I may also show round a picture of Cafe Dante and that of Isotta's tomb with tempus tacendi and tempus
loquendi, etc. etc.
At any rate I haven't answered Leary's second yet.
--------
I have not contacted Hawkes yet. I am trying to Wnd a way to <breaking>
the irrational mentality of Wilson and company. A bit of active interference would be in order.
I still have Kimball's sample page with me. Wilson showed me his sample page; I suppose you have seen it too.
Would it be advisable for me to tell Hawkes or Wilson that Faber & Faber would take the two guinea book to-be?
As it stands, someone with a bit of worldly prestige (Cairns or perhaps e. e. cummings) must preachify to Wilson before he gets over his pusillanimity. (May I speak to cummings on my own? )
Respectfully [signed] Achilles Fang
Leary: enclosed are copies of two letters from Lewis Leary, requesting a paper on EP for the English Institute meeting in September 1953.
Cafe Dante: Cafe ? Dante in Verona is referred to in Canto 78/501.
Isotta's tomb: EP's 1922 visit to Tempio Malatestiano with the tomb of Malatesta's third wife, Isotta
degli Atti, (c. 1433-74) inspired Cantos 8-11. Cairns: see Glossary on Cairns, Huntington.
91 EP to Fang (TL-2; Beinecke)
[St Elizabeths Hospital] [Washington, DC] 4 Fb [1953]
OUAN SOUIIIIIIII [Cheers] O. K. my Fang
Didn't I record a canto from the Chinese hunk when I was in N. England in '39.
I have told 'em to keep the stuV on ice, but will gladly release it for performance IF in connections with Fang's exposition.
As for message/there is a stright tradition. Kung, Mencius, Dante, Agassiz. And that shd/be stressed sometime.
The answers are all in the Four Books/
? 130 a. fang and pound's classic anthology
BUT the barbarians need the ODES. K. collected 'em to prevent anyone from trying to reduce wisdom to abstract formulae or from putting across, or trying to put over any general statement whatsodam without root and branches, and life.
***Item, Monsieur Emery has sent in two gr/hulking vols/of typescript re/ 84 Cantos/
This is an aside. But indicates care.
Can't LEARY be hurled at the Wilson, ALSO?
What is the Eng/Inst/? seems to be in Cambridge? ?
Mons. Cairns HAS writ to Wilson very brieXy.
By all means provide the kumrad KUMMINKZ [Cummings] with hydro-
gen, atoms, and whatever, and let him explode after all its HIS country and he shares the disgrace of the ODES being unprinted, and held up for trivial reasons/
ALSO for having stayed alive and out of jail during the era of infamy/ excuse being that was IN JAIL during the other one/prematurely.
No hv/NOT seen Hawkes' foot print on the trial page/and shd/like to/ and MOST certainly tell 'em that T. S. E[liot]. SAID in years before the
deluge that Faber wd/take it, on condition that it ''LOOK like a two guineaaaa book. ''
Owen and Russell both clamouring/English distribution certainly obtainable once the thing is printed.
As to cost, I suggested that the diYculty of composing with tone numerals/ which Cairns SAID they SAID wd/treble cost
kuan1 kuan1 etcetera/<cd be solved> if they wd/set kuan kuan, then have the numerals inked in kuan1 kuan1 and the thing oVset. perfectly simple once Pallas Athena has descended and kicked someone's ear.
Emery: Clark Emery, professor of English at University of Miami, was a signatory with others to EP's 1953 Manifesto (Paideuma, 6/1 (Spring 1977), 114).
Owen and Russell: Peter Owen reprinted The Great Digest & The Unwobbling Pivot (1952). Peter Russell reissued Six Money Pamphlets (1951-2) and ABC of Economics (1953).
kuan1 kuan1: Ode 1, line 1: ''Guan1 guan1 ju1 jiu1 ? ? ? ? '' or '' 'Hid! Hid! ' the Wsh-hawk saith'' (Classic Anthology, 2).
92 Fang to EP (TLS-1; Beinecke)
[Cambridge, Mass. ]
Feb. 11, 1953
Dear Mr Pound,
Here's the sample page made a long time ago. As you will see from the
enclosed Hawkes letter, the Press is going to follow your wishes when they print the book. The sample was a try-out, made with the sole purpose of calculating
? ? a. fang and pound's classic anthology 131
the production costs. My intention in obtaining and forwarding it is quite simple: to convince you that Wilson and company are seriously interested in the Odes.
I have taken the liberty of black-pencilling the sound key. With your permis- sion I hope to make the key invulnerable.
Here are also two clippings of yours. Thank you very much.
Haven't had a chance to contact Cumrad Cummings; perhaps next week, when he delivers his Wrst lecture of the term. After which he might have some free time.
Respectfully [signed] Achilles Fang
93 EP to Fang (TL-2; Beinecke)
[St Elizabeths Hospital] [Washington, DC] [17 February 1953] <OUR Valentine>
Respected FANG
Sono matti per le ? gare [They are lunatics]/or as the churmun prof/saidt of
hiss vife, a poor sailor: if she dont lie she schwindels. //
A truly horrible page/of a book no one cd/carry/made for buggars in bibteks.
The whole BLOODY thing was measured to millimetre/the SEAL/on left page/
exact and full size of photos/
on the right page/space for 24 lines (i. e. 2 12 line strophes maximum in eng/ trans/
and below/the romanj to match.
This cd/be a bit crowded on the exceptional pages that needed the full 24 lines/mostly there wd/be lee-way to space prettily.
REMind the blighters that Possum [Eliot] said ''LOOK Like a 2 guinea book. '' ///
the wife's complaint makes TWO pages.
AND the characters will be easier to Wnd by the STEWdent as is the case with PIVOT/
This is nearly as bad (no its NOT, not nearly as bad, as the Princeton potawatamie)
AS the good HAWK [Hawkes] admits/O. KAY.
? ? ? 132 a. fang and pound's classic anthology
any tinkering (i. e. correcting yu Wnd time and patience to use) on the romanj, will be with gratitude WELLcomed.
my theory/cant be tested till one has the stuV on the page to work on, is that the variations in pronunciation occur in a dimention that does not greatly bitch the prosody
ONLY point I am fanatik on is putting in the ARCHAIC sound pwt pwt (or however it's spelled) for the Xap of the Wsh tails on the stone quai/
As to Peter Pan and the wild life of Cambridge/you will consider him (and in some degree her) as if about to set down a drawing of one thrush hesitant on blueberry bush, NOT as components to be employed in ORGANIZATIONING the kulch of this dummysphere/
my view of which enhanced by the MOST XubloodyGOdDAmenzaaaaaaa
had better be left to an imagination schooled in the hell sections of chink- mythology.
Thank for letting me see the HORROR.
A truly horrible page: on 7 Feb. 1953 Fang wrote: ''Next week I shall mail you a sample page the Harvard Press made months ago. It was just a trial or try-out'' (Lilly).
Princeton potawatamie: see Letter 76 n.
94 Fang to EP (TLS-2; Lilly)
Dear Mr Pound,
Very glad that you are going to let me go through the sound key--it shall be
sound even to pedants (and all sinologists and asinologists are nothing if not pedantic). Am sure the work can be done in no time.
Going to have a Wve-o'clock with kumrad kumminkz & frau [Mr and Mrs Cummings] next Wednesday.
Last monday Feb. 16 e. e. c[ummings]. gave his Wrst of the 3 lectures of the term. He read little prose pieces he wrote these many years. Before he came to the piece he wrote for Charles Norman, PM symposium on EP, he dropped a remark, which sounded like ''the greatest and most generous poet of the world Ezra Pound. '' Though no visible eVect was noticeable, like to think that the audience (Sanders theatre, full house, ca. 1200? ) caught the words distinctly.
Recently come across Sergei Eisenstein's The Cinematographic Principle and the Ideogram (in FILM FORM), Wrst publ. in transition 1930 (The C. P. and the Japanese culture). Why doesn't he acknowledge that he owes much if not all to Fenollosa-Pound?
[Cambridge, Mass. ] Feb. 21, 1953
Hnbl ACHILLES
95 EP to Fang (TL-2; Beinecke)
[St Elizabeths Hospital] [Washington, DC] [8 May 1953]
a. fang and pound's classic anthology 133
Here's a comic braying:
In Ezra Pound it (i. e. the endless preoccupation with new artiWcial techniques by purely intellectual poets) took the form of the exotic, the exoteric, a constant search for Ultima Thule rarities. He was strongly drawn to Old French, Chinese, Japanese, all sorts of out-of-the-way erudition, and it often looks like the pundit's desire to impress. Here is his complete poem ''Pa- pyrus''--I think the number of dots is correct:
Spring. . . Too long . . . Gongula . . .
In an unknown minor poet that snippet would be considered a folly to write and an impertinence to publish. Does anyone know why the title, or what Gongula may be?
The ass's name: James Devaney/Poetry in Our Time
a review of contemporary verse Melbourne University Press, 1952
Respectfully [signed] Achilles Fang
Charles Norman: see Letter 88 n.
Sergei Eisenstein: (1898-1948), Russian Wlm theorist.
Hell No/Faber and TSE [Eliot] wd/be perfectly INcapable of getting the Odes set up. They shd/be damn glad of the chance of getting sheets from Haavud/If that beanery still exists.
Eliot HEARD of the Translation years ago/and said O. K. re/taking copies for England ''but it must LOOK like a 2 guinea book. ''
His skull so full of mouldy christianity he has apparently forgotten the incident. Tell HIM the book should be printed and be properly printed/and get him to kick Harvard in the pants and START doing it. four years late but what is that in a cloaca? <As to the exact moment when one shd/lose patience with ones friends/re/initial item in this communique ? /gorNOZE/still I think it wd/be in order fer FANG to appeal to Eliot's intellectual honour in assisting the said Fang to get something done. >
134 a. fang and pound's classic anthology
I trust you will NOT go to Cambridge eng[land]/UNTIL this job has been done/great drawback is that yu could probably never get your money OUT of England if they paid you more than you now get.
Between one hell and another/as it used to read on Jastrow's door ''there is small choice in rotten apples. ''
You wd/be nearer Europe but equally far from the altar of Heaven. I shd/ prefer you in Eng/IF I were Europe/but I damn AINT.
fer the honour of Haaavud/now known as Weenie's beanery/and associated with 20 years of american degradation.
The USE, i.
A rose of Shanghai: Veronica Huilan Sun (see Glossary).
version by wa-lee: Arthur Waley (1889-1966), The Way and Its Power: A Study of the Tao Te Ching and
Its Place in Chinese Thought (1949; rpt. New York: Grove, 1958).
81 Fang to EP (TLS-1; Beinecke)
[Cambridge, Mass. ]
Oct. 27, 1952
Dear Mr Pound,
Completely knocked out for three full weeks--Xu. The heavy shoulders
wouldn't allow the Wngers touch the typewriter keys. Hence this delay in writing.
I am not teaching, nor do I care to play the slave who leads on idiot boys-- pedagogue. Sorry Fred Locke was such a disappointment to you. He was not known for his brilliance while he was here. Essentially a philologist or gram- marian, and Catholic at that.
Met J. Hawkes a few days ago; the printing project going Wne. Mei jin pu hao is too literary, mei jin usually standing for a beauty. Hence Mei-kuo-jin pu hao [Americans not good]. More idiomatically, Mei kuo [? ] ? [America] pu hao [not good]. (Traditionally Chinese did not distinguish the native of a land from the land itself. ) Jin ? is pronounced ren around the northern capital, but elsewhere yin. Ni hao ma sounds really melodious in the mould of a northern girl. The intonation is more or less similar to the phrase Muss es sein? in Beethoven's last string quartet, in F. But the voice is not raised in the last syllable. You know, there is not stress in Chinese. When a word is to be emphasized, it is pronounced in full TONE. The enclitic ma being practically atonal, the whole phrase sounds rather like es and sein transposed: Muss seine es? (One reason why the jap. language sounds so horrible is that the important word--verb--ends a sentence and stress is put on the SUFFIX to the verb and not on the root of the verb itself. Me no savee: wakarimaSENG [I don't know].
I have already made it clear that Waley is too obsessed with sex (v. Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, p. 558, note to ? 122). I am inclined to think that Ta[o]- te-ching can be used as a metaphysical foundation for JeVersonian democracy. It is the later Taozers who misinterpreted him. Lao-tzu was no more Taoistic than you are.
Thank you very much for your comment on NMQ Lu Ki. I still think you should do MONG.
If Guggenheim is willing to be useful, I shall try to translate Wen-hsin tiao- lung next year.
? ? 122 a. fang and pound's classic anthology
? ? ? ? is from the Stone-Classic (we have also T'ang stone-classics here): Analects VI xvi. (Lash should not have put ? ? at the beginning. I gave him choice, but he took both. ) The second ideogram is 5257 Mathews.
Respectfully [signed] Achilles Fang
Wen-hsin tiao-lung: Liu Xie (c. 465-c. 532), Wenxin diaolong (Literary Mind and the Carving of Dragons). See Fang, review of V. Y. Shih's translation of the book in Times Literary Supplement, 4 December 1959.
? ? ? : EP renders the phrase as ''accomplishment and solidity as two trees growing side by side and together with leafage'' (Confucius, 216).
Lash: Kenneth Lush, editor of New Mexico Quarterly.
82 EP to Fang (TL-1; Beinecke)
[St Elizabeths Hospital] [Washington, DC] [4 November 1952]
and az to strange doctrines
ACHILLES
Mr W[aley]'s alledged translation of Lao/being OF the most obscene bks/
printed even in the PerWdious Isle the question of the alledged source might be reduced to enquiry
Does Lao contain ANYTHING useful that is NOT in the Four Books (and their preludes, the Shih [Book of Odes] and the Shu [Book of History]) [? ]
an nif not why bother wiV deh superXuous.
The bamboo grove and so on/cant eggspect the young to eschew all dalliance or rise presto presto to senile calm. we grant THAT.
83 Fang to EP (TLS-1; Lilly)
[Cambridge, Mass. ] Nov 14, 1952
Dear Mr Pound,
Your latest, on Lao and the bamboo grove boys, was forwarded to me in
Mass. General Hospital. Lao certainly is ambiguous to have much value for sensible beings--at any rate he cannot be rendered sexually. BUT Chuang Chou, generally misunderstood to be a Taoist (but he is more Confucian than Taoist), should be of great importance to sensible Confucians.
? a. fang and pound's classic anthology 123
On Nov. 3 I lost balance and fell down 7 steps. Left foot sprained and the heelbone shattered. Went to the above mentioned hospital on the 6th, had the bone set aright, and the foot and ankle in cast. Came home on the 12th.
Yesterday was invited to Faculty Club: lunch with MacLeish, Hawkes, and Wilson (host).
The boss of the press showed me a sample sheet of your Odes. Both the Syndics (or is it Syndicate) and Wilson have come to decision: they will publish.
Only that they are Wguring out how to reduce the production cost.
Gathered that the press is toying with the idea of publishing a de-luxe ed. of text-cum-ideogram-cum-sound and another ed. of text solus simultaneously.
Wilson wants to communicate to you directly--I encouraged him. By the way, Wilson used to teach frog lit.
W is a nice chap: wants to have the Odes out as soon as possible. Old Mac joined in, of course.
(The preceding paragraph is strictly between us. You will hear from W soon, I think. )
This compulsory vacation is exasperating.
Oh yes, e. e. cummings asked me to come and see him. Wrote him that when I get a bit agile with the crutches I shall come. Thanks.
With respect [signed] Achilles Fang
Chuang Chou: see Glossary on Zhuang Zhou.
MacLeish: see Glossary on MacLeish, Archibald.
Wilson: see Glossary on Wilson, Thomas James.
e. e. cummings: see Glossary on Cummings, Edward Estlin.
84 EP to Fang (TL-1 + ALS-2; Beinecke)
[St Elizabeths Hospital] [Washington, DC] 19 Nv [1952]
yes, my Achilles
(doing it thoroughly) I got hit on the heel over 50 years ago by a base ball/and
there being v. litl circulation in that part of the corpus, I know it takes d/n/long time to git over soreness.
***
oVset is a printing METHOD, at low cost, once the kumperzishn is did. ***
O. K. re Chuang Chou/but I still want [to] know WHAT he ADDED.
124 a. fang and pound's classic anthology
It is my hypothesis, based on NO data (that is no extraneous data) whatso- dam, that every intelligent chinYman fer 1000 years has meditated the Four bks/ trying to see wot he cd/leave out, or add/result being dam little.
Before that they spent 1400 years deciding Mencius cd/be added to the THREE bks/
**puzzled by the one about wot he (K) ate and his night gown/of course quite simple. IF one consider that it had to get aYrmed that Kung was not a solar myth or the incarnation of hindoo djinn procreated by a Wsh swallowing the etc/(wot them hindoos wont think of ? /? ) ! ! !
as per Voltaire: the Wrst man who did NOT.
Regnery has reprinted Wyndham L[ewis]'s ''Revenge fer Luvv'' mebbe that wd/beguile yr enforced ex-deskness/
the kumrad kumminkz [Cummings] is abl/bodied/tell him to come to YU with my kumplimentZ.
---------
Condolences ye compleat Achilles.
a heel fer
a heel
Ez P
incidentally
young Chien recognized yr friends calligraphy on the wall. Thank
Kuanon arrows are out of date
or unobtainable in Boston
as per Voltaire: in Ancient and Modern History Voltaire (1694-1778) refers to Confucius as a philoso- pher who ''does not pretend to inspiration, or the gift of prophecy,'' one who ''places all his merit in a constant endeavor to gain the mastery over his passions, and . . . writes only as a philosopher'' (The Works of Voltaire, trans. William Fleming (New York: St Hubert Guild, 1901), xv/2. 173). Cf. Confucius, 191.
''Revenge fer Luvv'': Wyndham Lewis (see Glossary), The Revenge for Love (1937).
Chien: T'sai Chien. See Letter 79.
yr friends calligraphy: see Letter 36 n.
Kuanon: Kuanon (Guanyin), Goddess of Compassion, is honored in Cantos 74, 77, 81, 90, 97, 101,
and 110.
a. fang and pound's classic anthology 125
85 EP to Fang (TL-1; Beinecke)
[St Elizabeths Hospital] [Washington, DC] [November 1952]
No, my Fang
D. P. has just recd/a thoroughly DIRTY letter from yr/friend Wilson.
NO soap. letter from . . . Wilson: this letter is lost or discarded.
86 Fang to EP (TLS-1; Beinecke)
[Cambridge, Mass. ]
Nov. 25, 1952
Dear Mr Pound,
Thank you very much for the condolences. The damaged heel will be
repaired in 3 more weeks. Cast meanwhile.
Am sorry to hear that Wilson has disappointed you. I didn't expect him to do
so, for he was very willing to do whatever you wanted. I still think he can be made reasonable.
A few days ago John H. Randall, JR (Columbia), editor of Journal of the History of Ideas, wrote me a two-page insulting letter together with the MS (Imagism & Ch. Renaissance). I don't mind the rejection, but the letter was too much. It was so stinking, that I doubt if it could have been written by anyone but a Yankee or a Britisher. Well, I did not deem it worth even answering. <So, the MS lies in the drawer. >
What's matter with homo americanus academiensis? A chronic campus- follower that I am, I am sometimes nonplussed.
As for the Ode-Wilson mix-up, can I do anything for you?
Respectfully [signed] Achilles
87 EP to Fang (TL-1; Beinecke)
[St Elizabeths Hospital] [Washington, DC] 15 Jan 16 Jan [1953]
O FANG
moderation is the thief of time (perhaps).
anyhow have telegraphed Kasper to WAIT, bloody WAIT
126 a. fang and pound's classic anthology
But whether he will hv/left N. Pork [New York] and be howling at yr/door, having missed telegram, I dont know.
At any rate I shd/like clariWcation before chucking the Odes at some other publisher. AS Cairns whispered an incomprehensible message, re decent inten- tions at Haaavud/
AND I suppose it wd/be more convenient fer Fang to do his part of the Herculean, in Cambridge.
BUT no harm to know that the impulsive Kasp/has two other publishers interested.
The contrast between K[asper]/going oV half cocked/and C[airns]/thinking two weeks absence is NOT a delay. Oh yes, he was coming back with two holy doves of Picassian peace etc.
Any how Kasper's instructions are to WAIT, whether he has recd/'em in N. York or gets 'em from yu when he produces a tommy-gun.
anyhow the KasPER is NOT to have the ms/until I know quite a lot more about who, whom, wherefore etc.
Kasper: see Glossary on Kasper, John.
Cairns: see Glossary on Cairns, Huntington.
two other publishers: in letters to EP of 31 December 1952 and 14 January 1953 (Lilly) Kasper reports
Macmillan's and Twayne's interest in the Odes project.
88 Fang to EP (TLS-1; Lilly)
Jan. 19, Monday, 1953
Dear Mr Pound,
Your telegram at 5 Friday afternoon. Checked with Hawkes if impulsive
Kasper had appeared. Apparently he also got your wire in time: he did not turn up on Saturday morning, as he said he would, per his letter received Sat. morning.
I am really glad that you've changed your mind: I think the Odes should be printed here at Harvard. The people here are not so bad: Wilson gave me the impression that he has the best of all intentions toward the book. It takes time, of course, to handle the Syndics. I am sure everything will turn out as you wish.
Two weeks ago a fellow here in Boston announced (N. Y. Times Book Review) that he was about to write a biography of E. P. Authorized?
Again, some two weeks ago I read in the same paper that Aaron Copland's record (Vienna) of your Lustra poem, An Immorality, is in market.
Social Crediter is not in our storehouse. Re/Yale & Xtianity, I hope to get some information soon.
[Cambridge, Mass. ]
a.
fang and pound's classic anthology 127
Poor old Lash (New Mexico Q. ) has sent me his last appeal: shall have to sit down and write a ''review'' of your Confucius this evening.
The foot, still limping. Carrying the cane.
Yours respectfully [signed] Achilles Fang
a fellow here: Charles Norman, whose Ezra Pound: A Biography was published in 1960 (New York: Macmillan).
Aaron Copland: American composer Aaron Copland's record of ''An Immorality'' was released in 1926 (Gallup E4j).
89 EP to Fang (TL-2; Beinecke)
[St Elizabeths Hospital] [Washington, DC] [24 January 1953]
O FANG
IF the hawk [John Hawkes] has wings, he might save a little time by doing a
sample page/UNLESS a Wnal sample by Kimball is with the ms/
I thought K[imball]/HAD solved the problem, but the sheets I still have do
NOT show the result.
It does NOT take a Copernicus to conceive a page I forget if it was 91/2 or 101/4
(but in either case, as page that wd take on left side the SEAL in present size and on the right side 24 lines english/i. e. maximum of TWO unbroken 12 line strophes AND 24 lines romanj, spaced out as might be musical bars (if no Kimball sample has this, I can send something to show how the romanj shd/go/ IF same is not laid open to the meanest capacity by MY typewritten pages.
This should save such idiocy as that shown by Wilson's letter the photos to be cut up AFTER the page proofs of the translation and romanj have been achieved/
PAGE proofs, not galleys/then the photos can be cut to correspond.
ALZO a sample page might serve to satisfy the Rev. Elephant [Eliot] who SAID Faber wd/take it on condition it shd/LOOK like a two guinea book.
Of course our eminent contemporary is a damn Xrister/and NOT keen on Oriental wisdom (or much else) BUT he is not wholly responsible for the goddam delay/the pusillanimous and blithering Bubblegum wasted a year/ apparently from sheer stincgking vigliaccherian What happened to Kimball, god knows, he was all enthusiasm and had measured out the pages. May be black mail, gorNOZE/
the egregio Sig. H. C[airns]. murmured something incomprehensible but seems incapable of measuring TIME. These people to whom a fortnight is as nothing //
128 a. fang and pound's classic anthology
in short UNtergang des goddam
Abendland/
mania for gathering last year's peaches
AND the unclean desire of most of my friends, pubrs/etc. that all further
edtns/shall be posthumous.
The impulsiFFFF kaspeRRRR had two pubrs/''lined up'' BUTT until Cairns
makes coherent communication either in writ/or verbattt/
let us remain in suspense.
All heal to the heel, and the quicker the sooner. BUT I dun tell yu that part of
the anaTOMY is slow to recover.
Kimball: see Glossary on Kimball, Dudley.
Wilson's letter: in a letter of 25 November 1952, Wilson proposed to hold oV the ''desire for
immediate publication of the Odes with complete apparatus'' (Beinecke).
two guinea book: T. S. Eliot (1888-1965) visited his career-long friend EP on every trip to Washington in 1946-58. Probably on one of those visits he agreed to print EP's Odes on the condition that it be like ''a two guinea book. '' During that period Eliot corresponded also with DP, Omar Pound, Olga Rudge, Archibald MacLeish, and others in eVorts to help EP. The EP/Eliot relation is treated in Robert Langbaum's ''Pound and Eliot'' in Ezra Pound among the Poets,
ed. George Bornstein (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1985). kaspeRRRR had two pubrs/''lined up'': see Letter 87 n.
Cairns: see Glossary on Cairns, Huntington.
90 Fang to EP (TLS-1; Beinecke)
[Cambridge, Mass. ]
Jan. 31 1953
Dear Mr Pound,
Ignorant as I am of the profound thinking of American professors of litera-
ture, I like to believe that Leary is quite ? [sincere].
Obviously nothing much can be said in 40 minutes. But the discussion period,
participated by some hundred professors and sub-professors (so I was told by someone here), can be quite fruitful. Instead of wasting time by answering inane questions, I plan to give them a lecture on EP as Confucian (things which I have left unsaid in my ''review'' of your CONFUCIUS for New Mexico Quarterly)/or try to overwhelm them by making a line-after-line exegesis of Pisan Cantos (I shall write Leary that I wish all the participants to bring their copies of the Cantos or, at least, the Pisan volume--this will make Laughlin happy, I hope). Either way, their mouths will be shut.
As for Leary's postscriptum, it would be a Wne thing if you would (and could) meet his request. If ''message'' is abhorrent to you, I personally will be very grateful if you could read the Wrst 3 passages of Pisan (ending with the Wanjina passage), which I like to make an exegesis of. If even that is unfeasible, I wonder
a. fang and pound's classic anthology 129
if you would let me tape-record a poem (or a canto) from Harvard Library. Of course, any recording you make should be used for the nonce, if you so request. I am looking for a competent violinist to play the music of the second Pisan canto--a few dollars and a nice exhibit for my paper. I may also show round a picture of Cafe Dante and that of Isotta's tomb with tempus tacendi and tempus
loquendi, etc. etc.
At any rate I haven't answered Leary's second yet.
--------
I have not contacted Hawkes yet. I am trying to Wnd a way to <breaking>
the irrational mentality of Wilson and company. A bit of active interference would be in order.
I still have Kimball's sample page with me. Wilson showed me his sample page; I suppose you have seen it too.
Would it be advisable for me to tell Hawkes or Wilson that Faber & Faber would take the two guinea book to-be?
As it stands, someone with a bit of worldly prestige (Cairns or perhaps e. e. cummings) must preachify to Wilson before he gets over his pusillanimity. (May I speak to cummings on my own? )
Respectfully [signed] Achilles Fang
Leary: enclosed are copies of two letters from Lewis Leary, requesting a paper on EP for the English Institute meeting in September 1953.
Cafe Dante: Cafe ? Dante in Verona is referred to in Canto 78/501.
Isotta's tomb: EP's 1922 visit to Tempio Malatestiano with the tomb of Malatesta's third wife, Isotta
degli Atti, (c. 1433-74) inspired Cantos 8-11. Cairns: see Glossary on Cairns, Huntington.
91 EP to Fang (TL-2; Beinecke)
[St Elizabeths Hospital] [Washington, DC] 4 Fb [1953]
OUAN SOUIIIIIIII [Cheers] O. K. my Fang
Didn't I record a canto from the Chinese hunk when I was in N. England in '39.
I have told 'em to keep the stuV on ice, but will gladly release it for performance IF in connections with Fang's exposition.
As for message/there is a stright tradition. Kung, Mencius, Dante, Agassiz. And that shd/be stressed sometime.
The answers are all in the Four Books/
? 130 a. fang and pound's classic anthology
BUT the barbarians need the ODES. K. collected 'em to prevent anyone from trying to reduce wisdom to abstract formulae or from putting across, or trying to put over any general statement whatsodam without root and branches, and life.
***Item, Monsieur Emery has sent in two gr/hulking vols/of typescript re/ 84 Cantos/
This is an aside. But indicates care.
Can't LEARY be hurled at the Wilson, ALSO?
What is the Eng/Inst/? seems to be in Cambridge? ?
Mons. Cairns HAS writ to Wilson very brieXy.
By all means provide the kumrad KUMMINKZ [Cummings] with hydro-
gen, atoms, and whatever, and let him explode after all its HIS country and he shares the disgrace of the ODES being unprinted, and held up for trivial reasons/
ALSO for having stayed alive and out of jail during the era of infamy/ excuse being that was IN JAIL during the other one/prematurely.
No hv/NOT seen Hawkes' foot print on the trial page/and shd/like to/ and MOST certainly tell 'em that T. S. E[liot]. SAID in years before the
deluge that Faber wd/take it, on condition that it ''LOOK like a two guineaaaa book. ''
Owen and Russell both clamouring/English distribution certainly obtainable once the thing is printed.
As to cost, I suggested that the diYculty of composing with tone numerals/ which Cairns SAID they SAID wd/treble cost
kuan1 kuan1 etcetera/<cd be solved> if they wd/set kuan kuan, then have the numerals inked in kuan1 kuan1 and the thing oVset. perfectly simple once Pallas Athena has descended and kicked someone's ear.
Emery: Clark Emery, professor of English at University of Miami, was a signatory with others to EP's 1953 Manifesto (Paideuma, 6/1 (Spring 1977), 114).
Owen and Russell: Peter Owen reprinted The Great Digest & The Unwobbling Pivot (1952). Peter Russell reissued Six Money Pamphlets (1951-2) and ABC of Economics (1953).
kuan1 kuan1: Ode 1, line 1: ''Guan1 guan1 ju1 jiu1 ? ? ? ? '' or '' 'Hid! Hid! ' the Wsh-hawk saith'' (Classic Anthology, 2).
92 Fang to EP (TLS-1; Beinecke)
[Cambridge, Mass. ]
Feb. 11, 1953
Dear Mr Pound,
Here's the sample page made a long time ago. As you will see from the
enclosed Hawkes letter, the Press is going to follow your wishes when they print the book. The sample was a try-out, made with the sole purpose of calculating
? ? a. fang and pound's classic anthology 131
the production costs. My intention in obtaining and forwarding it is quite simple: to convince you that Wilson and company are seriously interested in the Odes.
I have taken the liberty of black-pencilling the sound key. With your permis- sion I hope to make the key invulnerable.
Here are also two clippings of yours. Thank you very much.
Haven't had a chance to contact Cumrad Cummings; perhaps next week, when he delivers his Wrst lecture of the term. After which he might have some free time.
Respectfully [signed] Achilles Fang
93 EP to Fang (TL-2; Beinecke)
[St Elizabeths Hospital] [Washington, DC] [17 February 1953] <OUR Valentine>
Respected FANG
Sono matti per le ? gare [They are lunatics]/or as the churmun prof/saidt of
hiss vife, a poor sailor: if she dont lie she schwindels. //
A truly horrible page/of a book no one cd/carry/made for buggars in bibteks.
The whole BLOODY thing was measured to millimetre/the SEAL/on left page/
exact and full size of photos/
on the right page/space for 24 lines (i. e. 2 12 line strophes maximum in eng/ trans/
and below/the romanj to match.
This cd/be a bit crowded on the exceptional pages that needed the full 24 lines/mostly there wd/be lee-way to space prettily.
REMind the blighters that Possum [Eliot] said ''LOOK Like a 2 guinea book. '' ///
the wife's complaint makes TWO pages.
AND the characters will be easier to Wnd by the STEWdent as is the case with PIVOT/
This is nearly as bad (no its NOT, not nearly as bad, as the Princeton potawatamie)
AS the good HAWK [Hawkes] admits/O. KAY.
? ? ? 132 a. fang and pound's classic anthology
any tinkering (i. e. correcting yu Wnd time and patience to use) on the romanj, will be with gratitude WELLcomed.
my theory/cant be tested till one has the stuV on the page to work on, is that the variations in pronunciation occur in a dimention that does not greatly bitch the prosody
ONLY point I am fanatik on is putting in the ARCHAIC sound pwt pwt (or however it's spelled) for the Xap of the Wsh tails on the stone quai/
As to Peter Pan and the wild life of Cambridge/you will consider him (and in some degree her) as if about to set down a drawing of one thrush hesitant on blueberry bush, NOT as components to be employed in ORGANIZATIONING the kulch of this dummysphere/
my view of which enhanced by the MOST XubloodyGOdDAmenzaaaaaaa
had better be left to an imagination schooled in the hell sections of chink- mythology.
Thank for letting me see the HORROR.
A truly horrible page: on 7 Feb. 1953 Fang wrote: ''Next week I shall mail you a sample page the Harvard Press made months ago. It was just a trial or try-out'' (Lilly).
Princeton potawatamie: see Letter 76 n.
94 Fang to EP (TLS-2; Lilly)
Dear Mr Pound,
Very glad that you are going to let me go through the sound key--it shall be
sound even to pedants (and all sinologists and asinologists are nothing if not pedantic). Am sure the work can be done in no time.
Going to have a Wve-o'clock with kumrad kumminkz & frau [Mr and Mrs Cummings] next Wednesday.
Last monday Feb. 16 e. e. c[ummings]. gave his Wrst of the 3 lectures of the term. He read little prose pieces he wrote these many years. Before he came to the piece he wrote for Charles Norman, PM symposium on EP, he dropped a remark, which sounded like ''the greatest and most generous poet of the world Ezra Pound. '' Though no visible eVect was noticeable, like to think that the audience (Sanders theatre, full house, ca. 1200? ) caught the words distinctly.
Recently come across Sergei Eisenstein's The Cinematographic Principle and the Ideogram (in FILM FORM), Wrst publ. in transition 1930 (The C. P. and the Japanese culture). Why doesn't he acknowledge that he owes much if not all to Fenollosa-Pound?
[Cambridge, Mass. ] Feb. 21, 1953
Hnbl ACHILLES
95 EP to Fang (TL-2; Beinecke)
[St Elizabeths Hospital] [Washington, DC] [8 May 1953]
a. fang and pound's classic anthology 133
Here's a comic braying:
In Ezra Pound it (i. e. the endless preoccupation with new artiWcial techniques by purely intellectual poets) took the form of the exotic, the exoteric, a constant search for Ultima Thule rarities. He was strongly drawn to Old French, Chinese, Japanese, all sorts of out-of-the-way erudition, and it often looks like the pundit's desire to impress. Here is his complete poem ''Pa- pyrus''--I think the number of dots is correct:
Spring. . . Too long . . . Gongula . . .
In an unknown minor poet that snippet would be considered a folly to write and an impertinence to publish. Does anyone know why the title, or what Gongula may be?
The ass's name: James Devaney/Poetry in Our Time
a review of contemporary verse Melbourne University Press, 1952
Respectfully [signed] Achilles Fang
Charles Norman: see Letter 88 n.
Sergei Eisenstein: (1898-1948), Russian Wlm theorist.
Hell No/Faber and TSE [Eliot] wd/be perfectly INcapable of getting the Odes set up. They shd/be damn glad of the chance of getting sheets from Haavud/If that beanery still exists.
Eliot HEARD of the Translation years ago/and said O. K. re/taking copies for England ''but it must LOOK like a 2 guinea book. ''
His skull so full of mouldy christianity he has apparently forgotten the incident. Tell HIM the book should be printed and be properly printed/and get him to kick Harvard in the pants and START doing it. four years late but what is that in a cloaca? <As to the exact moment when one shd/lose patience with ones friends/re/initial item in this communique ? /gorNOZE/still I think it wd/be in order fer FANG to appeal to Eliot's intellectual honour in assisting the said Fang to get something done. >
134 a. fang and pound's classic anthology
I trust you will NOT go to Cambridge eng[land]/UNTIL this job has been done/great drawback is that yu could probably never get your money OUT of England if they paid you more than you now get.
Between one hell and another/as it used to read on Jastrow's door ''there is small choice in rotten apples. ''
You wd/be nearer Europe but equally far from the altar of Heaven. I shd/ prefer you in Eng/IF I were Europe/but I damn AINT.
fer the honour of Haaavud/now known as Weenie's beanery/and associated with 20 years of american degradation.
The USE, i.
