" Also, all the
courteous
and fair ladies.
A-Companion-to-the-Cantos-of-Ezra-Pound-II
.
.
.
h: The line mimics the rhythm of 30/148 [30: 10].
52. la pigrizia: I, "sloth. "
53. ground and the dew: May refer to sleeping conditions Pound endured in the "cage" at Pisa. The forced inactivity may have induced lethargy or "sloth. "
54. Chung: [MI504], "Middle. " So trans. by Pound in explication [77/476]. With ynng, he trans. "unwobbling pivot. " In Townsman [April 1939, 12] he applied the word to money as "pivot: . . . the moment in fact that there is a cornman denominator of exchange, that moment the denominator, the measure, i. e. money becomes the PIVOT of all social action. Only a race of slaves and idiots will be inattentive thereafter to the said pivot. "
55. three weeks: Chung Yung, III, says: "Center oneself in the invariable: some have managed to do this, they have hit the true
393 center, and then? Very few have been able
to stay there" [CON, 105]. Even for 3 weeks is implied.
56. government . . . it:
coming in conjunction with chung must refer to Shun [Chun], who "took hold of their two extremes, determined the Mean, and employedit in his government of other people" [IV, 103].
57. Ideogram: Ch'eng [M381]. Pound gives the sense of this character as "Sincerity" and adds: "The precise definition of the word, pictorially the sun's lance coming to rest on the precise spot verbally. The righthand half of this compound means: to perfect, bring to focus" [CON, 20].
58. Kung fu Tseu: "K'ung" [M3720]: Confucius. The "fu Tseu" means _"Master"
[13:1; 53:78].
59. Chung Ni: A courtesy name for K'ung [53:148], whom Pound reveres for his work on the histories of China, especially the Chou dynasty, and for his work in recover-
ing and making a collection of the best odes.
60. each one . . . god: From a conflation of the biblical "in nomine Dei sui" [Micah 4. 5] and Gavin Douglas's trans. of Virgil's inferretque deos Latio: "the lateyn peopil taken has their name / bringing his gods into Latium / saving the bricabrac. " Pound gives seven different versions of Micah's words: "each one in his god's name" [74/435]; "each in the name of its god" [74/441]; "in the name of its god" [74/443]; and at 78/479,79/487, and 84/540 [Fang, III, 76].
61. Gibraltar: The scenario of Pound's visit to the synagogue is given at 22/104? 105.
62. @$8. 50 . . . : Half of 17 shekels [74:338].
63. meteyard: AS, metgeard. A yard or rod used as measure.
64. Leviticus: Third book of the Pentateuch or so-called Law of Moses [74:205].
65. chapter XIX: Lev. 19. 35-36 [King James] reads: "Ye shall do no unrighteous.
30. tempora . . . mores: L, time. . . customs" [NB: Tempora! 0 Mores! "].
[ages] , Cicero, "0
31. Babylonian wall: The subject of a poem by Dunning [see essay by Pound on Dunning with a selection of his poetry in Pai, 10? 3, 605? 618].
32. memorat Cheever: L, "Cheever remem* bers. " Refers to Ralph Cheever Dunning, ca. 1865-1930, American poet born in Detroit who lived his last 25 years in Paris. His output was small but Poetry published whatever he sent. Pound praised his work and published it in Exile. He appeared also in transatlantic review and transition. His The Four Winds, 1925, received the Levinson Prize. H. Monroe wrote a short eulogy in 'Poetry, January 1931. The title poem of The Four Winds has this stanza: "My garden hath a wall as high / As any wall of Babylon, / And only things with wings shall spy / The fruit therein or feed thereon. "
33. very confidentially: From popular song of 1930s prob. heard over loud speaker: "Ain't she sweet? See her corning down the
"time
street / I ask you very confidentially / Ain't she sweet? "
34. Dieudonne: Dieudonet, a famous London chef. His restaurant, called "Dieudonne," in the St. James district of London, was frequented by Pound and other literary figures, 1910? 20 [74:178; 77:78].
35. Mouquin: A New Y ork restaurant famous at the turn of the century [74:186] ,
36. Voisin: A famous restaurant in Paris at 261 Rue St. Honore and 16 Rue Cambon.
37. Nevsky: The Nevsky Prospect is a long, fashionable avenue along which there used to be numerous pastry shops, such as Andrejew, Filippow, and Dominique.
38. The Greif: A hotel with restaurant and cafe (called Grifone in Italian) at Bolzano in the Italian Tyrol.
39. SchOners: [SchOner]: A restaurant at 19 Siebensterngasse, Vienna [74:184].
40. Taverna: Pass. the Taverna Romola Remo at 5, IV Resselgasse, Vienna.
41. Robert's: A New York restaurant at 33 West 55th St. which Pound visited with e e cummings in 1939 [Fang, 11, 321].
42. La Rupe: Prob. the Rupe Tarpeia [74:395] in the garden of the Casa Tarpeia On the southern hill called Monte Caprino in Rome. Fang says: "As it is not certain that there was a restaurant or cafe on the Tarpeian Rock, it is possible that there was
one [elsewhere] named after it" [11,319].
43. finito: I, "finished. "
44. Pre Catalan: [Pre-Catelan]: Restaurant du Pre-Catelan, an eating place " o f the highest class" on the right bank of the Bois de Boulogne [Fang, II, 3 0 9 ] .
45. Armenonville: Pavillon d'A. A high class restaurant in Paris located between the Porte Maillot and the Jardin d'Acclimation.
46. Bullier: The Bal Bullier at 33, avenue de l'Observatoire in the Latin Quarter of Paris. It was noted as a student resort [cf. Bouiller at74:176].
Fang says
this line
? 394
ness in judgment, in meteyard, in weight, or
in measure. I Just balances, just weights, a just ephah, and a just hin, shall ye have. "
66. Zion: The hilltop site of the temple and the royal residence of King David and his successors, The Jews regard Zion as the symbolic center of Jewish national culture, government, and religion [74:97].
67. Don Fulano: S, used as is "John Doe" in English.
68. Caio e Tizio: I, like Don Fulano: "John Doe and Richard Roe. "
69. Why not rebuild it: Pound's interpreta- tion of a passage from the Analects. He wrote: "The inhabitants of Lou wished to put up a new public granary. " Someone asked "Isn't the old one still good enough? Is there any need of a new one which will cost much sweat to the people? " Kung endorsed this man's idea [GK, 17]. Pound's own translation of the passage [CON, 239] has the man say: "What about repairing the
old one? Why change and build'" Thus, "rebuild" suggests "repair the old one" rather than "build anew,"
70. Snag: Nickname of one of the prisoners at the DTC [74:119].
71. ante mortem no scortum: L, "before death no prostitute. " Prob. the black murderer was under sentence of death and demonstrated his knowledge of Latin by this ironic statement.
72. progress: Note repetition of this line.
73. Burnes: A prisoner named Jones. Said Pound: "I did an unfair ballad about Jones and destroyed it" [RO].
74. Cahors: Chief town in department of Lot, south of Perigueux and about halfway between it and Toulouse. It possesses one of the "finest ancient bridges in the world"
[Fang, II, 224] .
75. Chalus: A village a little S of Limoges which has two 12th-century castles, one outside the walls. It was while besieging this one in 1119 that Richard Coeur-de-Lion was
76/454-455
mortally wounded. The inn, doubtless visited by Pound on his 1911 walking trip, must have been on the banks of the Tardoire
[cf. "Provincia Deserta"].
76. Aubeterre: A town in Perigord with "two Romanesque churches: st. Jean, hollowed in the rock and containing a two-storied monument, with mutilated statues (added later) of Marshal de Lussan (d. c. 1620) and his wife; and SI. Jacques, with a richly-carved 11th century facade" [Muirhead, Guide to Southern France, 1926, 338; quoted by Fang, II, 225].
77. Poitiers: [formerly spelled Poictiers]: Chief town in department of Vienne, W central France, where are found two of Pound's favorite buildings. He wrote: "For European architecture a development occurs in St. Hilaire (Poiliers) and the Hall of Justice of Poitiers. Here the architect has invented. The cunning contrivance of lighting and the building of chimneys is, at least for the layman, something there invented, something that has no known fatherhood" [GK. 109].
78. Sergeant Beaucher: Prob. an NCO at the DTC.
79. Santa Marta: A Romanesque church from which one could see a castle on a distant hill which Ford Madox Ford called "the White Tower that you see from Tarascon" [Ford, Provence; Fang, II, 227].
80. Tarascon: A town of Bouches-du Rhone department in SE France.
81. "in heaven . . . women: From
Aucassin and Nicolette: "En paradis qu'aije a faire . . . . " Pound praised Andrew Lang's version by saying he "was born in order that he might translate it perfectly" [SR, 84]. Aucassin protests to a religious person who wants him to prepare for paradise: "In Paradise what have I to win? Therein I seek not to enter, but only to have Nicolete, my
sweet lady. " He lists a lot of people bound for paradise: clerics, the halt, lame, blind, pious relics, and kill-joys. "These be they that go into Paradise, with them have I
76/455-456
naught to make. " Aucassin prefers hell, where go "goodly knights" and "stout men at arms" and "all men noble.
" Also, all the courteous and fair ladies. "With these I would gladly go, let me but have with me Nicolete, my sweetest lady" [Fang, II, 228].
82. vair: A fur worn by the nobility of the 14th century.
83. Memling: Hans M. , ? 1430-1495, a painter of the early Flemish school known for his religious subjects.
84. Elskamp: Mac E. . 1862-1931, a Belgian symbolist poet who wrote on religious subjects. Thus the nonreligious tradition of Aucassin is contrasted with the religious tradition in art.
85. Danzig: City in N Poland; after WWI, an international free city and seaport.
86. Galla: G. Placidia, 388-450, Roman empress. Her mausoleum is the Church of St. Nazario Celso in Ravenna. Pound seems to be saying that the "rest" (sleep) of Galla was destroyed during WWII along with a great many works of art. Galla wasn't destroyed, although rumor may have said so. Pound endorses a friend's opinion, which he trans- lates: "every self-respecting Ravennese is procreated, or at least receives spirit or breath of life, in the Mausoleum of Galla Placidia" [SP,322].
87. Crawford: This same list of U. S. presi- dents with Crawford is given at 74/436 [ef. 74:264].
88. Tout . . . fortune: F, "Everyone says that fortune does not last. "
89. Joyce et fils: F, "Joyce and son. " James Joyce with his son, Giorgio, came to meet Pound for the first time at the town of Desenzano on the southwestern bay of Lake Garda. He came in spite of a bad storm. Joyce wrote: "Mr. Pound wrote to me so urgently from Sirmione (lake of Garda) that in spite of my dread of thunderstorms and detestations 'of travelling I went there bringing my son with me to act as lightning conductor" [Letters ofJames Joyce, 142].
395
90. Catullus: Gaius Valerius C. , ? 84-54 B. C. Roman lyric poet whose work Pound much admired. He associates C. with Sirmio on Lake Garda because Catullus regarded Sirmio and environs as his favorite place, as Poem 31 makes clear. Says Quinn [Catullus, An Interpretation, 158]: "Clearly, arrival at Sirmio meant arriving horne. "
91. Gardasee: Lake Garda.
92. Miss Norton: Sara N. , daughter of Charles Eliot Norton and editor of her father's letters. Pound met her in Venice in 1908.
93. Tout dit: [cf. 88 above].
94. Canal Grande: The Grand Canal of Venice [Ivancich].
95. Florian's: A famous cafe on the south side of the Piazza San Marco, Venice. Named in the earliest version of Canto I: "True it was Venice, / And at Florian's and under the North arcade / I have seen other faces, and had my rolls for breakfast . . . " ["Three Cantos," Poetry, June 1917].
96. La Figlia di lorio: I, "Jorio's Daughter," A 1904 play by D'Annunzio.
97. Oedipus of the Lagunes: I, "0, 0 f the Lagoons. " Prob. a play that mocked the sentimental melodramatic characters in La Figlia di Jorio.
98. D'Annunzio: Gabriele D. , 1863-1938, Italian novelist and playwright [93: 134] .
99. l'ara suI rostro: I, "the altar on the rostrum. "
100. 20 years: Perhaps a reference to the dream of the great society of justice and help for people which Pound believed Mussolini was going to build [74: 1].
101. young Mozart: [41/204]. On Oct. 16-17,1777, M. wrote to his father de~crib- ing the son of a local magistrate, an arrogant patrician who had been insulting him by making fun of an award M. had been given while at the same time offering him a pinch of snuff. M. got increasingly enraged and
chap. 6 of
? ? 396
in his turn offered the son a pinch of snuff along with a more pointed insult. This little scene went on through many a pinch and sniff. M. told his father he had decided that the whole company of patricians could get a better sniff by licking his arse. Say BK and TCDE, "Pound is surely remembering the
incident as a little battle in the long war between the artist and the patronizing bourgeoisie" [The Explicator, 40 (1981), 43].
102. prise: P, "pinch of snuff. "
103. Ponce: Juan Ponce de Leon, 71460- 1521, Spanish governor of Puerto Rico and discoverer of Florida, which he found while looking for the Fountain of Youth.
104. alia fuente florida: I, "to the" S, "flowery fountain. "
105. Anchises: The father of Aeneas, to whom Aphrodite appeared as a beautiful woman, posing as the daughter of King atreus [23:34].
76/456-458
113. J. Adams: John A. said, "But every bank of discount . . . is downright corrup- tion" [71 :35]. A major economic statement Pound recalls often in the Pisan and later cantos.
114. Sergeant XL: Poss. Sgt. Lauterback, disciplinary NCO at the DTC, whose nick- name was "the Ripper. "
115. ac ferae familiares: L, "and domesti- cated wild animals" [20:73].
116. a destra: I, "to the right. "
76/458-459
planet" would be Venus. Bion's Lament for
Adonis uses Dione as a name for Aphrodite herself [47:12].
121. Helia: Misprint for Delia [cf. 109 above ] .
122. /<. lYrrpu::: H, "Cypris," Le. , the home of the Cyprian goddess Aphrodite.
397 BBC. Pound's perception of Bracken is not
the same as that of Time. Time reported that before Bracken ran the M. O. I. it "was sneered at as the Ministry of Misinforma- tion. . . . He saw to it that censors blue- penciled only military information" [Time, ibid. ].
129. ego scriptor: L, "I, the writer. "
130. Lucca: Capital o f Lucca Province, Tuscany, central Italy.
131. Forti dei Marmi: [Forte dei Marmi] : A sman town in Lucca Province.
132. Berchthold: Unidentified. But if "after the other one" is construed as after WWI the name may be a misspelling for Leopold Graf von Berchtold (1863-1942), Austro- Hungarian foreign minister, whose reckless policy made the war inevitable [87:8]. After the war, he was out of the government completely and retired to his private estate. Perhaps the parallel with Churchill suggested his name to Pound.
133. Thetis: A nereid, wife of Peleus and mother of Achilles. Her appearance here and 6 lines later associated with crystal colors and "tangibility" suggests some land of visionary experience.
134. spiriti questi: I, "are these spirits. " 135. personae: L, "people. "
136. atasal: [cLI17 above].
137. Maya: Poss. the Hindu earth-mother personified as a maiden: the real world is conceived in Hindu philosophy as only illusion. Or poss. Maia, daughter of Atlas and Pleione and mother of Hermes. Maia is the oldest and most beautiful of the Pleiades
[74:21! ].
138. Aq,poDi71/: H, "Aphrodite" [1:26].
139. Zoagli: A town a few miles S of Rapallo [46:4].
140. ot ~&p~"po" H, "the barbarians. "
141. Sigismundo's Temple: The Tempio
built by S. Malatesta [8 :43].
106. Cythera
Cythera," an epithet for Aphrodite [24:30].
107. K6e1/p" DElV';i: H, "dread [of fearful] Cythera. "
108. the crystal body: Major metaphor for final manifestation of divinity in the uni- verse [74:498], as "the great ball of crystal"
[116/795] and "pure Light, we beseech
124. Carrara: A city in Tuscany.
125. un terzo cielo: I, "a third heaven"
[Par. VIII, 37].
126. Prefetlo: I, "prefect. " Gioacchino Nicoletti was a local officer at Gardone near Sa16 on Lake Garda, where "a powerless Mussolini was. , ,administering a Republic of Italy. . . . Pound made his way there mOre than once, talked to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, hoped to bring fiscal enlightenment into the dream, sat at nearby Gardone with the Prefect . . . where in sight of a mountain that looked like Fujiyama a quiet cat stalked a railing and quiet water moved southward"
[HK, Era, 469; 74:49].
127. La Donna: Prob. Claia Petacci, the
mistress of Mussolini, who followed him to Gardone and caused public concern [74:53].
128. Bracken . . .
52. la pigrizia: I, "sloth. "
53. ground and the dew: May refer to sleeping conditions Pound endured in the "cage" at Pisa. The forced inactivity may have induced lethargy or "sloth. "
54. Chung: [MI504], "Middle. " So trans. by Pound in explication [77/476]. With ynng, he trans. "unwobbling pivot. " In Townsman [April 1939, 12] he applied the word to money as "pivot: . . . the moment in fact that there is a cornman denominator of exchange, that moment the denominator, the measure, i. e. money becomes the PIVOT of all social action. Only a race of slaves and idiots will be inattentive thereafter to the said pivot. "
55. three weeks: Chung Yung, III, says: "Center oneself in the invariable: some have managed to do this, they have hit the true
393 center, and then? Very few have been able
to stay there" [CON, 105]. Even for 3 weeks is implied.
56. government . . . it:
coming in conjunction with chung must refer to Shun [Chun], who "took hold of their two extremes, determined the Mean, and employedit in his government of other people" [IV, 103].
57. Ideogram: Ch'eng [M381]. Pound gives the sense of this character as "Sincerity" and adds: "The precise definition of the word, pictorially the sun's lance coming to rest on the precise spot verbally. The righthand half of this compound means: to perfect, bring to focus" [CON, 20].
58. Kung fu Tseu: "K'ung" [M3720]: Confucius. The "fu Tseu" means _"Master"
[13:1; 53:78].
59. Chung Ni: A courtesy name for K'ung [53:148], whom Pound reveres for his work on the histories of China, especially the Chou dynasty, and for his work in recover-
ing and making a collection of the best odes.
60. each one . . . god: From a conflation of the biblical "in nomine Dei sui" [Micah 4. 5] and Gavin Douglas's trans. of Virgil's inferretque deos Latio: "the lateyn peopil taken has their name / bringing his gods into Latium / saving the bricabrac. " Pound gives seven different versions of Micah's words: "each one in his god's name" [74/435]; "each in the name of its god" [74/441]; "in the name of its god" [74/443]; and at 78/479,79/487, and 84/540 [Fang, III, 76].
61. Gibraltar: The scenario of Pound's visit to the synagogue is given at 22/104? 105.
62. @$8. 50 . . . : Half of 17 shekels [74:338].
63. meteyard: AS, metgeard. A yard or rod used as measure.
64. Leviticus: Third book of the Pentateuch or so-called Law of Moses [74:205].
65. chapter XIX: Lev. 19. 35-36 [King James] reads: "Ye shall do no unrighteous.
30. tempora . . . mores: L, time. . . customs" [NB: Tempora! 0 Mores! "].
[ages] , Cicero, "0
31. Babylonian wall: The subject of a poem by Dunning [see essay by Pound on Dunning with a selection of his poetry in Pai, 10? 3, 605? 618].
32. memorat Cheever: L, "Cheever remem* bers. " Refers to Ralph Cheever Dunning, ca. 1865-1930, American poet born in Detroit who lived his last 25 years in Paris. His output was small but Poetry published whatever he sent. Pound praised his work and published it in Exile. He appeared also in transatlantic review and transition. His The Four Winds, 1925, received the Levinson Prize. H. Monroe wrote a short eulogy in 'Poetry, January 1931. The title poem of The Four Winds has this stanza: "My garden hath a wall as high / As any wall of Babylon, / And only things with wings shall spy / The fruit therein or feed thereon. "
33. very confidentially: From popular song of 1930s prob. heard over loud speaker: "Ain't she sweet? See her corning down the
"time
street / I ask you very confidentially / Ain't she sweet? "
34. Dieudonne: Dieudonet, a famous London chef. His restaurant, called "Dieudonne," in the St. James district of London, was frequented by Pound and other literary figures, 1910? 20 [74:178; 77:78].
35. Mouquin: A New Y ork restaurant famous at the turn of the century [74:186] ,
36. Voisin: A famous restaurant in Paris at 261 Rue St. Honore and 16 Rue Cambon.
37. Nevsky: The Nevsky Prospect is a long, fashionable avenue along which there used to be numerous pastry shops, such as Andrejew, Filippow, and Dominique.
38. The Greif: A hotel with restaurant and cafe (called Grifone in Italian) at Bolzano in the Italian Tyrol.
39. SchOners: [SchOner]: A restaurant at 19 Siebensterngasse, Vienna [74:184].
40. Taverna: Pass. the Taverna Romola Remo at 5, IV Resselgasse, Vienna.
41. Robert's: A New York restaurant at 33 West 55th St. which Pound visited with e e cummings in 1939 [Fang, 11, 321].
42. La Rupe: Prob. the Rupe Tarpeia [74:395] in the garden of the Casa Tarpeia On the southern hill called Monte Caprino in Rome. Fang says: "As it is not certain that there was a restaurant or cafe on the Tarpeian Rock, it is possible that there was
one [elsewhere] named after it" [11,319].
43. finito: I, "finished. "
44. Pre Catalan: [Pre-Catelan]: Restaurant du Pre-Catelan, an eating place " o f the highest class" on the right bank of the Bois de Boulogne [Fang, II, 3 0 9 ] .
45. Armenonville: Pavillon d'A. A high class restaurant in Paris located between the Porte Maillot and the Jardin d'Acclimation.
46. Bullier: The Bal Bullier at 33, avenue de l'Observatoire in the Latin Quarter of Paris. It was noted as a student resort [cf. Bouiller at74:176].
Fang says
this line
? 394
ness in judgment, in meteyard, in weight, or
in measure. I Just balances, just weights, a just ephah, and a just hin, shall ye have. "
66. Zion: The hilltop site of the temple and the royal residence of King David and his successors, The Jews regard Zion as the symbolic center of Jewish national culture, government, and religion [74:97].
67. Don Fulano: S, used as is "John Doe" in English.
68. Caio e Tizio: I, like Don Fulano: "John Doe and Richard Roe. "
69. Why not rebuild it: Pound's interpreta- tion of a passage from the Analects. He wrote: "The inhabitants of Lou wished to put up a new public granary. " Someone asked "Isn't the old one still good enough? Is there any need of a new one which will cost much sweat to the people? " Kung endorsed this man's idea [GK, 17]. Pound's own translation of the passage [CON, 239] has the man say: "What about repairing the
old one? Why change and build'" Thus, "rebuild" suggests "repair the old one" rather than "build anew,"
70. Snag: Nickname of one of the prisoners at the DTC [74:119].
71. ante mortem no scortum: L, "before death no prostitute. " Prob. the black murderer was under sentence of death and demonstrated his knowledge of Latin by this ironic statement.
72. progress: Note repetition of this line.
73. Burnes: A prisoner named Jones. Said Pound: "I did an unfair ballad about Jones and destroyed it" [RO].
74. Cahors: Chief town in department of Lot, south of Perigueux and about halfway between it and Toulouse. It possesses one of the "finest ancient bridges in the world"
[Fang, II, 224] .
75. Chalus: A village a little S of Limoges which has two 12th-century castles, one outside the walls. It was while besieging this one in 1119 that Richard Coeur-de-Lion was
76/454-455
mortally wounded. The inn, doubtless visited by Pound on his 1911 walking trip, must have been on the banks of the Tardoire
[cf. "Provincia Deserta"].
76. Aubeterre: A town in Perigord with "two Romanesque churches: st. Jean, hollowed in the rock and containing a two-storied monument, with mutilated statues (added later) of Marshal de Lussan (d. c. 1620) and his wife; and SI. Jacques, with a richly-carved 11th century facade" [Muirhead, Guide to Southern France, 1926, 338; quoted by Fang, II, 225].
77. Poitiers: [formerly spelled Poictiers]: Chief town in department of Vienne, W central France, where are found two of Pound's favorite buildings. He wrote: "For European architecture a development occurs in St. Hilaire (Poiliers) and the Hall of Justice of Poitiers. Here the architect has invented. The cunning contrivance of lighting and the building of chimneys is, at least for the layman, something there invented, something that has no known fatherhood" [GK. 109].
78. Sergeant Beaucher: Prob. an NCO at the DTC.
79. Santa Marta: A Romanesque church from which one could see a castle on a distant hill which Ford Madox Ford called "the White Tower that you see from Tarascon" [Ford, Provence; Fang, II, 227].
80. Tarascon: A town of Bouches-du Rhone department in SE France.
81. "in heaven . . . women: From
Aucassin and Nicolette: "En paradis qu'aije a faire . . . . " Pound praised Andrew Lang's version by saying he "was born in order that he might translate it perfectly" [SR, 84]. Aucassin protests to a religious person who wants him to prepare for paradise: "In Paradise what have I to win? Therein I seek not to enter, but only to have Nicolete, my
sweet lady. " He lists a lot of people bound for paradise: clerics, the halt, lame, blind, pious relics, and kill-joys. "These be they that go into Paradise, with them have I
76/455-456
naught to make. " Aucassin prefers hell, where go "goodly knights" and "stout men at arms" and "all men noble.
" Also, all the courteous and fair ladies. "With these I would gladly go, let me but have with me Nicolete, my sweetest lady" [Fang, II, 228].
82. vair: A fur worn by the nobility of the 14th century.
83. Memling: Hans M. , ? 1430-1495, a painter of the early Flemish school known for his religious subjects.
84. Elskamp: Mac E. . 1862-1931, a Belgian symbolist poet who wrote on religious subjects. Thus the nonreligious tradition of Aucassin is contrasted with the religious tradition in art.
85. Danzig: City in N Poland; after WWI, an international free city and seaport.
86. Galla: G. Placidia, 388-450, Roman empress. Her mausoleum is the Church of St. Nazario Celso in Ravenna. Pound seems to be saying that the "rest" (sleep) of Galla was destroyed during WWII along with a great many works of art. Galla wasn't destroyed, although rumor may have said so. Pound endorses a friend's opinion, which he trans- lates: "every self-respecting Ravennese is procreated, or at least receives spirit or breath of life, in the Mausoleum of Galla Placidia" [SP,322].
87. Crawford: This same list of U. S. presi- dents with Crawford is given at 74/436 [ef. 74:264].
88. Tout . . . fortune: F, "Everyone says that fortune does not last. "
89. Joyce et fils: F, "Joyce and son. " James Joyce with his son, Giorgio, came to meet Pound for the first time at the town of Desenzano on the southwestern bay of Lake Garda. He came in spite of a bad storm. Joyce wrote: "Mr. Pound wrote to me so urgently from Sirmione (lake of Garda) that in spite of my dread of thunderstorms and detestations 'of travelling I went there bringing my son with me to act as lightning conductor" [Letters ofJames Joyce, 142].
395
90. Catullus: Gaius Valerius C. , ? 84-54 B. C. Roman lyric poet whose work Pound much admired. He associates C. with Sirmio on Lake Garda because Catullus regarded Sirmio and environs as his favorite place, as Poem 31 makes clear. Says Quinn [Catullus, An Interpretation, 158]: "Clearly, arrival at Sirmio meant arriving horne. "
91. Gardasee: Lake Garda.
92. Miss Norton: Sara N. , daughter of Charles Eliot Norton and editor of her father's letters. Pound met her in Venice in 1908.
93. Tout dit: [cf. 88 above].
94. Canal Grande: The Grand Canal of Venice [Ivancich].
95. Florian's: A famous cafe on the south side of the Piazza San Marco, Venice. Named in the earliest version of Canto I: "True it was Venice, / And at Florian's and under the North arcade / I have seen other faces, and had my rolls for breakfast . . . " ["Three Cantos," Poetry, June 1917].
96. La Figlia di lorio: I, "Jorio's Daughter," A 1904 play by D'Annunzio.
97. Oedipus of the Lagunes: I, "0, 0 f the Lagoons. " Prob. a play that mocked the sentimental melodramatic characters in La Figlia di Jorio.
98. D'Annunzio: Gabriele D. , 1863-1938, Italian novelist and playwright [93: 134] .
99. l'ara suI rostro: I, "the altar on the rostrum. "
100. 20 years: Perhaps a reference to the dream of the great society of justice and help for people which Pound believed Mussolini was going to build [74: 1].
101. young Mozart: [41/204]. On Oct. 16-17,1777, M. wrote to his father de~crib- ing the son of a local magistrate, an arrogant patrician who had been insulting him by making fun of an award M. had been given while at the same time offering him a pinch of snuff. M. got increasingly enraged and
chap. 6 of
? ? 396
in his turn offered the son a pinch of snuff along with a more pointed insult. This little scene went on through many a pinch and sniff. M. told his father he had decided that the whole company of patricians could get a better sniff by licking his arse. Say BK and TCDE, "Pound is surely remembering the
incident as a little battle in the long war between the artist and the patronizing bourgeoisie" [The Explicator, 40 (1981), 43].
102. prise: P, "pinch of snuff. "
103. Ponce: Juan Ponce de Leon, 71460- 1521, Spanish governor of Puerto Rico and discoverer of Florida, which he found while looking for the Fountain of Youth.
104. alia fuente florida: I, "to the" S, "flowery fountain. "
105. Anchises: The father of Aeneas, to whom Aphrodite appeared as a beautiful woman, posing as the daughter of King atreus [23:34].
76/456-458
113. J. Adams: John A. said, "But every bank of discount . . . is downright corrup- tion" [71 :35]. A major economic statement Pound recalls often in the Pisan and later cantos.
114. Sergeant XL: Poss. Sgt. Lauterback, disciplinary NCO at the DTC, whose nick- name was "the Ripper. "
115. ac ferae familiares: L, "and domesti- cated wild animals" [20:73].
116. a destra: I, "to the right. "
76/458-459
planet" would be Venus. Bion's Lament for
Adonis uses Dione as a name for Aphrodite herself [47:12].
121. Helia: Misprint for Delia [cf. 109 above ] .
122. /<. lYrrpu::: H, "Cypris," Le. , the home of the Cyprian goddess Aphrodite.
397 BBC. Pound's perception of Bracken is not
the same as that of Time. Time reported that before Bracken ran the M. O. I. it "was sneered at as the Ministry of Misinforma- tion. . . . He saw to it that censors blue- penciled only military information" [Time, ibid. ].
129. ego scriptor: L, "I, the writer. "
130. Lucca: Capital o f Lucca Province, Tuscany, central Italy.
131. Forti dei Marmi: [Forte dei Marmi] : A sman town in Lucca Province.
132. Berchthold: Unidentified. But if "after the other one" is construed as after WWI the name may be a misspelling for Leopold Graf von Berchtold (1863-1942), Austro- Hungarian foreign minister, whose reckless policy made the war inevitable [87:8]. After the war, he was out of the government completely and retired to his private estate. Perhaps the parallel with Churchill suggested his name to Pound.
133. Thetis: A nereid, wife of Peleus and mother of Achilles. Her appearance here and 6 lines later associated with crystal colors and "tangibility" suggests some land of visionary experience.
134. spiriti questi: I, "are these spirits. " 135. personae: L, "people. "
136. atasal: [cLI17 above].
137. Maya: Poss. the Hindu earth-mother personified as a maiden: the real world is conceived in Hindu philosophy as only illusion. Or poss. Maia, daughter of Atlas and Pleione and mother of Hermes. Maia is the oldest and most beautiful of the Pleiades
[74:21! ].
138. Aq,poDi71/: H, "Aphrodite" [1:26].
139. Zoagli: A town a few miles S of Rapallo [46:4].
140. ot ~&p~"po" H, "the barbarians. "
141. Sigismundo's Temple: The Tempio
built by S. Malatesta [8 :43].
106. Cythera
Cythera," an epithet for Aphrodite [24:30].
107. K6e1/p" DElV';i: H, "dread [of fearful] Cythera. "
108. the crystal body: Major metaphor for final manifestation of divinity in the uni- verse [74:498], as "the great ball of crystal"
[116/795] and "pure Light, we beseech
124. Carrara: A city in Tuscany.
125. un terzo cielo: I, "a third heaven"
[Par. VIII, 37].
126. Prefetlo: I, "prefect. " Gioacchino Nicoletti was a local officer at Gardone near Sa16 on Lake Garda, where "a powerless Mussolini was. , ,administering a Republic of Italy. . . . Pound made his way there mOre than once, talked to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, hoped to bring fiscal enlightenment into the dream, sat at nearby Gardone with the Prefect . . . where in sight of a mountain that looked like Fujiyama a quiet cat stalked a railing and quiet water moved southward"
[HK, Era, 469; 74:49].
127. La Donna: Prob. Claia Petacci, the
mistress of Mussolini, who followed him to Gardone and caused public concern [74:53].
128. Bracken . . .
