Therefore
Agelmund, the son of Aio, first reigned over them .
A-Companion-to-the-Cantos-of-Ezra-Pound-II
219. Started Fascist ideology.
suffrage:
223. Aquinas
"Nothing hinders certain things from hap- pening by fortune or by chance . . . but not if compared with Divine Providence" [Sum- ma, P. 1, question 116, art. I;JW].
we, to get
He said:
? ? ? 624
225. plenilune: From I. plenilunis, "full
moon. " A description of Fortuna, whose rhythm of giving luck or taking it away appears to wax and wane.
97/678-680
234. chi con me: I, "who [goes] with me. " Pound also made his dawn communion.
235. Ideogram: [Cf. 158 above]. "Dawn. "
236. chun tze: Chun tze [M1715-19], "a man of complete virtue" who is "the beau- ideal of Confucianism. " To Pound a much superior ethical system than is the Fall of Man premise of Christian dogma, which he thinks of as physically, mentally, and spiritu- ally repressive.
237. Aswins: Asvins. In Hinduism the twin deities of light who were included among the nature gods of the Veda.
238. Fou-Hi: [53:3].
239. keg of money: Prob. an assertion of T. C. P. [cf. 205 above].
240. Sargon . . . : [94:55]. The other fig- ures are not identifiable as hieroglyphs but bear some resemblance to early Chinese bone inscriptions and may suggest fields and plants.
241. T'ang: [53:40].
242. Multan: [or "Mooltan"]: An ancient
city of the Near East. capital of the district l; f:!
97/680-682
625
260. TEMENOS: H, "a piece of land sacred to a god; the precincts of a temple. "
261. PAUL: [96: 10].
262. Upsala: [L, Ubsola]. According to Migne [col. 447] , the northern limits of the territory from which the Lombards came. Now, Uppsala, city of eastern Sweden.
263. fane: Archaic: "sanctuary; temple. " Migne has: "In hoc templo (Ubsola patrio
226. Dante . . . Canzone: zone "Fortuna. "
Cava1canti's cao-
supposed burial place near Clogher, Ireland, of King Menes: "Waddell. . . identifies Menes with Min or Minor of Crete and inter- prets the text on the ivory tablets found in Abydos to say that King Menes died in Ire- land of a wasp's sting" [ibid. , 188n. ].
249. no blood: No blood sacrifices. A sign of an advanced civilization_ Pound probes into the history of all religions, looking for their progress away from barbaric acts (such as human sacrifice [88:62-63]) to the re- joicing and celebration of the mysterium he believes to be a measure of civilization.
250. Ungaro: Filippo U. , Italian journalist connected with II Secolo [The age] . He was a member of the parliament during the Fas- cist era. Pound used the gesture, later, to describe the difference between Chinese and Japanese cultures [HK,Pai, 2-3,488].
251. Ville d'Avray: A suburb of Paris, 7 miles from Notre Dame Cathedral, W of Sovres. Ref. may be to a painting by Corot,
227. Hudson: William Henry Hudson, 1841-1922, English naturalist and author of such books as Green Mansions and A Natu- ralist in La Plata [reviewed by EP, SP
429-432].
228. Jonathan Edwards: American Calvin- ist, 1703-1758, who preached damnation with burning passion in such sermons as "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God. "
229. Twelve Tables: Lucilius and Laws of XII Tables (Loeb, vol. III) [Lucilius].
230. Lucilius: Gaius L. , ? -ca. 102 B. C. , Lat- in satirist who "invented a new literary genre. . . . All that he says is colored by his personality. . . . " He wrote much, but about it "little can be said since the fragments are so meagre. " [OCD, 622].
231. Antoninus: [78:56].
232. Luigi: The hunchbacked (gobbo) ped- dler Pound knew at Rapallo [104/741]. Pound saw him doing the mystery rite [106/753]. He was "somewhat crippled" but "not a hunchback. " MB was told Luigi would come to Pound's house in San Am- brogio and "call after 'the poet' from a distance-then tell him of such wonders as the one recorded here" [MB, Trace, 365].
233. ONE, ten, eleven: Prob. a structural and vorticist cue, an arcane hint about the hub-turning world: 11011. Pound wrote a note for The Unwobbling Pivot which gives the immediate source of the numbers: "The ideogram tan . . . is found in the eleventh Ode of T'ang (Shih Ching, I, 10, 11, 3)" [ibid]. The line is a central cue to the wheels-within-wheels and overlapping' wheels of the basic structural units of 11 in The Cantos. The 0 is the still point around which
the five cantos on either side turn.
sermone vocato) . . . "
(called Upsala in native talk) . . . "].
of Multan, Punjab, Pakistan, near the Che- nab River about 100 miles NE of its junction with the Indus River.
243. Ii: C, Na-khi [M3862]. One Ii is a bit less than one-third of a mile.
244. Napat: Napata. An ancient city of Ethiopia built on a hill overlooking the Nile. A temple of Amenhotep III is there.
245. Panch: Panchala. Name of a country and people of ancient India (the Mahabha- rata places it in the lower Doab), visited by Apollonius of Tyana, who called it "Patala"
[P,Life I, 339].
246. Tyanu: "ofTyana" [94:123].
247. lion head: This hieroglyph (as do the others in the canto) comes from Waddell's
. J
252. Pre Catalan: [76:44].
253. METe, . . . : H, "after the physics. "
Source of the word metaphysical. 254. Adams: John A. [71:28,64]. 255. artigianato: I, "artisan. "
256. "Buckie": R. Buckminster Fuller, ar- chitect and poet who invented the geodesic dome.
257. "Luce . _ . vuoi": I, "Kindly light, in your eyes, / What I want, do you want too? / You want it? " Prob. phrases from a popular song, or the rhythm of such a song as imitated in the next 5 lines, which render the rhythm of "Mid pleasures and palaces / Tho we may roam / Be it ever so humble, / There's no place like home. " Prob. evoked by radio or TV at st. Elizabeths.
258. wode: OE/ME, "madly. " Adverbial form of wod.
259. Knittl: [89:260].
errors of interpretation
proaches, 187-188].
[B de R, Ap-
248. Knoch Many: "the hill of Many. " The
The Street o f the Station, at Ville [National Gallery, Washington].
d'Avray
"V oluptatemque
. . .
igenti Pri-
264. ministrat virtutern . . . : Migne adds that in the temple the statues of three gods were venerated by the people. The first was Thor, the second Wodan: "Wodan _. . minis- trat virtutem contra inimicos" ("did gallant deed against the enemy") [Migne, 448].
265. Fricco: L, "Tertius est Fricco pacem" ("The third is Fricco [devoted to] peace")
[ibid. ].
266. Priapo:
apo" ("and Priapus creates desire") [ibid. ].
267. Dea libertatis: L, "goddess of liberty" [ibid. ].
268. Agelmund: Migne tells the story of how the Langobards were led from Scandi- navia by their leaders Ibor and Aio, and being "unwilling to remain longer under mere chiefs (dukes), ordained a king for themselves like other nations.
Therefore Agelmund, the son of Aio, first reigned over them . . . [and] held the sovereignty . . . for thirty years" [452-452].
269. PUER APULIUS: L, "Apulian boy. " Frederick 11 of Sicily [cf. 272 below] , who became king at the age of 4 and assumed the throne at 18 [DD,Pai, 6-1, ! O3].
270. "Fresca rosa"; I, "fresh rose. " The "Song of the Rose" was sung at Freder- ick l1's court by Cielo d'Alcamo [107: I], "one of the first to write an Italianate Sicil- ian" [MB, Trace, 368]. "Cielo" is an Hali- nate spelling of "Ciullo. "
27L Antoninus: [78:56].
["In this
temple
? ? ? 626
272. book of the Falcon: "De Arte venandi cum avibus," known as "The Book of the Falcon. " Written by the extraordinarily ver? satile Frederick II, emperor of Sicily, 1194- 1250.
273. Mirabile . . . : L, "With marvelous brevity, he straightened aut" [Migne, 1144]. Source has "mirabili. " Said by Laudulphus Sagax, editor of the Historia Miscella, added to Migne, Vol. 95.
274. Justinian: [65:126; 94:45].
275. Sta Sophia: The church built by Jus- tinian [96:239].
276. Sapientiae Dei: L, "wisdom of God. "
277. Ideograms: Cheng ming [66:68], "right name. " Justinian practiced this Con" fucian principle in his new legal codes.
278. Verrius Flaccus: Roman freedman and scholar who taught the grandsons of Emper- or Augustus. His best known work is Libn de Signi/icatu Verborum, in which several books are devoted to each letter of the al- phabet.
279. Festus: Sextus Pompeius F. , late 2d century A. D. The epitomizer of the Libri . . . Verborum of Flaccus, which he called De Signi/icatione Verborum . . . , Festus was in turn epitomized by Paulus Diaconus, and Migne added Paul's work to vol. 95 of the Patrologiae Latina [1626-? ].
280. apoEvlK"': H, "masculine. " (The femi- nine or neuter ending for the masculine apoEvlK! " is used by Leto. )
281. av8plKa: H, "manly. " Leto changed this Greek word used by Festus to the other, saying it was preferable [Peck, Pai, 1-1,30] because more precise. Leta waS thus practic- ing "cheng mingo))
282. Leto (Pomponio): A medieval lexico- grapher who worked with the texts of Flac- cus and Festus.
283. 811AVK&: H, "feminine. " Leta said ixpaevlKCx, "masculine," was more elegant be- cause it paired with this word.
97/682-683
284. Deorum Manium: L, "of gods of the souls of the dead. " This phrase, as well as the others in the next 6 lines come from Migne [1611-1612].
285. Flamen Dialis & Pomona: L, "High priest of Jupiter and Pomona. "
286. aethera terrenaeque: L, "earthly and heavenly things. "
287. Manes Di: L, "spirits of the gods. "
288. manare credantur: L, "are believed to remain. "
. . .
meaning "leads in" [Peck, Pai, 1-1,30].
290. Mount Taygeto: The mountain in Lacedaemonia. In October, after a chariot race the "off horse of the winning team is sacrificed to Mars" [Rose, Roman Ques- tions, 161].
291. Campo Martio: L, "field of Mars. " A field near the Tiber used for sports, elec- tions, military exercises, public sacrifices, etc. The Greeks variously sacrificed chariots and horses to Helios each year. The Rho- dians flung them into the sea for the gods to use. "The Spartans performed the sacrifice on the top of Mount Taygetus, the beautiful range behind which they say the great lumi- nary set every night" [Frazer, Golden Bough, 49].
. . .
293. Flamen Portualis: "Priest of Por- tunus," the god of harbors. Source has "Por- tunalis. "
294. "inter . . . sepulta": L, "words are now dead and buried. " [JE: "Festus is referring to his researches and the number of words in
97/683
books that have fallen out of use (1626).
Intermortua is a single word. "]
295. Ideogram: Po [M4977] , "old. "
296. Ideogram: Ma [M4310], "horse. "
297. Ideogram: Tsu [M6815], "god. " The three characters signify Relios. In ancient China the Ma-tsu presided over sacrifices to protect or benefit the emperor's horses. With the two characters at the end of the canto, we read: "Old horse god doesn't lie down"
[Analects XIII, ii].
nese for "ground ivy" [EH, Pai 8-1,53-54]. 300. arachidi: I, "peanuts. " In a note dated
627
IS Sept. 1942 Pound wrote: "Peanuts could bring self-sufficiency in food to Italy or, rather to the empire, for these 'monkey nuts' would grow better in Cyrenaica" [SP, 319].
301. acero: I, "maple tree. " During WWII Pound wanted the government to cultivate peanuts (for oil) and maple trees (for sugar) to relieve food shortages [ibid] . They didn't, but he did not "lie down" on the job: he imported maple trees himself.
302. Ideogram: Wu [M7180], "not. "
303. Ideogram: Chuan [MI641], "fatigue. " Pound translates these last two characters in the Analects as: "not lie down" [CON, 248].
289. EV
ocxi/lwv:
298. Athelstan:
299. kadzu: Transliteration from the Japa-
H, "in shady
But now some power brings down a rave- nous lion" [II XI, 479-480; trans. R. Fitz- g e r a l d ] . P o u n d u s e s t h e ef1~C<AE o f L e t a rather than Homer's ii'YC<'YE, a 2d a. of iY. 'Yw
292. rubbing
Quirinus [113:32] which Festus records [1125]. The question of parsley for Latin persillum or persilium is controversial [Peck,
Pai, 2-2, 212].
CANTO XCVIII Sources
Homer, Od. X, III; F. W. Baller, trans. , The Sacred Edict, Shang- hai, 1924, rpt. NPF, Orono, Me. , 1979 [Edict]; Plotinus, The Enneads, trans. Stephen Mackenna, London, 1926 [Enneads]; Ovid, Meta. IV; Cavalcanti, Donna mi prega; Ciullo d' Alcamo, "Rosa fresca aulentissirna," SR, 101; Frederick II, The Book of the Falcon, trans. C. A. Wood and F. Marjorie Fyfe, Stanford, 1943; P. Lacharme, Confucii Chi-King, Stuttgartiae et Tubingae, 1830 [Lacharme]; Dante, Par. XIII; Pliny, History XXXV, 36, 85-86 (Loeb' IX, 323-325); Herman Diels, Die fragmente der Vorsokratiker; a companion to Diels trans. by Kathleen Freeman, Oxford, B. Blackwell, 1946 [Diels, frag no. ].
Background
EP, GK, 260; SP, 73-97; JN, Blossoms From the East, Orono, Me. , 1983.
Exegeses
CFT, Pai, 2-1, 79; CFT, Pai, 2-3, 451-453; Michaels, Pai, 1-1,50;
MB, Trace, 379; DG, Pai, 4-1, 121-168; DG, Pai, 3-2,169-190; JW,Later,133-147.
parsley:
A custom at
groves.
[91: 52].
? ? ? 628
98/684-685
98/685-686
629
1. Ra-Set: [91: 19].
2. Ocellus: [94:172].
Trinity has two persons flowing from the nonphysical Father as Knower, but the third, awareness of the Knower, exists with- in the human body as well as without. The concept may be difficult to equate with that of Plotinus below. The metaphor of sunlight shining through a prism might help: in its flow, it is both outside and inside the prism.
20. Plotinus: [15:11]. In the "Preller? Ritter Extracts" appended to the Enneads, we read: "Plotinus does not allow that the au- thentic, the separable soul, is in the body: the body is in the soul" [CFT, Pai, 2-3, 451-553].
21. Gemisto: Georgias G. , a Byzantine Neo- platonist sometimes called Plethon [8:31].
22. hilaritas: L, H, iA<Y. p6rT/~. A neologism Pound created to stand for one of the pri- mary ways divinity manifests in the world. Combine gaiety, mirth, rejoicing, gladness, laughter, and other such words and collec- tively they yield the basic religious concept hi/aritas [Michaels, Pai, 1-1, 50; 83: 9].
23. et . . . simiglianza: 1+ L. Prob. intended to mean "and half-gliding [cadenza like] in misty clouds," or "their likeness in clouds. "
24. K. ed] o/lo{watv: H, "down in the man- ner. " Deorum: L, "of the Gods. "
25. Herakleitos: Fl. in Ephesus (500 B. C. ) in the time of Confucius.
