Shall make
appointment
immediately.
Ezra-Pounds-Chinese-Friends-Stories-in-Letters
(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. e. the possible of TSE wd/be to blast yr/local tyrants and stick-in- the-muds into action/NOW, not post mortem.
The Confucian concept of ''in season''/TSE is NOT Confucian/the timely moment was 4 years ago/BUT Eliot expected someone in the U. S. to get started. so he is not criminal/merely excessively patient/and NOT given to extra exertion/God DAMN it.
my lively friends <of my own generation and before it> are under the sod/ save Wyndham [Lewis] who is blind.
putt down a row of them arrow ideograms with emphatic and that special signiWcance/gawDDDAMMMit.
Cambridge eng[ land]/: a possible job at Cambridge, UK.
Jastrow: Morris Jastrow (1861-1921), Penn professor at the turn of the last century, authored The
Study of Religion (1901).
? ? ? [Wlial piety]
96 EP to Fang (TL-1; Beinecke)
[St Elizabeths Hospital] [Washington, DC] [ June 1953]
Sagetrieb, as I see it, ties in with verse re/son, the bloke that carries on with father's job. tradition
renewal idea, and also ? [respect]
---------
[DP's postscript] I can hardly tell you how happy we were with your visit [see Fig. 7. 1].
Believe me Sincerely
Dorothy Pound. ? Sagetrieb: Sagetrieb plays a role in Thrones (1959).
a. fang and pound's classic anthology 135
97 EP to Fang (TL-1; Beinecke)
[St Elizabeths Hospital] [Washington, DC] [22 June 1953]
Achilles/himself/see what you can do without busting the whole negotiation. 15% royalties are not unusual on sales over 1000 copies.
Anyhow the H[arvard]. Univ Press can sell sheets to Faber or [Peter] Owen
and leave question of paying the ten% on retail price of copies sold. BLAST this ribbon.
In fact probably just as comfortable for the Press. Isn't the title
the CLASSIC ANTHOLOGY
compiled by Confucius.
The fact that that buzzard Eliot has bitched the title on my Essays, is no reason for letting everyone ruin other titles.
arranged, compiled, cant remember but there was the right word on the ms/ NOT Confucian Book of Odes.
and to arise from the slums for a moment
Couvreur S. J. translates in Re ? gle de Iao
?
as exsequi [carry out]
which conWrms something I may hv/sd or even writ on that K-raKter
of course you know why Iao gave TWO daughters not one, but is it written down anywhere?
negotiation: on 17 June 1953 Thomas Wilson sent EP two contracts to cover a trade edition and a scholar's edition of the Odes (Beinecke). EP asked Fang to negotiate certain points.
Owen: see Letter 91 n.
Couvreur S. J. : Se ? raphin Couvreur (1835-1919), Chou King (1950). See Letter 29 n.
Iao: see Glossary on Yao.
? as exsequi: Couvreur 10-11: ? ? ? ? as ''Si tu possis exsequi mandata (mea). . . . ''
98 Fang to EP (TLS-1; Beinecke)
[Cambridge, Mass. ]
June 24, Thursday, noon [1953]
Dear Mr Pound,
Just now the signed contract, which I shall keep here with me; shall return it
to you together with the new ones.
136 a. fang and pound's classic anthology
All your letters (and Mrs Pound's) as well as telegram received earlier.
Your provisos can be negotiated; hope to get most of the points, if not all of them (and why not? ), accepted by good old Wilson (he's a good fellow, let me assure you).
Shall make appointment immediately.
Yes, Yao gave Shun his two daughters--attested in Shu, 2nd chapter. If you still have the worm-bitten text of ? ? [Book of History] I brought to you two years ago, you will Wnd the story there.
Thanks for the information about Henry M, pe`re et Wls. Have a bunch of doubtful things; shall bother you after the contract is settled.
Always thought Harriet stood for Harriet Wilson, who had aVair with Wellington. Today saw a copy of Pagany, in which EP refers to her. After all, EP is not so ''obscure. ''
University of Philadelphia [Pennsylvania] wants me to participate in a discussion on Ch. poetry with Cleanth Brooks (Nov. ) and give a lecture on Walt Whitman in the light of Lu Ch'i's Wen-fu (Feb. 54), paid. Columbia paper will not earn a penny; on the contrary, I have to pay my expenses and $7 ticket.
Yours [signed] Achilles Fang
attested in Shu: Yao (see Glossary) married both his daughters to his successor Shun (see Glossary) because he wanted to ''try him'' and ''see his behaviour'' (Legge, iii. 26-7).
Henry M: Henry Morgenthau (1856-1946), American banker and diplomat, and his son Henry Morgenhau, Jr. , US Treasury Secretary (1934-5), targets of EP's animosity. Cf. Canto 74/459: ''That old H. . . . /. . . /and young H/''
Harriet Wilson: in her Memoirs (1825) Harriet Wilson (1789-1846) records a conversation about sex with Wellington. Cf. Canto 78/502: ''Harriet's spirited heir j (the honours twice with his boots on, j that was Wellington). ''
Pagany: in ''The First Year of 'Pagany' and the Possibility of Criteria,'' Pagany 2/1 (1931), EP writes: ''Some day I shall perhaps do a monograph of the British woman of letters from Harriet Wilson to Harriet Weaver'' (110).
Cleanth Brooks: Cleanth Brooks (1906-94) professor of English at Yale, 1947-75, was the author of The Well Wrought Urn (1942) and co-editor with Robert Penn Warren of The Southern Review, 1935-42.
Lu Ch'i's Wen-fu: see Letter 53 n.
99 EP to Fang (TL-1; Beinecke)
[St Elizabeths Hospital] [Washington, DC] [13 July 1953]
FANG
got any bright ideas re/this KER/akter? Mencius VII, 1, 15
? YES,
my Achilles,
a. fang and pound's classic anthology 137
I don't recall it in KEY position in Odes, Shu, or 3 Kungs/cd/be mere deWnition of term in the Mang/
on other hand he not much given to deWnitions Kung style.
question whether the liang [? ] occurs in INTeresting contexts elsewhere/ FANG not go thru a whole reading course in obscure CHINK authors to
gratify this idle fantasy.
In text before me the typography dont suggest what it sometimes looks like.
i. e. bloke seated looking at his food in lap or x/d/legs
and i am too lazy to look up seal/alzo the top isn't an eye ANYhow.
In fact, an idle question re/usage.
Mang and Orage concur re/compassion.
Legge OBvious BUTTT mebbe all that is there.
## LATER ##
CONsiderin' the use of that radical <138> in various characters on next 3 or 4
pages/wdn't it be livelier to translate that liang: NUTRITIVE? Nutritive know- ledge, nutritive ability?
? : Legge renders ? ? and ? ? in Mencius, 7. 1. 15. 1 as ''intuitive ability'' and ''intuitive knowledge'' (ii. 456).
Orage: Alfred Richard Orage (1873-1934) edited the New Age (1907-22). In a letter to John Drum- mond of 1934, EP praises Orage for having done ''more to feed me than anyone else in England'' (Selected Letters 1907-1941, ed. D. D. Paige (1950; rpt. New York: New Directions, 1971), 259).
? 100 EP to Fang (TL-1; Beinecke)
[St Elizabeths Hospital] [Washington, DC] 27 Ag [1953]
Mathews (R. H. ) is doubtless an occidental GOrillaaah. Nevertheless I pray you, do NOT omit any <vide infra> of the nasty little ref/numbers in my romanj/
they refer to points at which the sd/Mat is NOT being a GOrillaaaa.
AND, as I remarked with perhaps too light a tone, they DO save the helluVAlot of commentary, and a whale of a lot of printing eggspentz/and they are calculated to NOT distract from the initial perusal, as the goddam notes to annotated edns/of Dante often do.
AND they, as against the ubiquitous s. o. b. , protect ME from charges of impressionism, or to some eggstent justify certain interpretations/
? ? 138 a. fang and pound's classic anthology
and a stewd-dent who brot in a[n] attempt at 4 lines (of I suppose Li Po) deMONstrates how bloody much need the yankstew/has of PARticular eeel- ucidation.
Kenner seems in his intro to have shot ONE good pinch of insecticide at a notorious nuisance and vulgarisateur (in the wust sense of the term vul) **************
INFRA
I mean I can damn well see how yr/revulsion from M/wd/spur yr/conscience to WANT to omit 'em. BUT nondimeno [nevertheless], leave in them damn numerals. s. v. p.
OBviously a stewed-dent who RELIED on Mat/wd/NEVER get to the Wner nuance of various passages/one of which has just been drawn neath my iggurunt eye. must beat the young into analyzing separate components of compounds.
Kenner: in The Poetry of Ezra Pound (London: Faber and Faber, 1951), Hugh Kenner argues, ''what the reader of the Cantos should try to grasp is not where the components came from but how they go together'' (13-14).
101 Fang to EP (TLS-1; Beinecke)
[New York] Sept. 9, 1953
Dear Mr Pound,
Gracias for the helpful notes. I have been a dolt to overread.
As for your wishes about the Mathew[s] reference, I shall retain them: when-
ever I have some problem, I shall duly consult you. Please set your mind at ease. Getting a free ride to N. Y. this morning; in fact, a few minutes from now. (My paper, Wnished last night, will provoke some anger among the audience.
Like a Xtian preacher, I took courage in my hand and hinted that the 170 professors are all, or mostly sinners. )
HAS
An item labled
Yours in haste, [signed] Achilles Fang
102 EP to Fang (TL-1; Beinecke)
[St Elizabeths Hospital] [Washington, DC] [25 November 1953]
a. fang and pound's classic anthology 139
IN CIRCUIT
yet reached Achilles? nif not/WHY not.
103 Fang to EP (ALS-1; Beinecke)
[Cambridge, Mass. ]
Nov. 30, '53
Dear Mr Pound,
In Circuit is, apparently, still in circulation. Is it ''subversive''? Shall I ask the
postmaster about it?
The Odes are now in order--the printer is taking care of them by this time. Sat. morning, young Morton Lebeck (Yale) came to inquire about Ch. studies
here. Told him to concentrate on Greek & French--Ch. (o leider Gott [unfor- tunately] Jap) he can study on the graduate level.
Best regards & yours Achilles Fang
104 Fang to EP (TLS-1; Beinecke)
[Cambridge, Mass. ]
Jan. 26, 1954
Dear Mr Pound,
After three weeks of sampling, Jack Hawkes and Mrs Chase DuVy (very
sympathisch, 30ish, copy-reader of the Odes) have made the enclosed; this afternoon I was with them studying this and that samples.
I hope you Wnd it satisfactory. If you have any suggestion to make, the Press people are willing to accept. But I can see that they have done their best.
In case you have no objection--as I piously hope--will you kindly inform me of your OK and keep the sample (if you care to)--the printing will start immediately. If you wish some alteration, your wishes will be complied with, of course.
I shall be at Univ. of Panna. [Pennsylvania] on Feb. 9, to talk on (Heaven help me) on Whitman vs Lu Chi. If you are NOT otherwise engaged, I like to come to visit you on the 10th P. M.
The Pound Newsletter is quite interesting. Hope something good could come out of it.
Yours [signed] Achilles Fang
Pound Newsletter: Pound Newsletter edited by John Edwards and William Vasse ran for ten issues from January 1954 to April 1956.
? 140 a. fang and pound's classic anthology
Be de- -lighted
see Achilles.
3 Nod. EP
105 EP to Fang (ALS-1; Beinecke)
[St Elizabeths Hospital] [Washington, DC] [30 January 1954]
106 Fang to EP (TLS-1; Beinecke)
[Cambridge, Mass. ]
Feb. 2, 1954
Dear Mr Pound,
Yours with sample this noon. Went to see Jack Hawkes and Chase DuVy
(further information: a southern lady, prob. Virginian). Showed them Cavalcanti & Faber ed. Cantos. J. H. thought the former was more or less Caslon and the latter pt 10 on 12 of Bodoni bold face. And I am told that the Ode sample I sent you was Bodoni 8 on 10 bold.
J. H. is completely agreeable to your wishes. Why shouldn't he, for your points are well taken. He is going to try out a completely new sample (by the way he has sampled 6 or seven), perhaps Gramont 11. If the new sample is ready before I leave for Philadelphia and Washington, I shall bring it to you. If not, through mail. The delay wouldn't be very much. Hawkes, who thought (inno- cently) that the sample could have pleased you, is willing to make another try. He also knows full well that your heart's desire is the ideographic ed. , and is sorry that the sample was wide of the mark. The same is shared by Chase DuVy and the entire production department.
Wrote to Overholser for permission. With anticipated pleasure
Yours [signed] Achilles Fang
Received NOIGANDRES yesterday; very excellent. (Wish knew some Prota- goose [Portuguese], instead of trying to make out on the strength of Ital. and Span. ) Pound Newsletter is quite interesting too.
NO!
a. fang and pound's classic anthology 141
Cavalcanti: Sonnets and Ballate of Guido Cavalcanti (1912).
Overholser: Dr Winfred Overholser, superintendent of St Elizabeths Hospital.
NOIGANDRES: a magazine started in 1952 by Brazilian concrete poets Haroldo de Campos,
Augusto de Campos, and De ? cio Pignatari, the Noigandres group, of Sao Paulo, who took the disputed word in the Provenc ? al poet Arnaut Daniel (c. 1180-1220) from Canto 20.
107 EP to Fang (TL-1; Beinecke)
[St Elizabeths Hospital] [Washington, DC] [11 March 1954]
10 Mx/NOW see possibility of acceding to precedent and at the time appar- ently TOTALLY impract/request of ACHILLES.
IF he can get news of what happen[e]d in Pekin at Imp/Ct/when Mr Caleb Cushing arruv with treaty proposals in 1844/5.
something concrete/and VISIBLE, i. e. the event as seen NOT from Hong Kong or wherever, Goa/or whatso but in view of the Temple of Heaven. ----------
[in DP's hand:] It is quite a thrill to be correcting galleys of Odes! D. P.
Caleb Cushing: see Letter 109.
108 EP to Fang (TL-2; Beinecke)
[St Elizabeths Hospital] [Washington, DC] [15 March 1954]
No, my very dear ACHILLES, almost sole comfort to my declining years. The PENalty for altering a VOWEL in verse is DEATH.
You are reprieved because of yr/love of exactitude, but don't do it again.
I am trying to teach these buzzards PROSODY, as well as respect for a few civilized chinese.
Naturally the dichotomy, splitting, ERH etc. makes the edtn/annoying.
I shall prob/try to elevate Hawk[es] when he has Wnished the job.
***
alZO/the noises made by yr/compatriots have almost NO relation to sounds
represented by barbarian alphabets.
and the changing from one fad to another adds nowt to the poeTIKKK
values.
142 a. fang and pound's classic anthology
I meant you to have carte blanche in the romanj/which, incidentally, can serve as datum for my conjecture re/what wobbles and what does not during the Xow of time, from the original onomatopoeia.
BUTTT FURST, the ODES were SUNG.
Secondly a FEW (very few) chinese place names are known to yanks/brits/ etc. and have a poetic association. Ergo a poetic value.
DON'T go Nipponic, or feel downcast. We learn by living. And apart from one Wan/no partic/damage has been done/it all depends on relation to vowels in the context.
Dont let 'em waste time trying to re-consult my orig/text. I have putt back the three necessary spellings/Wan once, Hsin once, Kiang once.
OUAN SUI [Cheers].
When Wang Yang-ming is pronounced by purr-light chinkessa as Wei-ya- min. . . etc.
phonograms are NOT revealing.
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. e. the possible of TSE wd/be to blast yr/local tyrants and stick-in- the-muds into action/NOW, not post mortem.
The Confucian concept of ''in season''/TSE is NOT Confucian/the timely moment was 4 years ago/BUT Eliot expected someone in the U. S. to get started. so he is not criminal/merely excessively patient/and NOT given to extra exertion/God DAMN it.
my lively friends <of my own generation and before it> are under the sod/ save Wyndham [Lewis] who is blind.
putt down a row of them arrow ideograms with emphatic and that special signiWcance/gawDDDAMMMit.
Cambridge eng[ land]/: a possible job at Cambridge, UK.
Jastrow: Morris Jastrow (1861-1921), Penn professor at the turn of the last century, authored The
Study of Religion (1901).
? ? ? [Wlial piety]
96 EP to Fang (TL-1; Beinecke)
[St Elizabeths Hospital] [Washington, DC] [ June 1953]
Sagetrieb, as I see it, ties in with verse re/son, the bloke that carries on with father's job. tradition
renewal idea, and also ? [respect]
---------
[DP's postscript] I can hardly tell you how happy we were with your visit [see Fig. 7. 1].
Believe me Sincerely
Dorothy Pound. ? Sagetrieb: Sagetrieb plays a role in Thrones (1959).
a. fang and pound's classic anthology 135
97 EP to Fang (TL-1; Beinecke)
[St Elizabeths Hospital] [Washington, DC] [22 June 1953]
Achilles/himself/see what you can do without busting the whole negotiation. 15% royalties are not unusual on sales over 1000 copies.
Anyhow the H[arvard]. Univ Press can sell sheets to Faber or [Peter] Owen
and leave question of paying the ten% on retail price of copies sold. BLAST this ribbon.
In fact probably just as comfortable for the Press. Isn't the title
the CLASSIC ANTHOLOGY
compiled by Confucius.
The fact that that buzzard Eliot has bitched the title on my Essays, is no reason for letting everyone ruin other titles.
arranged, compiled, cant remember but there was the right word on the ms/ NOT Confucian Book of Odes.
and to arise from the slums for a moment
Couvreur S. J. translates in Re ? gle de Iao
?
as exsequi [carry out]
which conWrms something I may hv/sd or even writ on that K-raKter
of course you know why Iao gave TWO daughters not one, but is it written down anywhere?
negotiation: on 17 June 1953 Thomas Wilson sent EP two contracts to cover a trade edition and a scholar's edition of the Odes (Beinecke). EP asked Fang to negotiate certain points.
Owen: see Letter 91 n.
Couvreur S. J. : Se ? raphin Couvreur (1835-1919), Chou King (1950). See Letter 29 n.
Iao: see Glossary on Yao.
? as exsequi: Couvreur 10-11: ? ? ? ? as ''Si tu possis exsequi mandata (mea). . . . ''
98 Fang to EP (TLS-1; Beinecke)
[Cambridge, Mass. ]
June 24, Thursday, noon [1953]
Dear Mr Pound,
Just now the signed contract, which I shall keep here with me; shall return it
to you together with the new ones.
136 a. fang and pound's classic anthology
All your letters (and Mrs Pound's) as well as telegram received earlier.
Your provisos can be negotiated; hope to get most of the points, if not all of them (and why not? ), accepted by good old Wilson (he's a good fellow, let me assure you).
Shall make appointment immediately.
Yes, Yao gave Shun his two daughters--attested in Shu, 2nd chapter. If you still have the worm-bitten text of ? ? [Book of History] I brought to you two years ago, you will Wnd the story there.
Thanks for the information about Henry M, pe`re et Wls. Have a bunch of doubtful things; shall bother you after the contract is settled.
Always thought Harriet stood for Harriet Wilson, who had aVair with Wellington. Today saw a copy of Pagany, in which EP refers to her. After all, EP is not so ''obscure. ''
University of Philadelphia [Pennsylvania] wants me to participate in a discussion on Ch. poetry with Cleanth Brooks (Nov. ) and give a lecture on Walt Whitman in the light of Lu Ch'i's Wen-fu (Feb. 54), paid. Columbia paper will not earn a penny; on the contrary, I have to pay my expenses and $7 ticket.
Yours [signed] Achilles Fang
attested in Shu: Yao (see Glossary) married both his daughters to his successor Shun (see Glossary) because he wanted to ''try him'' and ''see his behaviour'' (Legge, iii. 26-7).
Henry M: Henry Morgenthau (1856-1946), American banker and diplomat, and his son Henry Morgenhau, Jr. , US Treasury Secretary (1934-5), targets of EP's animosity. Cf. Canto 74/459: ''That old H. . . . /. . . /and young H/''
Harriet Wilson: in her Memoirs (1825) Harriet Wilson (1789-1846) records a conversation about sex with Wellington. Cf. Canto 78/502: ''Harriet's spirited heir j (the honours twice with his boots on, j that was Wellington). ''
Pagany: in ''The First Year of 'Pagany' and the Possibility of Criteria,'' Pagany 2/1 (1931), EP writes: ''Some day I shall perhaps do a monograph of the British woman of letters from Harriet Wilson to Harriet Weaver'' (110).
Cleanth Brooks: Cleanth Brooks (1906-94) professor of English at Yale, 1947-75, was the author of The Well Wrought Urn (1942) and co-editor with Robert Penn Warren of The Southern Review, 1935-42.
Lu Ch'i's Wen-fu: see Letter 53 n.
99 EP to Fang (TL-1; Beinecke)
[St Elizabeths Hospital] [Washington, DC] [13 July 1953]
FANG
got any bright ideas re/this KER/akter? Mencius VII, 1, 15
? YES,
my Achilles,
a. fang and pound's classic anthology 137
I don't recall it in KEY position in Odes, Shu, or 3 Kungs/cd/be mere deWnition of term in the Mang/
on other hand he not much given to deWnitions Kung style.
question whether the liang [? ] occurs in INTeresting contexts elsewhere/ FANG not go thru a whole reading course in obscure CHINK authors to
gratify this idle fantasy.
In text before me the typography dont suggest what it sometimes looks like.
i. e. bloke seated looking at his food in lap or x/d/legs
and i am too lazy to look up seal/alzo the top isn't an eye ANYhow.
In fact, an idle question re/usage.
Mang and Orage concur re/compassion.
Legge OBvious BUTTT mebbe all that is there.
## LATER ##
CONsiderin' the use of that radical <138> in various characters on next 3 or 4
pages/wdn't it be livelier to translate that liang: NUTRITIVE? Nutritive know- ledge, nutritive ability?
? : Legge renders ? ? and ? ? in Mencius, 7. 1. 15. 1 as ''intuitive ability'' and ''intuitive knowledge'' (ii. 456).
Orage: Alfred Richard Orage (1873-1934) edited the New Age (1907-22). In a letter to John Drum- mond of 1934, EP praises Orage for having done ''more to feed me than anyone else in England'' (Selected Letters 1907-1941, ed. D. D. Paige (1950; rpt. New York: New Directions, 1971), 259).
? 100 EP to Fang (TL-1; Beinecke)
[St Elizabeths Hospital] [Washington, DC] 27 Ag [1953]
Mathews (R. H. ) is doubtless an occidental GOrillaaah. Nevertheless I pray you, do NOT omit any <vide infra> of the nasty little ref/numbers in my romanj/
they refer to points at which the sd/Mat is NOT being a GOrillaaaa.
AND, as I remarked with perhaps too light a tone, they DO save the helluVAlot of commentary, and a whale of a lot of printing eggspentz/and they are calculated to NOT distract from the initial perusal, as the goddam notes to annotated edns/of Dante often do.
AND they, as against the ubiquitous s. o. b. , protect ME from charges of impressionism, or to some eggstent justify certain interpretations/
? ? 138 a. fang and pound's classic anthology
and a stewd-dent who brot in a[n] attempt at 4 lines (of I suppose Li Po) deMONstrates how bloody much need the yankstew/has of PARticular eeel- ucidation.
Kenner seems in his intro to have shot ONE good pinch of insecticide at a notorious nuisance and vulgarisateur (in the wust sense of the term vul) **************
INFRA
I mean I can damn well see how yr/revulsion from M/wd/spur yr/conscience to WANT to omit 'em. BUT nondimeno [nevertheless], leave in them damn numerals. s. v. p.
OBviously a stewed-dent who RELIED on Mat/wd/NEVER get to the Wner nuance of various passages/one of which has just been drawn neath my iggurunt eye. must beat the young into analyzing separate components of compounds.
Kenner: in The Poetry of Ezra Pound (London: Faber and Faber, 1951), Hugh Kenner argues, ''what the reader of the Cantos should try to grasp is not where the components came from but how they go together'' (13-14).
101 Fang to EP (TLS-1; Beinecke)
[New York] Sept. 9, 1953
Dear Mr Pound,
Gracias for the helpful notes. I have been a dolt to overread.
As for your wishes about the Mathew[s] reference, I shall retain them: when-
ever I have some problem, I shall duly consult you. Please set your mind at ease. Getting a free ride to N. Y. this morning; in fact, a few minutes from now. (My paper, Wnished last night, will provoke some anger among the audience.
Like a Xtian preacher, I took courage in my hand and hinted that the 170 professors are all, or mostly sinners. )
HAS
An item labled
Yours in haste, [signed] Achilles Fang
102 EP to Fang (TL-1; Beinecke)
[St Elizabeths Hospital] [Washington, DC] [25 November 1953]
a. fang and pound's classic anthology 139
IN CIRCUIT
yet reached Achilles? nif not/WHY not.
103 Fang to EP (ALS-1; Beinecke)
[Cambridge, Mass. ]
Nov. 30, '53
Dear Mr Pound,
In Circuit is, apparently, still in circulation. Is it ''subversive''? Shall I ask the
postmaster about it?
The Odes are now in order--the printer is taking care of them by this time. Sat. morning, young Morton Lebeck (Yale) came to inquire about Ch. studies
here. Told him to concentrate on Greek & French--Ch. (o leider Gott [unfor- tunately] Jap) he can study on the graduate level.
Best regards & yours Achilles Fang
104 Fang to EP (TLS-1; Beinecke)
[Cambridge, Mass. ]
Jan. 26, 1954
Dear Mr Pound,
After three weeks of sampling, Jack Hawkes and Mrs Chase DuVy (very
sympathisch, 30ish, copy-reader of the Odes) have made the enclosed; this afternoon I was with them studying this and that samples.
I hope you Wnd it satisfactory. If you have any suggestion to make, the Press people are willing to accept. But I can see that they have done their best.
In case you have no objection--as I piously hope--will you kindly inform me of your OK and keep the sample (if you care to)--the printing will start immediately. If you wish some alteration, your wishes will be complied with, of course.
I shall be at Univ. of Panna. [Pennsylvania] on Feb. 9, to talk on (Heaven help me) on Whitman vs Lu Chi. If you are NOT otherwise engaged, I like to come to visit you on the 10th P. M.
The Pound Newsletter is quite interesting. Hope something good could come out of it.
Yours [signed] Achilles Fang
Pound Newsletter: Pound Newsletter edited by John Edwards and William Vasse ran for ten issues from January 1954 to April 1956.
? 140 a. fang and pound's classic anthology
Be de- -lighted
see Achilles.
3 Nod. EP
105 EP to Fang (ALS-1; Beinecke)
[St Elizabeths Hospital] [Washington, DC] [30 January 1954]
106 Fang to EP (TLS-1; Beinecke)
[Cambridge, Mass. ]
Feb. 2, 1954
Dear Mr Pound,
Yours with sample this noon. Went to see Jack Hawkes and Chase DuVy
(further information: a southern lady, prob. Virginian). Showed them Cavalcanti & Faber ed. Cantos. J. H. thought the former was more or less Caslon and the latter pt 10 on 12 of Bodoni bold face. And I am told that the Ode sample I sent you was Bodoni 8 on 10 bold.
J. H. is completely agreeable to your wishes. Why shouldn't he, for your points are well taken. He is going to try out a completely new sample (by the way he has sampled 6 or seven), perhaps Gramont 11. If the new sample is ready before I leave for Philadelphia and Washington, I shall bring it to you. If not, through mail. The delay wouldn't be very much. Hawkes, who thought (inno- cently) that the sample could have pleased you, is willing to make another try. He also knows full well that your heart's desire is the ideographic ed. , and is sorry that the sample was wide of the mark. The same is shared by Chase DuVy and the entire production department.
Wrote to Overholser for permission. With anticipated pleasure
Yours [signed] Achilles Fang
Received NOIGANDRES yesterday; very excellent. (Wish knew some Prota- goose [Portuguese], instead of trying to make out on the strength of Ital. and Span. ) Pound Newsletter is quite interesting too.
NO!
a. fang and pound's classic anthology 141
Cavalcanti: Sonnets and Ballate of Guido Cavalcanti (1912).
Overholser: Dr Winfred Overholser, superintendent of St Elizabeths Hospital.
NOIGANDRES: a magazine started in 1952 by Brazilian concrete poets Haroldo de Campos,
Augusto de Campos, and De ? cio Pignatari, the Noigandres group, of Sao Paulo, who took the disputed word in the Provenc ? al poet Arnaut Daniel (c. 1180-1220) from Canto 20.
107 EP to Fang (TL-1; Beinecke)
[St Elizabeths Hospital] [Washington, DC] [11 March 1954]
10 Mx/NOW see possibility of acceding to precedent and at the time appar- ently TOTALLY impract/request of ACHILLES.
IF he can get news of what happen[e]d in Pekin at Imp/Ct/when Mr Caleb Cushing arruv with treaty proposals in 1844/5.
something concrete/and VISIBLE, i. e. the event as seen NOT from Hong Kong or wherever, Goa/or whatso but in view of the Temple of Heaven. ----------
[in DP's hand:] It is quite a thrill to be correcting galleys of Odes! D. P.
Caleb Cushing: see Letter 109.
108 EP to Fang (TL-2; Beinecke)
[St Elizabeths Hospital] [Washington, DC] [15 March 1954]
No, my very dear ACHILLES, almost sole comfort to my declining years. The PENalty for altering a VOWEL in verse is DEATH.
You are reprieved because of yr/love of exactitude, but don't do it again.
I am trying to teach these buzzards PROSODY, as well as respect for a few civilized chinese.
Naturally the dichotomy, splitting, ERH etc. makes the edtn/annoying.
I shall prob/try to elevate Hawk[es] when he has Wnished the job.
***
alZO/the noises made by yr/compatriots have almost NO relation to sounds
represented by barbarian alphabets.
and the changing from one fad to another adds nowt to the poeTIKKK
values.
142 a. fang and pound's classic anthology
I meant you to have carte blanche in the romanj/which, incidentally, can serve as datum for my conjecture re/what wobbles and what does not during the Xow of time, from the original onomatopoeia.
BUTTT FURST, the ODES were SUNG.
Secondly a FEW (very few) chinese place names are known to yanks/brits/ etc. and have a poetic association. Ergo a poetic value.
DON'T go Nipponic, or feel downcast. We learn by living. And apart from one Wan/no partic/damage has been done/it all depends on relation to vowels in the context.
Dont let 'em waste time trying to re-consult my orig/text. I have putt back the three necessary spellings/Wan once, Hsin once, Kiang once.
OUAN SUI [Cheers].
When Wang Yang-ming is pronounced by purr-light chinkessa as Wei-ya- min. . . etc.
phonograms are NOT revealing.
