No More Learning

. )
CANTO LXXIV
Sources
Leo Frobenius and Douglas Fox, African Genesis, 1937, reissued by Benjamin Blom, New York, 1966; James Legge, The Four Books, Shanghai, 1923 [Legge]; the Bible; :'. 1_ E. Speare, The Pocket Book of Verse, 1940; Time, European edition; Stars and Stripes, editions of Paris and Mediterranean Theatre, May- October; Homer, Od. IX, II, XII, XI; Dante, Pur. X, Inf. XXVII, XXXII, XXXIII; Virgil, Aeneid I; Aristotle, Nicomachean
[Ethics] ;Lyra Graeca I; Oxford Book ofGreek Verse [OBGV]. Background
EP, SP, 320, 338-339, 314, 284; LE, 166; SR, 91, 101; GK, 58-59,34,81-83,229; CNTJ, 98-104; PE, 125-126; T, 427; PD, 42-50, 3-10; ABCR, 43-44; F. C. Burkitt, The Religion of the Manichees, Cambridge, 1925; Frances Frenaye, The Fall of Mussolini, His Own Story by Benito Mussolini, New York, 1945, a trans. of Una "Cicogna" sui gran Sasso by Ed. Mondadori, Milan, 1945; Sir Montagu Webb, India's Plight, Daily Gazette Press, Karachi, 1914; Douglas C. Fox, "Warkalemada Kolingi Yaoburrda," Townsman, vol. 2, no. 7, August, 1939; Michael King, "Ezra Pound at Pisa: An Interview with John L. Steele," Texas Quarterly, vol. XXI, no. 4, Winter; 1978; Achilles Fang, Ph. D. dissertation, Harvard Univ. , II, III, IV; Erich Maria Re- marque, All Quiet on the Western Front, 1929; E. Gilson, La Philosophie du Moyen Age, Paris, 1925; George Anthiel, Bad Boy of Music, New York, 1945; Villon, Testament; CFT, Basil Bunting: Man and Poet [Bunting]; Ford Madox Ford, Mightier than the Sword, London, 1938.
Exegeses
HK, Era, 458; DP, Pai, 9-2, 313-317; DG, Pai, 6-1,42; CFT, Pai, 3-1,98-100,93-94; HK, Pai, 1-1,83; Tay, Pai, 4-1, 53; Michaels, Pai, 1-1,37-54; CFT, Pai, 2-3, 458, 451; Hunting, Pai, 6-2,179; Surrette, Pai, 3-2, 204; Shuldiner, Pai, 4? 1, 73, 81; Moody, Pai, 4-1,6-57; Knox, Pai, 3-1, 71-83; EH, Pai, 2-2, 336; Hankins,Pai, 2-2, 337; Martin, Pai, 6-2, 167-173; Nasser, Pai, 1-2,207-211; GD, Pai, 8-2, 335-336; D'Epiro, Pai, 10-2, 297-301; Elliot, Pai, 8-1,59; BK,Pai, 10-2,307; DD, Ezra Pound, 78.
[It is known that Pound had very few books at Pisa: the Bible, The Four Books he had with him when arrested, The Pocket Book of Verse he found in the camp, a few copies of Time magazine that were passed around, perhaps a random newspaper at times, and a small number of unidentified books available in a
? 362
74/425
74/425-426
geography; not as you would find it if you had a geography book and a map, but as it would be in 'periplum,' that is, as a coasting sailor would find it" [ABCR, 43-44]. Here, the great periplum is the voyage of Helios.
13. Herakles: The pillars of Herakles [Her- cules] denote the cliffs on either side of the Strait of Gibraltar.
14. Lucifer: The planet Venus when it is the morning star. In its periplum it might appear from Pisa to be descending in the west over North Carolina. But, more important, Lucifer has serious occult significance to the group close to G. R. S. Mead that Pound knew in his early London years. Mead coedited, with Helene Blavatsky, a journal called Lucifer, which had an article on Plotinus [vol. 16, April 15, 1895] which may well have introduced Pound to the works of Thomas Taylor and reinforced his interest in all the Neoplatonic light philoso- phers [documents provided by WF] . Identi- fication has been controversial, however [cf. Pai, 9-2, 313; Pai, 8? 2, 335-336; Pai, 10? 2, 297-301].
15. N. Carolina: Line probably refers to a shower of meteorites that, according to a dramatic article in the Saturday Evening Post [Sept. 9, 1944, p. 12], fell on a band of states includingNC [Pearlman, Pai, 9? 2, 313? 317]. Pauthier in L 'Universe had written [as translated by David Gordon]: "All the meteors and phenomena which occur in the sky, like rain, wind, thunder; all the ele? ments which are attached to the earth like water, and fire, all these things concur with the volition of the sage or of the prince who has proposed to govern men in order to render all happy" [DG, Pai, 6-1,42].
16. scirocco: I, a hot, southeast, Mediter- ranean wind.
17. 01' TI1;: H, "No Man. " The name for himself that Odysseus uses to trick the Cyclops [Od. IX, 366].
18. wind: The Taoist way [cf. 9 above; also, CFT, Pai, 3-1, 98? 100].
363 19. sorella la luna: I, "sister moon": remi-
niscence of S1. Francis of Assisi's Canticle of the Creatures, line 11 [JW]. The moon is also part of the ideogram e}l [M 4534] , which Pound renders as: "The sun and moon, the total life process, the radiation, reception and reflection of light; hence the intelligence" [CON,20].
20. precise definition: Major element of the Confucian ethic. In "Terminology" Pound
collection in the quarters of the DTC cadre. Where Pound has used materials from memory (Homer. Dante, Virgil, etc. ), these works have been listed as sources even though he did not have them physically at hand. The books listed under "Background" might be increased to dozens. Since credit has been given in individual glosses, the list under "Exegeses" has been similarly restrained. ]
Glossary
1. tragedy . . . dream: Significant, as it re~ veals one social good Pound thought Fascism would accomplish. The dream may refer to Mussolini's promise in 1934 that every Italian peasant would have a house of his own in 80 years. Pound wrote, "I don't the least think he expects to take 80 years at it, but he is not given to overstatement" [JIM, ix].
2. Manes: ? 216? 276; Persian sage; founder of the Manicheans [23 :28] ; for his teaching he was condemned and crucified. "Mani's corpse, or his flayed skin stuffed with hay, was set up over one of the gates of the royal city" [Burkitt, 5; Fang, III, 90].
3. Ben: Benito Mussolini [41 :2].
4. la Clara a Milano: I, "and Clara at Milan. " Mussolini and his mistress, Claretta Petacci, after being summarily tried and shot with 16 others in a nearby village, were brought to Milan and at 3 A. M. April 27, 1945 were dumped in the Piazzale Loreto. A few hours later, the bodies of Mussolini and Claretta were hung by the feet from a scaffold. The execution occurred before Pound sur- rendered himself and asked the partisans to take him to the nearest American head?
quarters.
5. maggots: Contemptuous label for "the Partisans," an anti-Mussolini political group. On April 30, the Committee of Liberation in N Italy took responsibility for the execu? tion. Mussolini is seen as the dead bullock sacrificed.
6. Digonos: H, "twice? born" [48:20]. In mythology, Dionysus was born twice. But there is no record of one who was Htwice-_
crucified," which Pound implies happened to M, who was first shot and then hanged.
7. Possum: T. S. Eliot. "The Hollow Men" begins, "We are the hollow men / We are the stuffed men" [cf. 2 above] and ends, "This is the way the world ends / Not with a bang but a whimper. "
8. Dioce: [Deioces]. The first great ruler of the Medes, who built the city of Ecbatana [4:32]. By being a fair judge, he won the hearts of the people who made him king, after which he built his visionary city. Pound likens Deloces' aspiration to create a paradisal city with what he perceived to be Mussolini's intentions.
9. process: The Taoist way, in which all life should blend and flow with the flow of nature [HK, Era, 458]. Pound associates a number of names and concepts here in a duster similar to one in Canto 4 [4:30, 31, 32,33].
10. Kiang: C, "river," the Yangtze [53 :98].
11. Han: The Han River, which flows through Shensi and Hupeh provinces and into the Yangtze River at Hankow. After Confucius's death some of his disciples wanted to render to Yu Jo (who resembled the Master) the same observances they had rendered to Confucius. But one of the disciples, Tseng, said: "This may not be done, What has been washed in the waters of Keang and Han, and bleached in the autumn sun:-how glistening is it! Nothing can be added to it" [Legge, 635].
12. "the great periplum": Pound said that the geography of the Odyssey "is correct
describes ~l
"the precise definition of the word" [CON, 20].
[M 381] as "Sincerity" or
Malatesta, 1417? 1468, soldier and patron of the arts
[8:5].
22. Duccio: Agostino di D. , 1418? c. 1481, Florentine sculptor who executed most of the marble ornaments of the chapels in the Tempio [20: 16]. To be distinguished from the painter Duccio Di Buoninsegna [45:8].
23. Zuan Bellin: Giovanni Bellini [25:59], Italian painter who, like Duccio, transmitted a tradition by precise definition in his art.
24. trastevere: I, "Trans-Tiber," a district in Rome across the river from the main city.
25. La Sposa: I, "the Bride" [the church].
26. Sponsa Cristi: L, "the Bride of Christ. "
27. in mosaic: In A Visiting Card [Rome, 1942, in Italian] Pound wrote: "And the mosaics in Santa Maria in Trastevere recall a wisdom lost by scholasticism, an understand-
ing denied to Aquinas" [SP,320].
28. snotty barbarian: Pound used this
pungent phrase to refer to F. D. Roosevelt.
29. T'ang: The 13th Dynasty, 618? 907. Pound wrote: "From the day when the Tang Emperors began to issue their state notes . . . the use of gold in the manufacture of money was no longer necessary . . . " [SP, 316].
30. Charlie Sung: Tzu-wen Sung or T. V. Soong became premier of China in 1945. Member of the prominent Soong family. His
21. Sigismundo:
S. Pandolfo
? ? 364
father, Charles Jones Soong, was a Methodist
missionary in Shanghai and made his fortune as a Bible manufacturer and salesman. Chiang Kai-shek resigned his post as premier and appointed Soong, his brother-in-law, in his place. Time [June 11,1945, p. 34] said: "The appointment of U. S. educated T. V. Soong, who more than any other Chinese has in the past showed a grasp of Western methods, men and purposes, could scarcely
fail to please the U. S. and simplify the task
of Chiang's U. S. advisers . . ' ," Pound's reference may be either to the father or the son, one of whom he must have heard, perhaps during his 1939 visit to the U. S. , was trying to negotiate a loan.
31. anonimo: I, "anonymous. "
74/426 33. Oh my England . . . : Restatement of
recurrent theme: "Free speech without freedom of radio is a mere goldfish in a bowl" [Townsman, vol. J1I, no. II, June 1940].
34. Stalin: Joseph Vissarionovich Dzhu- gashvili, 1879-1953, Russian statesman and
o f
35. R. C. : Roman Catholic. A sixteen-page,
cheaply printed summary of major elements
of the Catholic missal used during mass.
It was prepared by the Paulist fathers and distributed to all Catholic soldiers who showed up for religious services. Pound kept his copy and drew in the margin next to some of the Latin phrases Chinese characters taken from Legge which were evoked by the missal. The "field book" line reflects the traditional injunction against work on Sunday. The line derives from the "prepara- tion before confession. " A copy of the chaplain's handbook, one of the few books Pound found at the DTC, was examined at Brunnenburg by Hugh Kenner, the source of these details.
36. im Westen nichts neues: G, "Nothing
new in the west": title of novel by Erich
Maria Remarque translated into English as
All Quiet on the Western Front, 1929.
37. "of sapphire . . . sleep": Dante's idea of
this gem is given in a Pound translation: "The sweet color o f oriental sapphire which was gathering on the serene aspect of the pure air even to the first circle, / to mine eyes restored delight" [SR, 137; Nassar, Pai, 1-2, 207-211]. In later lines Dante evokes the idea of a paradisal blue in the sky into which he will rise to come as near as possible to the vision of Beatrice. In "The Flame" he saw in "Sapphire Benacus" (Lake Garda) "Nature herself's turned metaphysical, / Who can look on that blue and not believe? "
[P, 64]. In "Phanopoeia" he connected
74/426-427
"bedposts" and sexual imagery to this gem:
"The swirling sphere has opened / and you are caught up to the skies, / You are en- globed in my sapphire" [P, 179]. The
365
would not have been able to devote himself properly to the important things of life: conversation, dancing, hunting and warfare"
[Townsman, vol. 2, no. 7, August, 1939]. 43. Ouan Jin: C, Wen-Jen [M 7129,3097],
"Man o f Letters; Writer. "
44. Frobenius: Leo F. [38:45]. F. died at Biganzolo, Lago Maggiore, 9 August 1938, but his students carried on his work [Fang, IV, 32].
45. in principio . . . sinceritas: L, "In the
beginning was the Word / the Holy Ghost or the perfect Word: sincerity" [John 1. 1].
46. Mt. Taishan: [Tai or T'ai Shan]. A
sacred mountain of China in W Shantung Province, 32 miles S of Tsinan; there are many shrines on the road to the top, on which stand the temples. A mountain Pound could see from the DTC reminded him of Taishan.
47. Pisa: Tuscan city in Italy noted for its towers. Location of the DTC.
48. Fujiyama: Sacred mountain in Honshu,
Japan.
49. Gardone: Gardone Riviera, a town on Lake Garda in Brescia Province, N Italy, where Mussolini set up the Sal6 Republic after the fall of his government in Rome.
SO. Villa Catullo: The villa on Lake Garda, Italy, where Catullus lived for a time; it was here that he wrote his salutation to the promontory of Sirmio.
51. poluphloisboios: H, "loud-roarings. " Pound said that this often used Homeric kenning has "the magnificent onomatopeia, as of the rush of the waves on the sea-beach and their recession . . . " [LE, 250]. A subject rhyme of Iliad priest walking by sea and Pound walking by Lake Garda [HK].
52. Nicoletti: Giachino N. , prefect at Gar- done. Nicoletti was the go-between ofM and the socialists when he was trying to give Fascism a socialist coloring during the time of the Sal6 Republic.
. . . gold standard: As
32. India
of the exchequer, Churchill returned to the gold standard in 1925 and created a severe depression not only at home but throughout the empire, particularly in India. The phrase "18 per hundred" concerns the relation of the Indian rupee to the English shilling. The government had set the rate at Is. 6d. (18 d. ) which depressed the currency in India. A number o f economists protested. Sir Montague Webb [India's Plight, passim] proposed "that the rupee be derated to some figure less than 18d. (ls. 6d. ) and India revert to silver" [Fang, III, 38]. Webb also wrote [po 8]: "The gross distortion of the purchasing price of the rupee . . . compels
the agriculturalist to give to the Tax Collec-
tor, the local money lender, and other
creditors twice as much of the produce of his fields as he gave five years ago to meet exactly the same amount of Land Revenue, Interest, and other demands! " In Gold and Work Pound wrote: "For every debt in- curred when a bushel of grain is worth a certain sum of money, repayment is de- manded when it requires five bushels or more to raise the same sum . . . . By return-
ing to gold, Mr. Churchill forced the Indian
peasant to pay two bushels of grain in taxes and interest which a short time before he had been able to pay with only one . . . . C. H. Douglas, Arthur Kitson, Sir Montague Webb give the details" [SP,338-339].
chancellor
Communist
Leninism is that "the workers should own the means of production. " Pound thought that if he could talk to Stalin for 20 min- utes, he could explain that all he had to do was control the money and he would solve the problems.
leader. Primary tenet
Marx-
stone sleep [76:145].
theme derives from Prester John
. . .
Analects IV, X where Legge has the Master
say: "The superior man, in the world, does not set his mind either for anything, or against anything; what is right he will follow" [Legge, 4 2 ] . The words "bird- hearted," "timber," and "earth" come from visual aspects of the characters and, accord- ing to Fang, "cannot be reconciled with the Chinese language" [Fang, IV, 133]. But Pound's intent is probably to evoke the intelligence o f nature in process. Neither birds nor trees think: they express them- selves naturally and the right follows. Pound's own translation of Analects IV, X is, "He said: a proper man is n,ot absolutely bent on, or absolutely averse from anything in particular, he will be just" [CON,207].
39. Rouse: William Henry Denham R. , 1863-1950, a classical scholar who translated Homer as well as East Indian literature. In several letters Pound commented on his translations of The Odyssey. Said Pound: "W. H. D. Rouse went to the right place for his Homer-namely, to the Aegean in a sail boat, where they are still telling the same yarns even if they tell them about prophet Elias . . . " [PE, 125-126].
40. Elias: Elijah, the Hebrew prophet.
41. OTTI1:: H, "No Man. " fcf. 17 above].
42. Wanjina . . . things: Wondjina. In Aus- tralian folklore W. , the son of a god (the rainbow snake Ungur), created the world by saying the names of things. But W. created so many objects that his father closed his mouth so that he could not speak. Fox [mentioned in GK twice, 91,133] says ofa story told him in Australia: "As one old man e x p l a i n e d , i f Ungar h a d n o t very wisely done as he did, then the blackfellow would have been burdened with all the glittering claptrap of the white man's culture and
38. words
earth: Pound's
paraphrase of
? ? 366
53. "La Donna": I, "the woman. " Prob. knowing Pound was a poet, Nicoletti recited a sonnet he had written, with the kind of impassioned cadence in these repeated words that only an Italian could give-thus making the moment and measure memorable. [MSB's note says only: Reciting to E. P. an early sonnet of his]. The idea of the lady may have evoked the memory of several famous ones, Claretta Petacci above, Bianca below, as well as others.
54. "Cosa . . . ginnocchion": I, "Why must it go on1 If I fall . . . / I will not fall on my knees. " [Pound supplied MSB with a line that preceded this: "I am married to Capello"; and a note: Defiance when they were trying to crush free spirit in Vienna] .
55. Bianca Capello: 11542? 1587, mistress of Francesco de' Medici, Duke of Tuscany, who married her in 1579 and proclaimed her Grand Duchess of Tuscany four months later. She was said to have been poisoned by Francesco's brother, Ferdinand. The situa- tion of Clara Petacci may have reminded Pound of this response.
56. the key: The notebooks for Canto 74 at Yale reveal that the key lists Chinese books, the Analects of Mencius and Chung Yung, as well as a few Western authors (Cocteau, Wyndham Lewis, Frobenius), and books on specific subjects: economics, history, and monetary theory [for details see Pai, 12? 1] .
57. Lute of Gassir: The introductory song to the legend collection the Dausi. Gassire, son of Nganamba Fasa, was king of the Fasa tribe. The story of Gassire's envy and its consequences [cf. 134 below] is told in the legend collection, which deals with the history of Wagadu. A summary is given by Frobenius in Erlebte Erdteile [cf. GD, "Pound and Frobenius," LL, Motive, 33-59].
58. Hooo: Af. dial. "Hail! " [cf. 134 belowJ 59. Fasa: A tribe of heroes in N Africa.
60. lion-coloured pup: Prob. a dog running loose in the DTC.
74/427-428
61. les six potences . . . absoudre: F, "the six gallows / Absolve, may you absolve us all" [Villon, Epitaphe de Vii/on: Mais Priez Dieu que taus nous vueille absouldre] .
62. Barabbas: The bandit held in jail at the time of the arrest of Christ.
63. Hemingway: Ernest H. , 1898-1961, the American novelist Pound knew during his Paris years.
64. Antheil: George A. , 1900-1959, Ameri? can composer and pianist who was spon~ sored with several other modern musicians by Pound during the 20s. Pound wrote about him in Antheil and the Treatise on Harmony.
65. Thos. Wilson: A Negro "trainee" at the DTC [ef. 257 below].
66. Mr K. : DTC trainee.
67. Lane: DTC trainee.
68. Butterflies, mint: Paradisal cues [48:42, 50; 79/487; Frags. :38]. Even in hell or purgatory, the paradise-oriented man is conscious of his divine end. Pound takes the metaphor from Dante: "0 proud Chris- tians . .