Here the
messenger
of
Zeus.
Zeus.
A-Companion-to-the-Cantos-of-Ezra-Pound-II
Mme.
R.
says: "He [Napoleon] held a grand review on the battlefield of Marengo, and distributed crosses on that occasion.
" [Memoirs, 260].
They were prob.
given to "noble and brave" soldiers.
59. This aura . . . crimson: Formulaic lines from alchemy found in many places: "Fire is the soul of the Great All. . . . Light? gold . . . fire in its concrete state . . . Flamma! Yes, fire that is all. The diamond exists already in the charcoal, gold in fire" [Read, Alchemy p. 90].
657
40. Tsung-Kuan
Rock [110:54] knew personally and remem- bered fondly. "The hospitality ofYung? ning chiefs, especially of the late Tsung-kuan . . . was unsurpassed. . . . It was a great loss . . . to all the poor and troubled chiefs, his neigh- bors . . . when he passed away . . . July 20th,
61. Porphery: A. D. 232/3? ca. 305. Scholar and philosopher who eventually became a devoted follower of Plotinus. He wrote a life of Plotinus and edited his Enneads.
62. Anselm: [105:16].
63. Plotinus: [98/685,690; 99/700].
64. EN . . . EXEI: H. By transliterating the 'ON into the genitive plural we have: "In the contemplation of which things the mind is engaged. " In The Enneads II, 3, "On whether the stars are causes," Plotinus took a singleminded view of the function of the stars. His theory differed from the theories of astrologists of his time, which he consid? ered wen-meaning but a tangle of "basic absurdities": hence, the "unicorns" and "an- telopes" [Enneads II (Loeb 441), 57? 101].
65. HS'UAN TSUNG: Hsuan? tsung, 1398- 1435, emperor (1425-1435) during the early years of the Ming dynasty, noted as a hu? manitarian as well as a promoter of the arts. "His own paintings represent . . . mostly do- mestic animals such as cats and dogs, but also goats and monkeys. The models are very closely observed and sometimes character-
ized with a touch of humour" [Siren, 113].
66. natus: L, "born. " The canto date is an error.
67. Joey: The young brother of Sheri Marti- nelli [90:25]. Said Pound: "Joey is La Mar- tinelli's kid brother who was taken down to look at the paintings in the Mellon Gallery and asked, 'Are they for real? ' and she couldn't make out what he was driving at'
[Bridson Interview, N. D. 17,176].
68. H. I. : Henry James.
69. With the sun . . . coat: Joseph Rock has a picture of Na-khi women in ceremonial costumes with images of the sun, moon, and stars sewn on the back [Pal, 3-1, 114].
70. Li Chiang . . . : A city enclosed on 3 sides by the Yangtze River loop. Plate 77 in Rock has a commentary which says in part, "View across the upper end of the Li Chiang
: A native
chief whom
60. Apollonius: [94:42].
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? 658
101/726-727
102/728-729
659
plains. " The snow range stands out starkly in the distance, as does the meadow in the foreground [ibid. , 1I5J .
72. muy simpatico: S, "very sympathetic. "
73. Stone Drum . . . : The town of Shih-ku ("Stone Drum "), named "from a large stone drum on the slopes to the north" [Na-khi, II, 279J. The waters refer to the Yangtze, which flows by it.
74. the two aces: The leaders of two tribes who fought for the area: the leader of the T'u-fan, who was defeated, and the leader of the Na-khi [Peck, Agenda, 73J .
75. Mint . . . bracken: The ihird inscription on the Stone Drum says in part: "The chiefs leading a million brave soldiers, their majes. tic air like that of a tiger and of a plumed bird bent on exterminating, they struck and roared like thunder" [Pai, 3-1, 1I8J.
76. Rossoni: Edmonda R. (b. l884), minis- ter of agriculture and forests in Mussolini government; editor of La Stirpe [The raceJ and auihor of such books as The Political and Moral Aspects ofNew Corporate Econo- my in Italy. Said Pound: "Of living men, Edmonda Rossoni, with his agricultural ex- perts and his care for crops, is nearest the Confucian model" [GK, 274J.
77. "cosi 10 stato . . . ": I, "thus the
state. . . . " Pound gives the intent of soni's whole statement as, "that's where the state gets its cut. " When he first heard about Gesell's stamp script, this waS R. 's response
[Bridson Interview, N. D. 17, 175J.
78. Delcroix: [88:46J.
79. "che magnifica! ": I, "how magificent! " Said Pound: "And another thing . . . I mean Delcroix, who was the head of the Italian Veterans . . . he beat his head with his little wooden artificial arms and said 'che magni- fica idea'-What a magnificent idea" [ibid. , 176J.
80. (prescrittibile): I, "prescriptible. " Used with moneta it means "stamp script" of the Gesell variety.
81. "May their pond be full: "We perform ch'er k'o [a medicinal riteJ on the family; may heaven give it many sons and daughters, may their pond be fuJi and may they only hear good tidings" [Rock, "D'a 3Nv," 21J.
82. The son . . . hearing: "[The ms has phrasesJ expressing the hope that ihere may
CANTO CII
Sources
Homer, ad. I, II, III, IV, V, X; Ovid, Meta. IV; EP, CON; Sir Barry Domvile, From Admiral to Cabin Boy, London, 1947; Apollodorus, The Library, III (Loeb); Ammianus Marcellinus, History, II [Mar. J.
Exegeses
EP, ABCR, 187; SP, 328; Peck, Pai, I-I; MB, Trace, 408; NS,
71. 2dto - 1mba's face pictured in one of the plates.
. . .
: A Na-khi priest
Ros~
be among
geous) sons: [the ceremonyJ is performed on his good hearing, keen sight, on his right
. arm, on his left arm . . . " [ibid. J.
. . .
The
above [ibid. J.
84. "His horses . . . peace. ": In another
Rock work entitled The 2Zhi 3 md Funeral Ceremony, we read: "You are on the way to the realm of the gods, your body and soul are at peace and the mane of your horse is beautiful" [po 197J .
1. Kalupso: Calypso [20:67J. Hermes told her that Zeus said she should let Odysseus go
[ad. V, 97 ff. J.
2. Hermes: [12:8J.
Here the messenger of
Zeus.
3_ Dwight L. Morrow: [86:105J.
4. the body elected . . . : Unlike members of the English Parliament, U. S. senators must have a legal residence in the state they run in.
5. Pallas: P. Athena, disguised as the old woman Mentes, lied to Telemachus, saying that she had a ship whose cargo was iron
[ad. I, 184J .
6. Penelope: Around 1950 Pound wanted friends not to send cliched . Christmas cards but a question that would send people back to the classics, such as, "Why did Penelope wait for the return of Odysseus? " The an- swer is in ad. IV, 693 (not 639): Kfivos . . .
7. Leucothoe: The daughter of King Orcha- mus of Babylon. She resisted the passion of Apollo, who turned her into "a sweet de- lightful tree of frankincense" [Meta. IV, 203-3 ! OJ . Not to be confused with Leuco- ihea [cf. 8 belowJ .
8. sea-gull: Pound's name for the bird which Ina, the daughter of Cadmus, was changed into; she was thence called Leucothea. With the help of the veil ("bikini") she gave Odys- seus, he reached the shores of the Phaeacians.
9. Ideogram: Pu [M5379J, "not; a nega- tive. " Because his old artist friends did not see that ignorance of money and how it should be issued prevented the creation of a society in which the arts could flourish, they "had no ground to stand on" [98:33J.
10. Black shawls . . . : [98:14, 15J.
11. OIOS . . . TE: H, "so as to finish the job . . . and love. " The original line [ad. II, 272J has Enos, "word," rather than EROS, "love. " Thus Loeb has: "such a man was he to fulfill both deed and word. "
12. J1. &w: A Greek root used here only for sound [98:37J.
13. Barley . . . : Athena tells Telemachus to "make ready stores, and bestow all in vessels-wine in jars, and barley meal, the marrow of men, in stout skins" [Od. II, 289-29IJ. Also a rhyme with the Eleusinian grain? rites, and perhaps with Pound's early visits to Venice when gondolas "cost too much" and "he had to live upon barley soup" [MB, Trace, 408J. The strength-of- men:is-in-grain motif [106:4J.
83. noun
ms.
graph entitled . . .
descendants
such 1 D'a
(=coura-
peace. ": A "very fare funeral of a rich war- rior" has 3 Na-khi pictographs in a rectangu- lar frame, which translate "rich-warrior fu- neral. " The center one is an image of a man standing. The first one, meaning "rich," sug- gests two rows of teeth in a square mouth and appears to be sideways. The third looks like the mane of a horse as if seen from
~
Reading,
I l l ;
JW,Pai, 3-2,
289;Peck,Agenda, vol. 9,
Glossary
2-3,1971.
which should
"keinos . . . eorgei. " The whole line means, "Never at any time did that man do anyone harm" [HK,Pai, 4-1, 187J.
fW P 'Y fl,
tranliterate to,
? 660
14. orzo: I, "barley. " An orzo is an order of barley soup, which costs "40 centess'," or 40 centesimi, or 40% of one lira.
15. Procape: Restaurant at 13 rue de l'An? cienne Comedie on the Left Bank in Paris. It was founded in the 17th century by an Ital? ian and patronized by writers, from Voltaire to Pound, because it served excellent food cheaply [JW].
16. Noi . . . borghesi: I, "we other common people. "
17. We thought . . . : [98/686]: " . . . con? trol Mussolini. "
18. ye sail over . . . : The lines evoke the words of Tiresias and "the dark eyelids" of Aphrodite in Canto I.
19. Winkelmann: The French edition, His? taire de l'art chez les anciens (Paris, 1802), of the classic work by Johann Joachim Winc? kelmann: Geschichte der Kunst des Alter- turns, 1764. He said that the shape, heavi? ness, and arch of the eyelid in Venus are crucial to her beauty [Peck, Pai, 1? 1, 26].
20. Ronsard: [80/505].
21. "jacques Pere": Pun on Shakespeare.
The Belgians would pronounce the J soft, as an I [ABCR, 187].
22. Le Porte1: The Swinburne connection [82/523].
23. Freiheit: G, "Freedom. " Eva Hesse: longtime friend and correspondent of Pound and official translator of The Cantos and other Pound works into German. His line
[74/426], "that free speech without free radio speech is as zero," she translated: "dass Redefreiheit ohne Radiofreiheit gleich null ist. "
24. The Changes: The I Ching. Confucius said: "If many years were added to me, I would give fifty to the study of The Book of Changes, and might therefore manage to avoid great mistakes" [CON, p. 221].
25. Swan: Unidentified, but clearly a man who showed heroism and unperturbability
under pressure in the manner of Bud Cowart below.
26. another chap . . . : [95:62]. Bud Co? wart, who got caught in the Akron's moor- ing ropes but held on while seeing two others fall to their deaths.
27. KatZe: G, "cat. " Pound said of Fro? berrius, "He saw nothing ridiculous in a child's wanting to know if the last letter of the word Katz stood for the cat's tail, and the first one for its head. But to the school
less me ye Achaeans came . . . " rOd. IV, 144? 145]. KUVW7f1]S literaIly means "dog? eyed"-says Lidell? Scott, "i. e. shameless one. " Lidell-Scott gives for the feminine, "the shameless woman," but adds: "also fierce? eyed, terrible. " Pound prefers the lat? ter and works the half? goddess into the fearful? eyes theme started with Aphrodite in Canto I and recurring in Rock-Drill and Thrones [81:54; 91 :4].
34. Atalant: Says Apollodorus: "This Ata? lanta was exposed by her father, because he desired male children; and a she-bear came often and gave her suck. . . . " Thereafter, she "kept herself a virgin and became protected by Diana" [The Library, III, 9. 2; Loeb, I, 399].
35. aithiops . . . oinops: H, "wine . . . dark? bright" [97:159]; Homeric variant of "wine? dark sea" [II. I, 462; Peck, Pai, 1? 1, 24; MB, Trace, 412].
36. haliporphuros: H, "sea purple. " But Pound prefers the colors he lists.
37. oriXalko: H, "watery? copper. "
38. Ie xaladines: [97:163]. The sound sug? gests the Greek K"'At ("beautiful") and/or the sound of copper (above), in addition to Shakespeare's "multitudinous seas incarna- dine" [Macbeth, II, 1].
39. the nature, the sign: [90:2].
40. Smail lions: Animal statues atop tall col?
45. Wild goose . . . coral: Details of Na? khi landscape [Peck, Agenda, 9, p. 51] .
46. dead words .
59. This aura . . . crimson: Formulaic lines from alchemy found in many places: "Fire is the soul of the Great All. . . . Light? gold . . . fire in its concrete state . . . Flamma! Yes, fire that is all. The diamond exists already in the charcoal, gold in fire" [Read, Alchemy p. 90].
657
40. Tsung-Kuan
Rock [110:54] knew personally and remem- bered fondly. "The hospitality ofYung? ning chiefs, especially of the late Tsung-kuan . . . was unsurpassed. . . . It was a great loss . . . to all the poor and troubled chiefs, his neigh- bors . . . when he passed away . . . July 20th,
61. Porphery: A. D. 232/3? ca. 305. Scholar and philosopher who eventually became a devoted follower of Plotinus. He wrote a life of Plotinus and edited his Enneads.
62. Anselm: [105:16].
63. Plotinus: [98/685,690; 99/700].
64. EN . . . EXEI: H. By transliterating the 'ON into the genitive plural we have: "In the contemplation of which things the mind is engaged. " In The Enneads II, 3, "On whether the stars are causes," Plotinus took a singleminded view of the function of the stars. His theory differed from the theories of astrologists of his time, which he consid? ered wen-meaning but a tangle of "basic absurdities": hence, the "unicorns" and "an- telopes" [Enneads II (Loeb 441), 57? 101].
65. HS'UAN TSUNG: Hsuan? tsung, 1398- 1435, emperor (1425-1435) during the early years of the Ming dynasty, noted as a hu? manitarian as well as a promoter of the arts. "His own paintings represent . . . mostly do- mestic animals such as cats and dogs, but also goats and monkeys. The models are very closely observed and sometimes character-
ized with a touch of humour" [Siren, 113].
66. natus: L, "born. " The canto date is an error.
67. Joey: The young brother of Sheri Marti- nelli [90:25]. Said Pound: "Joey is La Mar- tinelli's kid brother who was taken down to look at the paintings in the Mellon Gallery and asked, 'Are they for real? ' and she couldn't make out what he was driving at'
[Bridson Interview, N. D. 17,176].
68. H. I. : Henry James.
69. With the sun . . . coat: Joseph Rock has a picture of Na-khi women in ceremonial costumes with images of the sun, moon, and stars sewn on the back [Pal, 3-1, 114].
70. Li Chiang . . . : A city enclosed on 3 sides by the Yangtze River loop. Plate 77 in Rock has a commentary which says in part, "View across the upper end of the Li Chiang
: A native
chief whom
60. Apollonius: [94:42].
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? 658
101/726-727
102/728-729
659
plains. " The snow range stands out starkly in the distance, as does the meadow in the foreground [ibid. , 1I5J .
72. muy simpatico: S, "very sympathetic. "
73. Stone Drum . . . : The town of Shih-ku ("Stone Drum "), named "from a large stone drum on the slopes to the north" [Na-khi, II, 279J. The waters refer to the Yangtze, which flows by it.
74. the two aces: The leaders of two tribes who fought for the area: the leader of the T'u-fan, who was defeated, and the leader of the Na-khi [Peck, Agenda, 73J .
75. Mint . . . bracken: The ihird inscription on the Stone Drum says in part: "The chiefs leading a million brave soldiers, their majes. tic air like that of a tiger and of a plumed bird bent on exterminating, they struck and roared like thunder" [Pai, 3-1, 1I8J.
76. Rossoni: Edmonda R. (b. l884), minis- ter of agriculture and forests in Mussolini government; editor of La Stirpe [The raceJ and auihor of such books as The Political and Moral Aspects ofNew Corporate Econo- my in Italy. Said Pound: "Of living men, Edmonda Rossoni, with his agricultural ex- perts and his care for crops, is nearest the Confucian model" [GK, 274J.
77. "cosi 10 stato . . . ": I, "thus the
state. . . . " Pound gives the intent of soni's whole statement as, "that's where the state gets its cut. " When he first heard about Gesell's stamp script, this waS R. 's response
[Bridson Interview, N. D. 17, 175J.
78. Delcroix: [88:46J.
79. "che magnifica! ": I, "how magificent! " Said Pound: "And another thing . . . I mean Delcroix, who was the head of the Italian Veterans . . . he beat his head with his little wooden artificial arms and said 'che magni- fica idea'-What a magnificent idea" [ibid. , 176J.
80. (prescrittibile): I, "prescriptible. " Used with moneta it means "stamp script" of the Gesell variety.
81. "May their pond be full: "We perform ch'er k'o [a medicinal riteJ on the family; may heaven give it many sons and daughters, may their pond be fuJi and may they only hear good tidings" [Rock, "D'a 3Nv," 21J.
82. The son . . . hearing: "[The ms has phrasesJ expressing the hope that ihere may
CANTO CII
Sources
Homer, ad. I, II, III, IV, V, X; Ovid, Meta. IV; EP, CON; Sir Barry Domvile, From Admiral to Cabin Boy, London, 1947; Apollodorus, The Library, III (Loeb); Ammianus Marcellinus, History, II [Mar. J.
Exegeses
EP, ABCR, 187; SP, 328; Peck, Pai, I-I; MB, Trace, 408; NS,
71. 2dto - 1mba's face pictured in one of the plates.
. . .
: A Na-khi priest
Ros~
be among
geous) sons: [the ceremonyJ is performed on his good hearing, keen sight, on his right
. arm, on his left arm . . . " [ibid. J.
. . .
The
above [ibid. J.
84. "His horses . . . peace. ": In another
Rock work entitled The 2Zhi 3 md Funeral Ceremony, we read: "You are on the way to the realm of the gods, your body and soul are at peace and the mane of your horse is beautiful" [po 197J .
1. Kalupso: Calypso [20:67J. Hermes told her that Zeus said she should let Odysseus go
[ad. V, 97 ff. J.
2. Hermes: [12:8J.
Here the messenger of
Zeus.
3_ Dwight L. Morrow: [86:105J.
4. the body elected . . . : Unlike members of the English Parliament, U. S. senators must have a legal residence in the state they run in.
5. Pallas: P. Athena, disguised as the old woman Mentes, lied to Telemachus, saying that she had a ship whose cargo was iron
[ad. I, 184J .
6. Penelope: Around 1950 Pound wanted friends not to send cliched . Christmas cards but a question that would send people back to the classics, such as, "Why did Penelope wait for the return of Odysseus? " The an- swer is in ad. IV, 693 (not 639): Kfivos . . .
7. Leucothoe: The daughter of King Orcha- mus of Babylon. She resisted the passion of Apollo, who turned her into "a sweet de- lightful tree of frankincense" [Meta. IV, 203-3 ! OJ . Not to be confused with Leuco- ihea [cf. 8 belowJ .
8. sea-gull: Pound's name for the bird which Ina, the daughter of Cadmus, was changed into; she was thence called Leucothea. With the help of the veil ("bikini") she gave Odys- seus, he reached the shores of the Phaeacians.
9. Ideogram: Pu [M5379J, "not; a nega- tive. " Because his old artist friends did not see that ignorance of money and how it should be issued prevented the creation of a society in which the arts could flourish, they "had no ground to stand on" [98:33J.
10. Black shawls . . . : [98:14, 15J.
11. OIOS . . . TE: H, "so as to finish the job . . . and love. " The original line [ad. II, 272J has Enos, "word," rather than EROS, "love. " Thus Loeb has: "such a man was he to fulfill both deed and word. "
12. J1. &w: A Greek root used here only for sound [98:37J.
13. Barley . . . : Athena tells Telemachus to "make ready stores, and bestow all in vessels-wine in jars, and barley meal, the marrow of men, in stout skins" [Od. II, 289-29IJ. Also a rhyme with the Eleusinian grain? rites, and perhaps with Pound's early visits to Venice when gondolas "cost too much" and "he had to live upon barley soup" [MB, Trace, 408J. The strength-of- men:is-in-grain motif [106:4J.
83. noun
ms.
graph entitled . . .
descendants
such 1 D'a
(=coura-
peace. ": A "very fare funeral of a rich war- rior" has 3 Na-khi pictographs in a rectangu- lar frame, which translate "rich-warrior fu- neral. " The center one is an image of a man standing. The first one, meaning "rich," sug- gests two rows of teeth in a square mouth and appears to be sideways. The third looks like the mane of a horse as if seen from
~
Reading,
I l l ;
JW,Pai, 3-2,
289;Peck,Agenda, vol. 9,
Glossary
2-3,1971.
which should
"keinos . . . eorgei. " The whole line means, "Never at any time did that man do anyone harm" [HK,Pai, 4-1, 187J.
fW P 'Y fl,
tranliterate to,
? 660
14. orzo: I, "barley. " An orzo is an order of barley soup, which costs "40 centess'," or 40 centesimi, or 40% of one lira.
15. Procape: Restaurant at 13 rue de l'An? cienne Comedie on the Left Bank in Paris. It was founded in the 17th century by an Ital? ian and patronized by writers, from Voltaire to Pound, because it served excellent food cheaply [JW].
16. Noi . . . borghesi: I, "we other common people. "
17. We thought . . . : [98/686]: " . . . con? trol Mussolini. "
18. ye sail over . . . : The lines evoke the words of Tiresias and "the dark eyelids" of Aphrodite in Canto I.
19. Winkelmann: The French edition, His? taire de l'art chez les anciens (Paris, 1802), of the classic work by Johann Joachim Winc? kelmann: Geschichte der Kunst des Alter- turns, 1764. He said that the shape, heavi? ness, and arch of the eyelid in Venus are crucial to her beauty [Peck, Pai, 1? 1, 26].
20. Ronsard: [80/505].
21. "jacques Pere": Pun on Shakespeare.
The Belgians would pronounce the J soft, as an I [ABCR, 187].
22. Le Porte1: The Swinburne connection [82/523].
23. Freiheit: G, "Freedom. " Eva Hesse: longtime friend and correspondent of Pound and official translator of The Cantos and other Pound works into German. His line
[74/426], "that free speech without free radio speech is as zero," she translated: "dass Redefreiheit ohne Radiofreiheit gleich null ist. "
24. The Changes: The I Ching. Confucius said: "If many years were added to me, I would give fifty to the study of The Book of Changes, and might therefore manage to avoid great mistakes" [CON, p. 221].
25. Swan: Unidentified, but clearly a man who showed heroism and unperturbability
under pressure in the manner of Bud Cowart below.
26. another chap . . . : [95:62]. Bud Co? wart, who got caught in the Akron's moor- ing ropes but held on while seeing two others fall to their deaths.
27. KatZe: G, "cat. " Pound said of Fro? berrius, "He saw nothing ridiculous in a child's wanting to know if the last letter of the word Katz stood for the cat's tail, and the first one for its head. But to the school
less me ye Achaeans came . . . " rOd. IV, 144? 145]. KUVW7f1]S literaIly means "dog? eyed"-says Lidell? Scott, "i. e. shameless one. " Lidell-Scott gives for the feminine, "the shameless woman," but adds: "also fierce? eyed, terrible. " Pound prefers the lat? ter and works the half? goddess into the fearful? eyes theme started with Aphrodite in Canto I and recurring in Rock-Drill and Thrones [81:54; 91 :4].
34. Atalant: Says Apollodorus: "This Ata? lanta was exposed by her father, because he desired male children; and a she-bear came often and gave her suck. . . . " Thereafter, she "kept herself a virgin and became protected by Diana" [The Library, III, 9. 2; Loeb, I, 399].
35. aithiops . . . oinops: H, "wine . . . dark? bright" [97:159]; Homeric variant of "wine? dark sea" [II. I, 462; Peck, Pai, 1? 1, 24; MB, Trace, 412].
36. haliporphuros: H, "sea purple. " But Pound prefers the colors he lists.
37. oriXalko: H, "watery? copper. "
38. Ie xaladines: [97:163]. The sound sug? gests the Greek K"'At ("beautiful") and/or the sound of copper (above), in addition to Shakespeare's "multitudinous seas incarna- dine" [Macbeth, II, 1].
39. the nature, the sign: [90:2].
40. Smail lions: Animal statues atop tall col?
45. Wild goose . . . coral: Details of Na? khi landscape [Peck, Agenda, 9, p. 51] .
46. dead words .
