Sender: |
|
Subject: |
|
From: |
|
Date: |
Sun, 26 Jul 1998 14:20:00 +0900 |
Content-Type: |
text/plain; charset=iso-2022-jp |
MIME-Version: |
1.0 |
Reply-To: |
|
Parts/Attachments: |
|
|
Dear Jeff Twitchell-Waas,
Thank you very much for your pertinent answer to
my question.
As for your remark: "My impression is that the Western concept
of Taoism is a very academic one, a purified philosophical conception
-- obviously, Pound was designating something else by the term,
however, inadequately," I would like to quote E.P.'s own words
in the Foreword to Fenollosa's _The Chinese Written Character
as a Medium for Poetry_, though this is rather beside
the point of your discussion:
We have here not a bare philological discussion, but
a study of the fundamentals of all aesthetics. In his
search through unknown art Fenollosa, coming upon
unknown motives and principles unrecognised in the
West, was already led into many modes of thought
since fruitful in "new" Western painting and poetry.
He was a forerunner without knowing it and without
being known as such.
----- In America and Europe he cannot be looked
upon as a mere searcher after exotics. His mind was constantly
filled with parallels and comparisons between Eastern and
Western art. To him the exotic was always a means
of fructification. He looked to an American renaissance.
----- E. P. , 1918.
Pound had been involved in translating _Cathay_ and editing
the _Chinese Written Character_ almost at the same time from
the autumn of 1913 to the summer of 1915. So at least at the
early stage of his poetic career, "something else" can be "the
fundamentals of all aesthetics." However, I don't think that
the issue can be traced so easily especially in his later poetry
as you all suggested.
Thank you for your relevant reply.
Best wishes,
Yoshiko Kita
|
|
|