I've read only an excerpt in the Norton Anthology of
Modern Poetry. Let me quote:

On a trip to Russia made in the early thirties Cummings
found that country to be another enormous room and
excoriated it in a book called _Eimi_ (Greek for "I am")
1933. He gives there purported conversations with Russians
such as this one with a dramatist. Cummings instructs
the interpreter,
        "tell him I drink . . . to the individual."
        A pause "he says that's nonsense."
        "Tell him I love nonsense and I drink to nonsense." Pause
        "he's very angry. He says you are afraid"
        "tell him I am afraid to be afraid"
        noisemusic,a waiter's glaring. "He believes you are mad."
        "Tell him:a madman named noone says,that someone is and
anyone isn't;and all the believing universe cannot transform
anyone who isn't into someone who is" (_Eimi_ pg 101)

Compare that to Mayakovsky (I think) who denounces the lyric
poet writing on personal themes as "clutching his puny little
self." Maybe it was Gorki.

"enormous room" refers to Cummings's book of that title
relating his imprisonment in a French detention center
during WW I. Cummings's buddy had written a letter home
frankly depicting French morale. The censors caught it,
the French authorities threw the buddy into the slammer
for telling the truth, and did the same to Cummings because
he was a friend. It's not a great book, but it's worth
a read.

--
John K. Taber


-----Original Message-----
From: Ezra Pound discussion list of the University of Maine
[mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of Erik Volpe
Sent: Tuesday, May 30, 2000 8:59 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Pound's anti-communism


In regards to EP's anti-communism, when did his
relationship (poetic and personal) with Oppen falter?
Was it the facsism vs communism conflict that divided
their work? I think I remember reading a number of
Cummings' poems that are very anti-semetic. Could
those poems have been published in EIMI, written after
his visit to Stalininst Russia?
--- Tim Romano <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> I haven't been able to get my hands on a copy of
> EIMI by e.e. cummings...
> though my attempts to find it have been casual at
> best. Pound has very high
> praise for this work, mentioning it several times in
> the wartime broadcasts.
> Would anyone who has read the book care to say a few
> words about it, in the
> context of Pound's anti-communism?
> Tim Romano
>
> >
> > 4.  That Pound's desire to see Fascism victorious
> over Communism and
> > Capitalist "democracy" --in the West and the East
> ---   is one central
> facet
> > of his work.
> >


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