>Subject: Betrayal of the constitution
>
>Wei,
>If your goal is to understand Pound (and not merely to hang him out to dry
>for his political sins) then you should investigate further why he felt the
>US Constitution had been betrayed. You dismissed this sense of betrayal
>out
>of hand as "an odd defense" coming as it did from someone who had been
>indicted for treason. But if you're going to get into the head of this
>"traitor" you have to plumb his notions of civic loyalty and duty.
>Tim Romano
>
There are many ways of "plumbing his notions of civic loyalty and duty",
especially in relation to his poetry.
I have never said my intention toward Pound was "merely to hang him out to
dry for his political sins [...]. " You might consider the possibility that
this is a mischaracterization of my approach. Actually, rather than invite
others to attempt to characterize my method, I would like others to engage
Pound comprehensively. Just as we cannot dismiss the poet for his alleged
treacheries, we cannot understand the MEANING of his poetry by attributing
to him a genuine concern for the essential elements of the Constitution
which he did not have. Even if Pound was allegedly, in some vague sense, a
person who "believed" in the Constitution, his outlook cannot be
characterized as democratic, "loyal" to the basic principles upon which his
Constitution was based, or as "civicly virtuous," unless you think Petain
and Quisling possessed civic virtue.
Pound's outlook as a whole is also defined by those he designates
"saints." As Achilles Fang points out, "Poundian political
hagiography can become rather pathetic" (Fang, III-32). To show
this, Fang cites a passage from the conclusion of Canto 84, last of the
"Pisan" group.
Wei, Chi and Pi-kan
Yin had these three men full of
humanitas (manhood)
or Jin
Xaire, Alessandro,
Xaire Fernando, e il Capo,
Pierre, Vidkun,
Henriot . . .
(84/539).
The source containing the names of the three Confucian saints states,
The viscount of Wei withdrew from the court. The viscount of Chi became a
slave to Chou. Pi-kan remonstrated with him and died. Confucius said, "The
Yin dynasty possessed these three men of virtue."
(Confucius, Analects, XVIII, i).
Fang, not at all pleased by the juxtaposition of the three Confucian
"men of virtue" with "il Capo" and company, writes,
In this litany of saints the six men
to whom Pound bids farewell are "Il capo del governo Italiano e Duce del
Fascismo" Benito Mussolini ("the Boss"), who was put to death in April 1945;
the Secretary of the Fascist Republican Party. Alessandro Pavolini, who
was put to death together with Mussolini; Minister of Popular Culture,
Fernando Mezzasoma,
who also shared Mussolini's fate; Pierre Laval, sentenced to death by the
High French Court of Justice on October 4, 1945, and executed on
October 15; Vidkun Quisling, sentenced to death by Norwegian High Court
on September 10, 1945,
and executed on October 24; Phillipe Henriot, assassinated in Paris by
French underground
resistance agents on June 28, 1944. A good dog deserves a good bone, so
goes the saying. But do the three Fascists and three collaborators deserve
to be put on a par with the triad of Confucian Saints?
(Fang, III, 33).
I leave the question for you to answer.
[Incidentally, Achilles Fang did know Pound, was a great admirer of his
poetic technique, and met with Pound many times in St. Elizabeths to help
him with various aspects of Chinese culture. Fang wrote the first
comprehensive several hundred page work analyzing the Chinese dimension of
the Cantos. The manuscript, still unpubished, is available at Yale].
Regards,
Wei
http://www.geocities.com/weienlin/religion.html
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