So here is a connection of James Frazer's "Golden Bough", Elliot's
"Wasteland", the hero's harrowing of Hell, the Cantos and the life of a
poet in the twentieth century? That golden bough or wand or scepter of
Hermes is the temporal key, and my research has shown me that it is a rule
which measures both distance and time and originates with the very letters
of the alphabet making walls of music as in Thebes.

    "These are the letters Cadmus gave. Think he meant them for a slave?"
-Byron

    "...twenty centuries of stony sleep..." -Yeats

Om vajra pani hum,

Charles



----------
>From: Wayne Pounds <[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Canti postumi- 2nd posting
>Date: Fri, 24 Jan 2003 21:54:20 +0900
>

> [Diacritics in 1st posting, in html format, turned to algebra
> noodles--who knows why?]
>
> Just before the end of the year, I received Massimo Bacigalupo $B!G (Bs
> collection _Conti postumi_ [Posthumous Cantos] (Mondadori, 2002), and I
> would like to introduce the Pound list to this jewel, believing that
> most of you will share my pleasure in having in hand at this very late
> stage of the game a collection of  $B!H (Bnew $B!I (B Cantos. $B!! (BIt
> made my New Year $B!G (B
> s holiday new.
>  Though the editorial introduction and notes are in Italian, the drafts
> are all given in their original language, which is of course English
> (with the exception of the drafts for the Italian Cantos of 1944-45).
> Thus, for the most part (about 240 of the 260 some pages of poetry), the
> volume offers the reader a bilingual text with the English and the
> Italian on facing pages.
>  The arrangement is as follows:
>
> I. _Three Cantos_, London 1917
> II. Paris, 1920-1922
> III. Rapallo and Venice, 1928-1937
> IV. Voices of War, 1940-1945
> V. Italian Drafts, 1944-1945
> VI. Pisa, 1945
> VII. Prosaic Verses, 1949-1960
> VIII. Lines for Olga, 1962-1972
>
> The one rubric above that may require comment is the seventh.  $B!H (BProsaic
> Voices $B!I (B is the name Pound gave to his own selection from the drafts for
> _Rock-Drill_, published in 1959 by the Italian publishing house Sciascia
> and called _Versi prosaici_.
>
> The inclusion of the early _Three Cantos_?may occasion surprise, but
> Bacigalupo points out that these Cantos remained forgotten in the back
> issues of _Poetry_ (and the volumes _Lustra_, 1917, and _Quia Pauper
> Amavi_, 1919) and were reprinted only after Pound $B!G (Bs death.  $B!H
(BFor this
> reason they can reasonably form part of a volume called _Posthumous
> Cantos_. $B!I (B
>
> Bacigalupo offers the following rationale for his collection:  $B!H (BIt is a
> curious fact that Pound was a maniacal conservator of his notes, perhaps
> thinking that sooner or later the unused passages could prove useful
> (certainly he didn $B!G (Bt think that one day university libraries would vie
> for them at high prices). The result is that the published text of the
> _Cantos_ is only the tip of an iceberg of partially published material:
> notebooks, manuscripts, drafts. And though in general he showed good
> judgment in choosing what to conserve and what to let perish, at times
> he indeed forgot precious passages among his daybooks and scribblings.
>   $B!H (BThe present volume thus offers a selection from this very abundant
> material, a selection based on criteria of quality, legibility, and
> documentary interest. $B!I (B
>
> Some examples among many that immediately attract one $B!G (Bs interest: 1.
> The draft of the discussion between Pound and Eliot at Verona in 1922--
> alluded to in Canto 78:  $B!H (Bso we sat there by the arena $B!I (B--
gives us an
> idea of Pound $B!G (Bs methods, Bacigalupo observes. Whereas Cantos 11, 12,
> 29, and 78 merely allude to the episode, the rejected draft is
> informative and diary-like, even commenting on the quality of the wine
> on the table. 2. For readers attracted to the paradisiacal  $B!H (Bdimension
> of stillness $B!I (B in _The Cantos_, the highlight of this gathering may be
> the three passages which at various stages were part of the famous
> Chinese Canto of the Seven Lakes (Canto 49). 3. In the same paradisiacal
> vein, the collection ends with the verses for Olga. Thus, in effect, as
> Bacigalupo says, Venus, announced in Canto 1, reappears at the end, a
> smiling and be-jeweled queller of monsters,  $B!H (Bbearing the golden bough
> of Argicida. $B!I (B
>
> For readers who may be unsure how to order this volume, I might mention
> that for some years now I have found IBS a dependable source for Italian
> books: http://www.internetbookshop.it
> The search page is http://www.internetbookshop.it/ser/serpge.asp
> The publisher may be visited at  http://www.mondadori.com/libri
>
> Wayne Pounds
> Tokyo