There is something uncomfortably true about your view of Pound's
misunderstanding of the East, I feel. Though Pound is in many ways so
outstanding a character he was a child of his time too, his 'KATHAY' (so
great a book it shd always be written in capitals - or typed standing;-)
is in some ways not that far from other typical products of this decade,
remember Hans Bethge here in Germany, whose 'Chinese Flute' served as
the source for Gustav Mahlers 'Lied von der Erde' (Earth-Canto?).
Beautiful renderings, but full of errors, oversimplifications,
westernizations etc. And Richard Wilhelm, one of the most influential
translators ever, spiced the I-Ging up with Goethe-quotations and
analogies to christian tradition. Although the deepest translation
before the 198O's I came to know. Another basic misinterpretation that
still is in the heads of many westerners: that Daoism, Buddhism and
Confucianism were clearly separable 'Religions', overcoming each other
from time to time in Chinese history  (Han=Daoism, Tang=Buddhism, the
rest of history is worshipment of the
god Confucius - this a term still often used here when describing this
philosopher)
A little of this chinoiserie athmosphere is in Kathay and the early
Cantos, maybe: but with the chinese cantos he made imhop the succesful
attempt of reinventing confucian historiography, with all the
consequences such a homeric catalogue of ships has: an immense - what
was the word I had to look for in my dictionary yesterday? - tenure;-)
for those who simply do not want to get interested in that 'Chink
stuff'. But the technique is to me something like a perpetuum mobile,
reviving itself by the conviction that history speaks for itself and
leads to improvement by simply readapting it. 'History is a schoolbook
for princes'. (Chu Xi stressed this point extremely, even denying any
merit of a non-confucian for this reason itself - when you read Pound
you do not get the feeling that
Buddhists or Daoists are that charming people, carefully speaking...
'How culious an epiphany!' [Joyce]) Suggestion: let's compare EP's
access to chinese cooking: once you got the idea of what this hautemost
cuisine is all about, a certain harmony, combination of contrast,
balancing powers, you will probably nevermore need a recipe-book. Just
look for a good grocery and follow the dao.
 
Greetings
 
Martin Knepper
 
 
---
"Being silent, not resisting -  could I do so?"
Alfred Doeblin, Wang-lun
 
 
 
 
Lucas Klein schrieb:
 
> but I've lost the topic of Pound. Pound's writing seems to me
essentially Western, based on a great misunderstanding of Chinese
and Asian philosophy, language, tradition, poetry, etc. I haven't done
anywhere near the amount of research required to back up this
kind of statement, but well, is there anyone willing either to refute or
support the idea that Pound just didn't get Asia?
>
> I'll add that there is no judgement on the element of
misunderstanding. One can often learn more from a misunderstanding than
one can from an understanding.
>
> Lucas
>