Notes for Canto CXX

I have tried to write Paradise
Do not move
Let the wind speak
that is paradise.

Let the Gods forgive what I
have made
Let those I love try to forgive
what I have made.



Ezra Pound

A Pact

I make a pact with you, Walt Whitman–
I have detested you long enough.
I come to you as a grown child
Who has had a pig-headed father;
I am old enough now to make friends.
It was you that broke the new wood,
Now is a time for carving.
We have one sap and one root–
Let there be commerce between us.



Ezra Pound

Four Poems of Departure

From Rihaku

Light rain is on the light dust.
The willows of the inn-yard
Will be going greener and greener,
But you, Sir, had better take wine ere your departure,
For you will have no friends about you
When you come to the gates of Go.


Separation on the River Kiang

Ko-jin goes west from Ko-kaku-ro,
The smoke-flowers are blurred over the river.
His lone sail blots the far sky.
And now I see only the river,
       The long Kiang, reaching heaven.


Taking Leave of a Friend

Blue mountains to the north of the walls,
White river winding about them;
Here we must make separation
And go out through thousand miles of dead grass.
Mind like a floating wide cloud.
Sunset like the parting of old acquaintances
Who bow over their clasped hands at a distance.
Our horses neigh to each other
        as we are departing.


Leave-Taking near Shoku

"Sanso, King of Shoku, buit roads"

They say the roads of Sanso are steep,
Sheer as the mountains.
The walls rise in a man's face,
Clouds grow out of the hill
       at his horse's bridle.
Sweet trees are on the paved way of the Shin,
Their trunks burst through the paving,
And freshets are bursting their ice
       in the midst of Shoku, a proud city.

Men's fates are already set,
There is no need of asking diviners.


The City of Choan

The phoenix are at play on their terrace.
The phoenix are gone, the river flows alone.
Flowers and grass
Cover over the dark path
      where lay the dynastic house of the Go.
The bright cloths and bright caps of Shin
Are now the base of old hills.

The Three Mountains fall through the far heaven,
The isle of White Heron
      splits the two streams apart.
Now the high clouds cover the sun
And I can not see Choan afar
And I am sad.



Ezra Pound

Prayer for His Lady's Life

From Propertius, Elegiae, Lib. III, 26

Here let thy clemency, Persephone, hold firm,
Do thou, Pluto, bring here no greater harshness.
So many thousand beauties are gone down to Avernus,
Ye Might let one remain above with us.

With you is Iope, with you the white-gleaming Tyro,
With you is Europa and the shameless Pasiphae,
And all the fair from Troy and all from Achaia,
From the sundered realms, of Thebes and of aged Priamus;
And all the maidens of Rome, as many as they were,
They died and the greed of your flame consumes them.

   Here let thy clemency, Persephone, hold firm,
   Do thou, Pluto, bring here no greater harshness.
   So many thousand fair are gone down to Avernus,
   Ye might let one remain above with us.



Ezra Pound