Canto LXXIV

by the heels at Milano

That maggots shd/ eat the dead bullock

DIGONOS, Δίγονος, but the twice crucified

where in history will you find it?

yet say this to the Possum: a bang, not a whimper,

with a bang not with a whimper,

To build the city of Dioce whose terraces are the colour of stars.

The suave eyes, quiet, not scornful,

rain also is of the process.

What you depart from is not the way

and olive tree blown white in the wind

washed in the Kiang and the Han

what whiteness will you add to this whiteness,

what candor?

“the great periplum brings in the stars to our shore.”

You who have passed the pillars and outward from Herakles

when Lucifer fell in N. Carolina.

if the suave air give way to scriocco

ΟỶ ΤΙΣ, ΟỶ ΤΙΣ? Odysseus

the name of my family.

the wind also is of the process

sorella la luna

Fear god and the stupidity of the populace,

but a precise definition

transmitted thus Sigismundo

thus Duccio, thus Zuan Bellin, or trastevere with La Sposa

Sponsa Cristi in mosaic till our time / deification of emporers

but a snotty barbarian ignorant of T'ang history need not deceive one

nor Charlie Sung's money on loan from anonimo

that is, we suppose Charlie had some

and in India the rate down to 18 per hundred

but the local loan lice provided from imported bankers

so the total interest sweated out of the Indian farmers

rose in Churchillian grandeur

as when, and plus when, he returned to the putrid gold standard

as was about 1925 Oh my England

that free speech without free radio speech is as zero

and but one point needed for Stalin

you need not, i.e. need not take over the means of production;

money to signify work done, inside a system

“I have not done unnecessary manual labour”

says the R. C. chaplain's field book

(prepared before confession)

squawky as larks over the death cells

militarism progressing westward

im Westen nichts neues

and the Constitution in jeopardy

and that state of things not very new either

“of sapphire, for this stone giveth sleep”

not words whereto to be faithful

nor deeds that they be resolute

only that bird-hearted equity make timber

and lay hold of the earth

and Rouse found they spoke of Elias

In telling the tales of Odysseus ΟỶ ΤΙΣ

ΟỶ ΤΙΣ

“I am noman, my name is noman”

but Wanjina is, shall we say, Ouan Jin

or the man with an education

and whose mouth was removed by his father

because he made too many things

whereby cluttered the bushman's baggage

vide the expedition of Frobenius' pupils about 1938

to Auss'ralia

Ouan Jin spoke and thereby created the named

thereby making a clutter

the bane of men moving

and so his mouth was removed

as you will find it removed in his pictures

in principio verbum

paraclete or the verbum perfectum: sinceritas

from the death cells in sight of Mt. Taishan @ Pisa

at Fujiyama at Gardone

when the cat walked the top bar of the railing

and the water was still on the West side

flowing toward the Villa Catullo

where with sound ever moving

in diminutive poluphloisboios

in the stillness outlasting all wars

“La Donna’ said Nicoletti

“la donna,

la donna!”

“Cosa deve continuare?”

“Se casco” said Bianca Capello

“non casco in ginnocchion”

and with one day's reading a man may have the key in his hands

Lute of Gassir. Hooo fasa

came a lion-coloured pup bringing fleas

and a bird with white markings, a stepper

under his les six potences

Absouldre, que tous nous vueil absoudre

lay there Barabbas and two thieves lay beside him

infantile synthesis in Barabbas

minus Hemingway, minus Antheil, ebullient

and by name Thos. Wilson

Mr K. said nothing foolish, the whole month nothing foolish:

100

“if we weren't dumb, we wouldn't be here”

and the Lane gang.

Butterflies, mint and Lesbia's sparrows,

the voiceless with bumm drum and banners,

and the ideogram of the guard roosts

105

el triste pensier si volge

add Ussel. A Ventadour

va il consire, el tempo rivolge

and at Limoges the young salesman

bowed with such french politeness “No that is impossible”

110

I have forgotten which city

But the caverns are less enchanting to the unskilled explorer

than the Urochs as shown on the postals,

we will see those old roads again, question,

possibly

115

but nothing appears much less likely,

Mme Pujol,

and there was a smell of mint under the tent flaps

especially after the rain

and a white ox on the road toward Pisa

120

as if facing the tower,

dark sheep in the drill field and on wet days were clouds

in the mountain as if under the guard roosts.

A lizard upheld me

the wild birds wd not eat the white bread

125

from Mt Taishan to the sunset

From Carrara stone to the tower

and this day the air was made open

for Kuanon of all delights

Linus, Cletus, Clement

130

whose prayers,

the great scarab is bowed at the altar

the green light gleams in his shell

plowed in the secret field and unwound the silk worms early

in tensile

135

in the light of light is the virtù

“sunt lumina” said Erigena Scotus

as of Shun on Mt Taishan

and in the hall of the forebears

as from the beginning of wonders

140

the paraclete that was present in Yao, the precision

in Shun the compassionate

in Yu the guider of waters

4 giants at the 4 corners

three young men at the door

145

and they digged a ditch round about me

lest the damp gnaw through my bones

to redeem Zion with justice

sd/ Isaiah. Not out on interest said David rex

the prime s.o.b.

150

Light tensile immaculata

the sun's cord unspotted

“sunt lumina” said the Oirishman to King Carolus,

“OMNIA,

all things that are are lights”

155

and they dug him up out of sepulture

soi distantly looking for Manichaens.

Les Albigeois, a problem of history,

and the fleet at Salamis made with money lent by the state to the shipwrights

Tempus tacendi, tempus loquendi.

160

Never inside the country to raise the standard of living

but always abroad to increase the profits of usurers,

dixit Lenin,

and gun sales to more gun sales

they do not clutter the market for gunnery

165

there is no saturation

Pisa, in the 23rd year of the effort in sight of the tower

and Till was hung yesterday

for murder and rape with trimmings plus Cholkis

plus mythology, thought he was Zeus ram or another one

170

Hey Snag wots in the bibl'?

wot are the books ov the bible?

Name 'em, don't bullshit ME.

ΟỶ ΤΙΣ

a man on whom the sun has gone down

175

the ewe, he said had such a pretty look in her eyes;

and the nymph of the Hagoromo came to me,

as a corona of angels

one day were clouds banked on Taishan

or in glory of sunset

180

and tovarish blessed without aim

wept in the rainditch at evening

Sunt lumina

that the drama is wholly subjective

stone knowing the form which the carver imparts it

185

the stone knows the form

sia Cythera, sia Ixotta, sia in Santa Maria dei Miracoli

where Pietro Romana has fashioned the bases

ΟỶ ΤΙΣ

a man on whom the sun has gone down

190

nor shall diamond die in the avalanche

be torn from its setting

first must destroy himself ere others destroy him.

4 times was the city rebuilded, Hooo Fasa

Gassir, Hooo Fasa dell' Italia tradita

195

now in the mind indestructible, Gassir, Hoooo Fasa,

With the four giants at the four corners

and four gates mid-wall Hooo Fasa

and a terrace the colour of stars

pale as the dawn cloud, la luna

200

thin as Demeter's hair

Hooo Fasa, and in a dance the renewal

with two larks in contrappunto

at sunset

ch'intenerisce

205

a sinistra la Torre

seen thru a pair of breeches.

Che sublia es laissa cader

between NEKUIA where are Alcmene and Tyro

and the Charybdis of action

210

to the solitude of Mt. Taishan

femina, femina, that wd/ not be dragged into paradise by the hair,

under the gray cliff in periplum

the sun dragging her stars

a man on whom the sun has gone down

215

and the wind came as hamadryas under the sun-beat

Vai soli

are never alone

amid the slaves learning slavery

and the dull driven back toward the jungle

220

are never alone 'ΗΛΙΟΝ ΠΕΡΙ 'ΗΛΙΟΝ

as the light sucks up vapor

and the tides follow Lucina

that had been a hard man in some ways

a day as a thousand years

225

as the leopard sat by his water dish

hast killed the urochs and the bison sd/ Bunting

doing six months after the war was over

as pacifist tempted with chicken but declined to approve

of war “Redimiculum Metellorum”

230

privately printed

to the shame of various critics

nevertheless the state can lend money

and the fleet that went out to Salamis

was built by state loan to the builders

235

hence the attack on classical studies

and in this war were Joe Gould, Bunting and cummings

as against thickness and fatness

black that die in captivity

night green of his pupil, as grape flesh and sea wave

240

undying luminous and translucent

Est consummatum, Ite;

surrounded by herds and by cohorts looked on Mt Taishan

but in Tangier I saw from dead straw ignition

From a snake bite

245

fire came to the straw

from the fakir blowing

foul straw and an arm-long snake

that bit the tongue of the fakir making small holes

and from the blood of the holes

250

came fire when he stuffed the straw into his mouth

dirty straw that he took from the roadway

first smoke and then the dull flame

that wd/ have been in the time of Rais Uli

when I rode out to Elson's

255

near the villa of Perdicaris

or four years before that

elemental he thought the souls of the children, if any,

but had rented a shelter for travelers

by foot from Siria, some of them

260

nor is it for nothing that the chrysalids mate in the air

color di luce

green splendour and as the sun thru pale fingers

Lordly men are to earth o'ergiven

these the companions:

265

Fordie that wrote of giants

and William who dreamed of nobility

and Jim the comedian singing:

“Blarrney castle me darlin'

you're nothing now but a StOWne”

270

and Plarr talking of mathematics

or Jepson lover of jade

Maurie who wrote historical novels

and Newbolt who looked twice bathed

are to earth o'ergiven.

275

And this day the sun was clouded

—“You sit stiller” said Kokka

“if whenever you move something jangles.”

and the old Marchesa remembered a reception in Petersburg

and Kokka thought there might be some society (good) left in

280

Spain, wd. he care to frequent it, my god no!

opinion in 1924

Sirdar, Bouiller and Les Lilas,

or Dieudonné London, or Voisin's,

Uncle George stood like a statesman 'ΡΕΙ ΠΑΝΤA

285

fills up every hollow

the cake shops in the Nevsky, and Schöners

not to mention der Greif at Bolsano la patronne getting older

Mouquin's or Robert's 40 years after

and La Marquise de Pierre had never before met an American

290

“and all their generation”

no it is not in that chorus

Huddy going out and taller than anyone present

où sont les heurs of that year

Mr James shielding himself with Mrs Hawkesby

295

as it were a bowl shielding itself with a walking stick

as he maneuvered his way toward the door

Said Mr Adams, of the education,

Teach? at Harvard?

Teach? It cannot be done.

300

and this I had from the monument

Haec sunt fastae

Under Taishan quatorze Juillet

with the hill ablaze north of Taishan

and Amber Rives is dead, the end of that chapter

305

see Time for June 25th,

Mr Graham himself unmistakeably,

on a horse, an ear and the beard's point showing

and the Farben works still intact

to the tune of Lilibullero

310

and they have bitched the Adelphi

niggers scaling the obstacle fence

in the middle distance

and Mr Edwards superb green and brown

in ward No 4 a jacent benignity,

315

of the Baluba mask: “doan you tell no one

I made you that table”

methenamine eases the urine

and the greatest is charity

to be found among those who have not observed

320

regulations

not of course that we advocate—

and yet petty larceny

in a regime based on grand larceny

might rank as conformity nient' altro

325

with justice shall be redeemed

who putteth not out his money on interest

“in meteyard in weight or in measure”

XIX Leviticus or

First Thessalonians 4, 11

330

300 years culture at the mercy of a tack hammer

thrown thru the roof

Cloud over mountain, mountain over the cloud

I surrender neither the empire nor the temples plural

nor the constitution nor yet the city of Dioce

335

each one in his god's name

as by Terracina rose from the sea Zephyr behind her

and from her manner of walking

as had Anchises

till the shrine be again white with marble

340

till the stone eyes look again seaward

The wind is part of the process

The rain is part of the process

and the Pleiades set in her mirror

Kuanon, this stone bringeth sleep;

345

offered the wine bowl

grass nowhere out of place

χθόνια γέα, Μήτηρ,

by the herbs menthe thyme and basilicum,

from whom and to whom,

350

will never be more than now than at present

being given a new green katydid of a Sunday

emerald, paler than emerald,

minus its right propeller

this tent is to me and ΤΙΘΩΝΩΙ

355

eater of grape pulp

in coitu inluminatio

Manet painted the bar at La Cigale or at Les Folies in that year

she did her hair in small ringlets, à la 1880 it might have been,

red, and the dress she wore Drecol or Lanvin

360

a great goddess, Aeneas knew her forthwith

by paint immortal as no other age is immortal

la France dixneuviéme

Degas Manet Guys unforgettable

a great brute sweating paint said Vanderpyl 40 years later

365

of Vlaminck

for this stone giveth sleep

staria sena più scosse

and eucalyptus that is for memory

under the olives, by cypress, mare Tirreno,

370

Past Malmaison in field by the river the tables

Sirdar, Armenonville

Or at Ventadour the keys of the chateau;

rain, Ussel,

To the left of la bella Torre the tower of Ugolino

375

in the tower to the left of the tower

chewed his son's head

and the only people who did anything of any interest were H., M. and

Frobenius der Geheimrat

der im Baluba das Gewitter gemacht hat

380

and Monsieur Jean wrote a play now and then or the Possum

pouvrette et ancienne oncques lettre ne lus

I don't know how humanity stands it

with a painted paradise at the end of it

without a painted paradise at the end of it

385

the dwarf morning-glory twines round the glass blade

magna NUX animae with Barabbas and 2 thieves beside me,

the wards like a slave ship,

Mr Edwards, Hudson, Henry comes miseriae

Comites Kernes, Green and Tom Wilson

390

God's messenger Whiteside

and the guards op/ of the . . .

was lower than that of the prisoners

“all the g.d. m.f. generals c.s. all of 'em fascists”

“fer a bag o' Dukes”

395

“the things I saye an' dooo”

ac ego in harum

so lay men in Circe's swine-sty;

ivi in harum ego ac vidi cadaveres animae

“c'mon small fry” sd/ the little coon to the gib glack;

400

of the slaver as seen between decks

and all the presidents

Washington Adams Monroe Polk Tyler

plus Carrol (of Carrolton) Crawford

Robbing the public for private individual's gain ΘΕΛΓΕΙΝ

405

every bank of discount is downright iniquity

robbing the public for private individual's gain

nec benecomata Kirkê, mah! κακὰ φάργακ’ ἔδωκεν

neither with lions nor leopards attended

but poison, veleno

410

in all the veins of the commonweal

if on high, will flow downward all thru them

if on the forge at Predappio? sd/ old Upward:

“not the priest but the victim”

his seal Sitalkas, sd/ the old combattant: “victim,

415

withstood them by Thames and by Niger with Pistol by Niger

with a printing press by the Thomas bank”

until I end my song

and shot himself;

for praise of intaglios

420

Matteo and Pisanello out of Babylon

they are left us

for roll or plain impact

or cut square in the jade block

nox animae magna from the tent under Taishan

425

amid what was termed the a.h. of the army

the guards holding opinion. As it were to dream

morticians' daughters raddled by amorous

To study with the white wings of time passing

is not that our delight

430

to have friends come from far countries

is that not pleasure

nor to care that we are untrumpeted?

filial, fraternal affection is the root of humaness

the root of the process

435

nor are elaborate speeches and slick alacrity.

employ men in proper season

not when they are at harvest

E al Triedro, Cunizza

e l'altra: Io son' la Luna.”

440

dry friable earth going from dust to more dust

grass worn from its root hold

is it blacker? was it blacker? Νύξ animae?

is there a blacker or was it merely San Juan with a belly ache

writing ad posteros

445

in short shall we look for a deeper or is this the bottom?

Ugolino, the tower there on the tree line

Berlin dysentery phosphorus

La vielle de Candide

(Hullo Corporal Casey) double X or burocracy?

450

Le Paradis n'est pas artificiel

but spezzato apparently

it exists only in fragments unexpected excellent sausage,

the smell of mint, for example,

Ladro the night cat;

455

at Nemi waited on the slope above the lake sunken in the pocket of hills

awaiting decision from the old lunch cabin built out over the shingle,

Zarathustra, now desuete

to Jupiter and to Hermes where now is the castellaro

no vestige save in the air

460

in stone is no imprint and the grey walls of no ear

under the olives

saeculorum Athenae

γλαύξ, γλαυκῶις,

olivi

465

that which gleams and then does not gleam

as the leaf turns in the air

Boreas Apeliota libeccio

“C'è il babao,” said the young mother

and the bathers like small birds under hawk's eye

470

shrank back under the cliff's edge at il Pozzetto

al Tigullio

“wd.” said the guard “take everyone of them g.d.m.f. generals

c.s. all of 'em fascists”

Oedipus, nepotes Remi magnanimi

475

so Mr Bullington lay on his back like an ape

singing: O sweet and lovely

o Lady be good”

in harum ac ego ivi

Criminals have no intellectual interests?

480

and for three months did not know the taste of his food

in Chi heard Shun's music

the sharp song with sun under its radiance

λιγύ’

one tanka entitled the shadow

485

babao, or the hawk's wing

of no fortune and with a name to come

is downright iniquity said J. Adams

at 35 instead of 21.65

doubtless conditioned by what his father heard in Byzantium

490

doubtless conditioned by the spawn of the gt. Meyer Anselm

That old H. had heard from the ass eared militarist in Byzantium:

“Why stop?” “To begin again when we are stronger.”

and young H/ the tip from the augean stables in Paris

with Sieff in attendance, or not

495

as the case may have been,

thus conditioning.

Meyer Anselm, a rrromance, yes yes certainly

but more fool you if you fall for it two centuries later

. . .

500

from their seats the blond bastards, and cast 'em.

the yidd is a stimulant, and the goyim are cattle

in gt/ proportion and go to saleable slaughter

with the maximum of docility. but if

a place be versalzen,,,?

505

With justice,

by the law, from the law or it is not in the contract

Yu has nothing pinned on Jehoveh

sent and named Shun who to the

autumnal heavens sha-o

510

with the sun under its melody

to the compassionate heavens

and there is also the XIXth Leviticus.

“Thou shalt purchase the field with money.”

signed Jeremiah

515

from the tower of Hananel unto Goah

unto the horse gate $8.50 in Anatoth

which is in Benjamin, $8.67

For the purity of the air on Chocorua

in a land of maple

520

From the law, by the law, so build yr/ temple

with justice in meteyard and measure

a black delicate hand

a white's hand like a ham

pass by, seen under the tent-flap

525

on sick call : comman'

comman', sick call comman'

and the two largest rackets are the alternation

of the value of money

(of the unit of money METATHEMENON TE TON KRUMENON

530

and usury @ 60 or lending

that which is made out of nothing

and the state can lend money as was done

by Athens for the building of the Salamis fleet

and if the packet gets lost in transit

535

ask Churchill's backers

where it has got to the state need not borrow

nor do the veterans need state guarantees

for private usurious lending

in fact that is the cat in the woodshed

540

the state need not borrow

as was shown by the mayor of Wörgl

who had a milk route

and whose wife sold shirts and short breeches

and on whose book-shelf was the Life of Henry Ford

545

and also a copy of the Divina Commedia

and of the Gedichte of Heine

a nice little town in the Tyrol in a wide flat-lying valley

near Innsbruck and when a note of the

small town of Wörgl went over

550

a counter in Innsbruck

and the banker saw it go over

all the slobs in Europe were terrified

“no one” said the Frau Burgomeister

“in this village who cd/ write a newspaper article.

555

Knew it was money but pretended it was not

in order to be on the safe side of the law.”

But in Russia they bungled and did not apparently

grasp the idea of work-certificate

and started the N.E.P. with disaster

560

and the immolation of men to machinery

and the canal work and gt/ mortality

(which is as may be)

and went in for dumping in order to trouble the waters

in the usurers' hell-a-dice

565

all of which leads to the death-cells

each in the name of its god

or longevity because as says Aristotle

philosophy is not for young men

their Katholou can not be sufficiently derived from

570

their hekasta

their generalities cannot be born from a sufficient phalanx

of particulars

lord of his work and master of utterance

who turneth his word in its season and shapes it

575

Yaou chose Shun to longevity

who seized the extremities and the opposites

holding true course between them

shielding men from their errors

cleaving to the good they had found

580

holding empire as if not in a mortar with it

nor dazzled thereby

wd/ have put the old man, son père on his shoulders

and gone off to some barren seacoast

Says the Japanese sentry : Paaak yu djeep over there,

585

some of the best soldiers we have says the captain

Dai Nippon Banzai from the Philippines

remembering Kagekiyo : “how stiff the shaft of your neck is.”

and they went off each his own way

“a better fencer than I was,” said Kumasaka, a shade,

590

“I believe in the resurrection of Italy quia impossibile est

4 times to the song of Gassir

now in the mind indestructible

. . . .

KOPH, ἈΙ’ΛΑΟΣ ἈΛΑΟ

595

Glass-eye Wymmes treading water

and addressing the carpenter from the seawaves

because of an unpinned section of taff-rail

we are not so ignorant as you think in the navy

Gesell entered the Lindhauer government

600

which lasted rather less than 5 days

but was acquitted as an innocent stranger

Oh yes, the money is there,

il danaro c'è, said Pellegrini

(very peculiar under the circs)

605

musketeers rather more than 20 years later

an old man (or oldish) still active

serving small stones from a lath racquet

Περσεϕόνεια under Taishan

in sight of the tower che pende

610

on such a litter rode Pontius

under such canvass

in the a.h. of the army

in sight of two red cans labeled “FIRE”

Said Von Tirpitz to his daughter : beware of their charm

615

ΣΕΙΡΗΝΕΣ this cross turns with the sun

and the goyim are undoubtedly in great numbers cattle

whereas a jew will receive information

he will gather up information

faute de...something more solid

620

but not in all cases

ΣΕΙΡΗΝΕΣ had appreciated his conversation

XΑΡΙΤΕΣ possibly in the soft air

with the mast held by the left hand

in this air as of Kuanon

625

enigma forgetting the times and seasons

but this air brought her ashore a la marina

with the great shell borne on the seawaves

nautilis biancastra

By no means an orderly Dantescan rising

630

but as the winds veer

tira libeccio

now Genji at Suma , tira libeccio

as the winds veer and the raft is driven

and the voices , Tiro, Alcmene

635

with you is Europa nec casts Pasiphaë

Eurus, Apeliota as the winds veer in periplum

Io son la luna” . Cunizza

as the winds veer in periplum

and from under the Rupe Tarpeia

640

drunk with wine of the Castelli

“in the name of its god” “Spiritus veni”

adveni / not to a schema

“is not for the young” said Arry, stagirite

but as grass under Zephyrus

645

as the green blade under Apeliota

Time is not, Time is the evil, beloved

Beloved the hours βροδοδάκτυλος

as against the half-light of the window

with the sea beyond making horizon

650

le contre-jour the line of the cameo

profile “to carve Achaia”

a dream passing over the face in the half-light

Venere, Cytherea “aut Rhodon”

vento ligure, veni

655

“beauty is difficult” sd/ Mr Beardsley

and sd/ Mr Kettlewell looking up from a

pseudo-Beardsley of his freshman composition

and speaking to W. Lawrence:

Pity you didn't finish the job

660

while you were at it”

W.L. having run into the future non-sovereign Edvardus

on a bicycle equally freshman

a.d. 1910 or about that

beauty is difficult

665

in the days of the Berlin to Bagdad project

and of Tom L's photos of rock temples in Arabia Petra

but he wd/ not talk of

LL.G. and the frogbassador, he wanted to

talk modern art ( T.L. did)

670

but of second rate, not the first rate

beauty is difficult.

He said I protested too much he wanted to start a press

and print the greek classics....periplum

and the very very aged Snow created considerable

675

hilarity quoting the ϕαίνε-τ-τ-τ-τττ-αί μοι

in reply to l'aer tremere

beauty is difficult

But on the other hand the President of Magdalen

(rhyming dawdlin') said there were

680

too many words in “The Hound of Heaven”

a moddddun opohem he had read

and there was no doubt that the dons lived well

in the kawledg

it was if I remember rightly the burn and freeze that the fresh-

685

men

had failed to follow

or else a mere desire to titter etc.

and it is (in parenthesis) doubtless

easier to teach them to roar like gorillas

690

than to scan ϕαίνεταί μοι

inferior gorillas

of course, lacking the wind sack

and although Siki was quite observable

we have not yet calculated the sum gorilla + bayonet

695

and there was a good man named Burr

descendant of Aaron during the other war

who was amused by the British

but he didn't last long AND

Corporal Casey tells me that Stalin

700

le bonhomme Staline

has no sense of humour (dear Koba!)

and old Rhys, Ernest, was a lover of beauty

and when he was still engineer in a coal mine

a man passed him at high speed radiant in the mine gallery

705

his face shining with ecstasy

“A'hv joost........Tommy Luff.”

and as Luff was twice the fellow's size, Rhys was puzzled

The Muses are daughters of memory

Clio, Terpsichore

710

and Granville was a lover of beauty

and the three ladies all waited

“and with a name to come”

εσσομένοισι

aram vult nemus

715

Came Madame Lucrezia

and on the back of the door in Cesena

are, or were, still the initials

joli quart d'heure, (nella Malatestiana)

Torquato where art thou?

720

to the click of hooves on the cobbles by Tevere

and “my fondest knight lie dead”.. or la Stuarda

“ghosts move about me.” “patched with histories

but as Mead said: if they were,

what have they done in the interval,

725

eh, to arrive by metempsychosis at....?

and there are also the conjectures of the Fortean Society

Beauty is difficult....the plain ground

precedes the colours

and this grass or whatever here under the tentflaps

730

is, indubitably, bambooiform

representative brush strokes wd/ be similar

....cheek bone, by verbal manifestation,

her eyes as in “La Nascita”

whereas the child's face

735

is at Capoquadri in the fresco square over the doorway

centre background

the form beached under Helios

funge la purezza,

and that certain images be formed in the mind

740

to remain there

formato locho

Arachne mi porta fortuna

to remain there, resurgent ΕΙΚΟΝΕΣ

and still in Trastevere

745

for the deification of emperors

and the medallions

to forge Achaia

and as for playing checquers with black Jim

on a barrel top where now is the Ritz-Carlton

750

and the voice of Monsieur Fouquet or the Napoleon 3rd

barbiche of Mr Quackenbos, or Quackenbush

as I supposed it,

and Mrs Chittenden's lofty air

and the remains of the old South

755

tidewashed to Manhattan and brown-stone

or (later) the outer front stair

leading to Mouquin's

or old Train (Francis) on the pavement in his plain wooden

chair

760

or a fellow throwing a knife in the market

past baskets and bushels of peaches

at $1. the bushel

and the cool of the 42nd St. tunnel (periplum)

white-wash and horse cars, the Lexington Avenue cable

765

refinement, pride of tradition, alabaster

Towers of Pisa

(alabaster, not ivory)

coloured photographs of Europa

carved wood from Venice venetian glass and the samovar

770

and the fire bucket, 1806 Barre Mass'chusetts

and the Charter Oak in Connecticut

or to begin with Cologne Cathedral

the Torwaldsen lion and Paolo Uccello

and thence to Al Hambra, the lion court and el

775

mirador de la reina Lindaraja

orient reaching to Tangier, the cliffs the villa of Perdicaris

Rais Uli, periplum

Mr Joyce also preoccupied with Gibraltar

and the Pillars of Hercules

780

not with my patio and the wistaria and the tennis courts

or the bugs in Mrs Jevons' hotel

or the quality of the beer served to sailors

veder Nap'oiiiii or Pavia the romanesque

being preferable

785

and by analogy the form of San Zeno the

columns signed by their maker

the frescoes in S. Pietro and the madonna in Ortolo

e “fa di clarità l'aer tremare”

as in the manuscript of the Capitolare

790

Trattoria degli Apostoli (dodici)

“Ecco il tè” said the head waiter

in 1912 explaining its mysteries to the piccolo

with a teapot from another hotel

but coffee came to Assisi much later

795

that is, so one cd/ drink it

when it was lost in Orleans and France semi-ruin'd

thus the coffee-house facts of Vienna

whereas Mr Carver merits mention for the

cultivation of peanuts,

800

arachidi, and the soja has yet to save Europe

and the wops do not use maple syrup

the useful operations of commerce

stone after stone of beauty cast down

and authenticities disputed by parasites

805

(made in Ragusa) and : what art do you handle?

“The best” And the moderns? “Oh, nothing modern

we couldn't sell anything modern.”

But Herr Bacher's father made madonnas still in the tradition

carved wood as you might have found in any cathedral

810

and another Bacher still cut intaglios

such as Salustio's in the time of Ixotta,

where the masks come from, in the Tirol,

in the winter season

searching every house to drive out the demons.

815

Serenely in the crystal jet

as the bright ball that the fountain tosses

(Verlaine) as diamond clearness

How soft the wind under Taishan

where the sea is remembered

820

out of hell, the pit

out of the dust and glare evil

Zephyrus / Apeliota

This liquid is certainly a

property of the mind

825

nec accidens est but an element

in the mind's make-up

est agens and functions dust to a fountain pan otherwise

Hast 'ou seen the rose in the steel dust

(or swansdown ever?)

830

so light is the urging, so ordered the dark petals of iron

we who have passed over Lethe.

—
Ezra Pound

The Pisan Cantos, 1948