Canto LXXVI

AND the sun high over horizon hidden in cloud bank

lit saffron the cloud ridge

dove sta memora

“Will” said the Signora Agresti, “break his political

but not economic system"

But on the high cliff Alcmene,

Dryas, Hamadryas ac Heliades

flowered branch and sleeve moving

Dirce et Ixotta e che fu chiamata Primavera

in the timeless air

that they suddenly stand in my room here

between me and the olive tree

or nel clivo ed al triedro?

and answered: the sun in his great periplum

leads in his fleet here

sotto le nostre scoglie

under our craggy cliffs

alevel their mast-tops

Sigismundo by the Aurelia to Genova

by la vecchia sotto S. Pantaleone

Cunizza qua al triedro,

e la scalza, and she who said: I still have the mould,

and the rain fell all the night long at Ussel

cette mauvaiseh venggg blew over Tolosa

and in Mt Segur there is wind space and rain space

no more an altar to Mithras

from il triedro to the Castellaro

the olives grey over grey holding walls

and their leaves turn under Scirocco

la scalza: Io son’ la luna

and they have broken my house

the huntress in broken plaster keeps watch no longer

tempora, tempora and as to mores

by Babylonian wall (memorat Cheever)

out of his bas relief, for that line

we recall him

and who's dead, and who isn't

and will the world ever take up its course again?

very confidentially I ask you: Will it?

with Dieudonné dead and buried

not even a wall, or Mouquin, or Voisin or the cake shops

in the Nevsky

The Greif, yes, I suppose, and Schöners and perhaps

the Taverna and Robert's

but La Rupe no longer la Rupe, finito

Pré Catalan, Armenonville, Bullier

extinct as Willy and there are I suppose

no reprints

Teofile's bricabrac Cocteau's bricabrac

seadrift snowin’ ‘em under

every man to his junk-shop

houses shd/have been built in the ‘80's

(or ‘60's) for a’ that

but Eileen's trick sunlight softens London's November

progress, b . . . . h yr/progress

la pigrizia to know the ground and the dew

but to keep ‘em three weeks Chung

we doubt it

and in government not to lie down on it

the word is made

perfect

better gift can no man make to a nation

than the sense of Kung fu Tseu

who was called Chung Ni

nor in historiography nor in making anthologies

(b. . . . h yr/progress)

each one in the name of his god

So that in the synagogue in Gibraltar

the sense of humour seemed to prevail

during the preliminary parts of the whatever

but they respected at least the scrolls of the law

from it, by it, redemption

@ $8.50, @ $8.67 buy the field with good money

no unrighteousness in meteyard or in measure (of prices)

and there is no need for the Xtns to pretend that

they wrote Leviticus

chapter XIX in particular

with justice Zion

not by cheating the eye-teeth out of Don Fulano

or of Caio e Tizio;

Why not rebuild it?

Criminals have no intellectual interests?

“Hey, Snag, wot are the books ov th’ bibl’ ”

“name ’em, etc.

“Latin? I studied latin.”

said the nigger murderer to his cage-mate

(cdn't be sure which of the two was speaking)

“c'mon, small fry,” sd/the smaller black lad

to the larger.

“Just playin' ” ante mortem no scortum

(that's progress, me yr’ ’ ’ se/call it progress/ )

in the timeless air over the sea-cliffs

“the pride of all our D.T.C. was pistol-packin’ Burnes’

But to set here the roads of France,

of Cahors, of Chalus,

the inn low by the river's edge,

the poplars; to set here the roads of France

Aubeterre, the quarried stone beyond Poitiers--

--as seen against Sergeant Beaucher's elegant profile--

100

and the tower on an almost triangular base

as seen from Santa Marta's in Tarascon

“in heaven have I to make?’

but all the vair and fair women

and there is also the more northern (not nordic)

105

tradition from Memling to Elskamp, extending

to the ship models in Danzig...

if they have not destroyed them

with Galla's rest, and...

is measured by the to whom it happens

110

and to what, and if to a work of art

then to all who have seen and who will not

Washington, Adams, Tyler, Polk

(with Crawford to bring in a few Colonial

families) the unruly

115

Tout dit que pas ne dure la fortune

In fact a small rain storm...

as it were a mouse, out of cloud's mountain

recalling the arrival of Joyce et fits

at the haunt of Catullus

120

with Jim's veneration of thunder and the

Gardasee in magnificence

But Miss Norton's memory for the conversation

(or “go on’) of idiots

was such as even the eminent Irish writer

125

has, if equalled at moments (? sintheticly)

certainly never surpassed

Tout dit que pas ne dure la fortune

and the Canal Grande has lasted at least until our time

even if Florian's has been refurbished

130

and shops in the Piazza kept up by

artificial respiration

and for La Figlia di Jorio they got out a

special edition

(entitled the Oedipus of the Lagunes)

135

of caricatures of D'Annunzio

l'ara sul rostro

20 years of the dream

and the clouds near to Pisa

are as good as any in Italy

140

said the young Mozart: if you will take a prise

or following Ponce (’Ponthe’)

to the fountain in Florida

de Leon alla fuente florida

or Anchises that laid hold of her flanks of air

145

drawing her to him

Cythera potens, Κύθηρα δεινά

no cloud, but the crystal body

the tangent formed in the hand's cup

as live wind in the beech grove

150

as strong air amid cypress

Κόρη, Δελιά δεινά /et libidinis expers

the sphere moving crystal, fluid,

none therein carrying rancour

Death, insanity/suicide degeneration

155

that is, just getting stupider as they get older

πολλά παθειν,

nothing matters but the quality

of the affection--

in the end--that has carved the trace in the mind

160

dove sta memoria

and if theft be the main principle in government

(every bank of discount J. Adams remarked)

there will be larceny on a minor pattern

a few camions, a stray packet of sugar

165

and the effect of the movies

the guard did not think that the Führer had started it

Sergeant XL thought that excess population

demanded slaughter at intervals

(as to the by whom...) Known as ‘The ripper.'

170

Lay in soft grass by the cliff's edge

with the sea 30 metres below this

and at hand's span, at cubit's reach moving,

the crystalline, as inverse of water,

clear over rock-bed

175

ac ferae familiares

the gemmed field a destra with fawn, with panther,

corn flower, thistle and sword-flower

to a half metre grass growth,

lay on the cliff's edge

180

...nor is this yet atasal

nor are here souls, nec personae

neither here in hypostasis, this land is of Dione

and under her planet

to Helia, the long meadow with poplars

185

to Κύπρις

the mountain and shut garden of pear trees in flower

here rested.

. . . .

“both eyes, (the loss of) and to find someone

190

who talked his own dialect. We

talked of every boy and girl in the valley

but when he came back from leave

he was sad because he had been able to feel

all the ribs of his cow....’

195

this wind out of Carrara

is soft as un terzo cielo

said the Prefetto

as the cat walked the porch rail at Gardone

the lake flowing away from that side

200

was still as is never in Sirmio

with Fujiyama above it: “La donna...’

said the Prefect, in the silence

and the spring of their squeak-doll is broken

and Bracken is out and the B.B.C. can lie

205

but at least a different bilge will come out of it

at least for a little, as is its nature

can continue, that is, to lie.

As a lone ant from a broken ant-hill

from the wreckage of Europe, ego scriptor.

210

The rain has fallen, the wind coming down

out of the mountain

Lucca, Forti dei Marmi, Berchthold after the other one...

parts reassembled.

...and within the crystal, went up swift as Thetis

215

in colour rose-blue before sunset

and carmine and amber,

spiriti questi? personae?

tangibility by no means atasal

but the crystal can be weighed in the hand

220

formal and passing within the sphere: Thetis,

Maya, ’Αϕροδίτη,

no overstroke

no dolphin faster in moving

nor the flying azure of the wing'd fish under Zoagli

225

when he comes out into the air, living arrow.

and the clouds over the Pisan meadows

are indubitably as fine as any to be seen

from the peninsula

οἰ βάρβαροι have not destroyed them

230

as they have Sigismundo's Temple

Divae Ixottae (and as to her effigy that was in Pisa?)

Ladder at swing jump as for a descent from the cross

O white-chested martin, God damn it,

as no one else will carry a message,

235

say to La Cara: amo.

Her bed-posts are of sapphire

for this stone giveth sleep.

and in spite of hoi barbaroi

pervenche and a sort of dwarf morning-glory

240

that knots in the grass, and a sort of buttercup

et sequelae

Le Paradis n'est pas artificiel

States of mind are inexplicable to us.

δακρύων δακρύων δακρύων

245

L. P. gli onesti

J'ai eu pitié des autres

probablement pas assez, and at moments that suited my own con-

venience

Le paradis n'est pas artificiel,

250

l'enfer non plus.

Came Eurus as comforter

and at sunset la pastorella dei suini

driving the pigs home, benecomata dea

under the two-winged cloud

255

as of less and more than a day

by the soap-smooth stone posts where San Vio

meets with il Canal Grande

between Salviati and the house that was of Don Carlos

shd/I chuck the lot into the tide-water?

260

le bozze “A Lume Spento’/

and by the column of Todero

shd/I shift to the other side

or wait 24 hours,

free then, therein the difference

265

in the great ghetto, left standing

with the new bridge of the Era where was the old eyesore

Vendramin, Contrarini, Fonda, Fondecho

and Tullio Romano carved the sirenes

as the old custode says: so that since

270

then no one has been able to carve them

for the jewel box, Santa Maria Dei Miracoli,

Dei Greci, San Giorgio, the place of skulls

in the Carpaccio

and in the font to the right as you enter

275

are all the gold domes of San Marco

Arachne, che mi porta fortuna, go spin on that tent rope

Unkle George in Brassitalo's abbazia

voi che passate per questa via:

Does D'Annunzio live here?

280

said the american lady, K. H.

“I do not know” said the aged Veneziana,

“this lamp is for the virgin.’

“Non combaattere” said Giovanna,

meaning: don't work so hard,

285

Arachne che mi porta fortuna;

Athene, who wrongs thee?

τίς ἀδικει

That butterfly has gone out thru my smoke hole

Unkle George observing Ct/Volpe's neck at the Lido

290

and deducing his energy. Unkle G. stood like a statue

“Rutherford Hayes on a monument’

as the princess approached him

“You from New England?” barked the 10th District,

and it came over me as he talked:

295

this is Dafne's Sandro--

How? after 30 years,

Trovaso, Gregorio, Vio

“Dawnt let ‘em git you” burred the bearded Dottore

when was the Scottch Kirrrk in Venice

300

to warn one against Babylonian intrigue

and there have been since then

very high episcopal vagaries

well, my window

looked out on the Squero where Ogni Santi

305

meets San Trovaso

things have ends and beginnings

and the gilded cassoni neither then nor up to the present

the hidden nest, Tami's dream, the great Ovid

bound in thick boards, the bas relief of Ixotta

310

and the care in contriving

Olim de Malatestis

the long hall over the arches at Fano

olim de Malatestis

“64 countries and down a boilin’ volcano’

315

says the sargent

ex rum-runner (the rum being vino rosso)

“runnin whisky” sez he; mountain oysters?

lisciate con lagrime

politis lachrymis ΔΑΚΡΥΩΝ

320

bricks thought into being ex nihil

suave in the cavity of the rock la concha

ΠΟΙΚΙΛΟΘΡΟΝ’, ’ΑΘΑΝΑΤΑ

that butterfly has gone out thru my smoke hole

’ΑΘΑΝΑΤΑ, saeva. Against buff the rose for the

325

background to Leonello, Petrus Pisani pinxit

that a cameo should remain

in Arezzo an altar fragment (Cortona, Angelico)

po'eri di'aoli

po'eri di'aoli sent to the slaughter

330

Knecht gegen Knecht

to the sound of the bumm drum, to eat remnants

for a usurer's holiday to change the

price of a currency

ΜΕΤΑΘΕΜΕΝΩΝ....

335

ΝΗΣΟΝ ‘ΑΜΥΜΟΝΑ

woe to them that conquer with armies

and whose only right is their power.

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—
Ezra Pound

The Pisan Cantos, 1948