Canto LXXIX

MOON, cloud, tower, a patch of the battistero

all of a whiteness,

dirt pile as per the Del Cossa inset

think not that you wd/ gain if their least caress

were faded from my mind

I had not loved thee half so well

Loved I not womankind’

So Salzburg reopens

lit a flame in my thought that the years

Amari--li Am-----ar--i--li!

and her hair gone white from the loss of him

and she not yet thirty.

On her wedding day and then thus, for the next time,

at the Spielhaus,

...might have been two years later.

Or Astafieva inside the street doors of the Wigmore

and wd/ not have known her

undoubtedly wd/ have put in the cart)

present Mr G. Scott whistling Lili Marlene

with positively less musical talent

than that of any other man of colour

whom I have ever encountered

but with bonhomie and good humour

(to Goedel in memoriam)

Sleek head that saved me out of one chaos

and I hear that G. P. has salmoned thru all of it.

Où sont? and who will come to the surface?

And Pétain not to be murdered 14 to 13

after six hours’ discussion

Indubitably, indubitably re/ Scott

I like a certain number of shades in my landscape

as per / “doan’ tell no one I made you that table’

or Whiteside:

“ah certainly dew lak dawgs,

ah goin’ tuh wash you’

(no, not to the author, to the canine unwilling in question)

with 8 birds on a wire

or rather on 3 wires, Mr Allingham

The new Bechstein is electric

and the lark squawk has passed out of season

whereas the sight of a good nigger is cheering

the bad'uns wont look you straight

Guard's cap quattrocento passes a cavallo

on horseback thru landscape Cosimo Tura

or, as some think, Del Cossa;

up stream to delouse and down stream for the same purpose

seaward

different lice live in different waters

some minds take pleasure in counterpoint

pleasure in counterpoint

and the later Beethoven on the new Bechstein,

or in the Piazza S. Marco for example

finds a certain concordance of size

not in the concert hall;

can that be the papal major sweatin’ it out to the bumm drum?

what castrum romanum, what

“went into winter quarters’

is under us?

as the young horse whinnies against the tubas

in contending for certain values

(Janequin per esempio, and Orazio Vechii or Bronzino)

Greek rascality against Hagoromo

Kumasaka vs/ vulgarity

no sooner out of Troas

than the damn fools attacked Ismarus of the Cicones

4 birds on 3 wires, one bird on one

the imprint of the intaglio depends

in part on what is pressed under it

the mould must hold what is poured into it

discourse

what matters is

to get it across e poi basta

5 of ‘em now on 2;

on 3; 7 on 4

thus what's his name

and the change in writing the song books

5 on 3 aulentissima rosa fresca

so they have left the upper church at Assisi

but the Goncourt shed certain light on the

french revolution

“paak you djeep oveh there’

the bacon-rind banner alias the Washington arms

floats over against Ugolino

in San Stefano dei Cavalieri

God bless the Constitution

and save it

“the value thereof’

that is the crux of the matter

and god damn the perverters

and if Attlee attempts a Ramsey

“Leave the Duke, go for the gold’

“in less than a geological epoch’

and the Fleet that triumphed at Salamis

and Wilkes's fixed the price per loaf

ἦθος

Athene cd/ have done with more sex appeal

caesia ocula

“Pardon me, γλαύξ’

100

(’Leave it, I'm not a fool.’)

mah?

“The price is three altars, multa.’

“paak you djeep oveh there.’

2 on 2

105

what's the name of that bastard? D'Arezzo, Gui d'Arezzo

notation

3 on 3

chiacchierona the yellow bird

to rest 3 months in bottle

110

(auctor)

by the two breasts of Tellus

Bless my buttons, a staff car/

si come avesse l'inferno in gran dispitto

Capanaeus

115

with 6 on 3, swallow-tails

as from the breasts of Helen, a cup of white gold

2 cups for three altars. Tellus γέα feconda

“each one in the name of its god’

mint, thyme and basilicum,

120

the young horse whinnies against the sound of the bumm band;

to that ‘gadgett,’ and to the production and the slaughter

(on both sides) in memoriam

“Hell! don't they get a break for the whistle?

and if the court be not the centre of learning...

125

in short the snot of pejorocracy...

tinsel gilded

of fat fussy old woman

and fat snorty old stallions

“half dead at the top’

130

My dear William B. Y. your ½ was too moderate

“pragmatic pig” (if goyim) will serve for a thirds of it

to say nothing of the investment of funds in the Yu-en-mi

and similar ventures

small arms ‘n’ chemicals

135

whereas Mr Keith comes nearest to Donatello's

O Lynx, my love, my lovely lynx,

Keep watch over my wine pot,

Guard close my mountain still

Till the god come into this whiskey.

140

Manitou, god of lynxes, remember our corn.

Khardas, god of camels

what the deuce are you doing here?

I beg your pardon...

“Prepare to go on a journey.’

145

“I...’

“Prepare to go on a journey.’

or to count sheep in Phoenician,

How is it far if you think of it?

So they said to Lidya: no, your body-guard is not the

150

town executioner

the executioner is not here for the moment

the fellow who rides beside your coachman

is just a cossak who executes...

Which being the case, her holding dear H. J.

155

(Mr. James, Henry) literally by the button-hole...

in those so consecrated surroundings

(a garden in the Temple, no less)

and saying, for once, the right thing

namely: “Cher maître’

160

to his checqued waistcoat, the Princess Bariatinsky,

as the fish-tails said to Odysseus, ἐνὶ Τροίῃ,

The moon has a swollen cheek

and when the morning sun lit up the shelves and battalions

of the West, cloud over cloud

165

Old Ez folded his blankets

Neither Eos nor Hesperus has suffered wrong at my hands

O Lynx, wake Silenus and Casey

shake the castagnettes of the bassarids,

the mountain forest is full of light

170

the tree-comb red-gilded

Who sleeps in the field of lynxes

in the orchard of Maelids?

(with great blue marble eyes

“because he likes to,” the cossak)

175

Salazar, Scott, Dawley on sick call

Polk, Tyler, half the presidents and Calhoun

“Retaliate on the capitalists” sd/ Calhoun “of the North’

ah yes, when the ideas were clearer

debts to people in N. Y. city

180

and on the hill of the Maelids

in the close garden of Venus

asleep amid serried lynxes

set wreathes on Priapus ’′Ιακχος, Io! Κύθηρα, Io!

having root in the equities

185

Io!

and you can make 5000 dollars a year

all you have to do is to make one trip up country

then come back to Shanghai

and send in an annual report

190

as to the number of converts

Sweetland on sick call

'ελέησον Kyrie eleison

each under his fig tree

or with the smell of fig leaves burning

195

so shd/ be fire in winter

with fig wood, with cedar, and pine burrs

O Lynx keep watch on my fire.

So Astafieva had conserved the tradition

From Byzance and before then

200

Manitou remember this fire

O lynx, keep the phylloxera from my grape vines

’′Ιακχε, ’′Ιακχε, Χαιρε, AOI

“Eat of it not in the under world’

See that the sun or the moon bless thy eating

205

Κόρη, Κόρη, for the six seeds of an error

or that the stars bless thy eating

O Lynx, guard this orchard,

Keep from Demeter's furrow

This fruit has a fire within it,

210

Pomona, Pomona

No glass is clearer than are the globes of this flame

what sea is clearer than the pomegranate body

holding the flame?

Pomona, Pomona,

215

Lynx, keep watch on this orchard

That is named Melagrana

or the Pomegranate field

The sea is not clearer in azure

Nor the Heliads bringing light

220

Here are lynxes Here are lynxes,

Is there a sound in the forest

of pard or of bassarid

or crotale or of leaves moving?

Cythera, here are lynxes

225

Will the scrub-oak burst into flower?

There is a rose vine in this underbrush

Red? white? No, but a colour between them

When the pomegranate is open and the light falls

half thru it

230

Lynx, beware of these vine-thorns

O Lynx, γλαυκωπις coming up from the olive yards,

Kuthera, here are Lynxes and the clicking of crotales

There is a stir of dust from old leaves

Will you trade roses for acorns

235

Will lynxes eat thorn leaves?

What have you in that wine jar?

ἰχώρ, for lynxes?

Maelid and bassarid among lynxes;

how many? There are more under the oak trees,

240

We are here waiting the sun-rise

and the next sunrise

for three nights amid lynxes. For three nights

of the oak-wood

and the vines are thick in their branches

245

no vine lacking flower,

no lynx lacking a flower rope

no Maelid minus a wine jar

this forest is named Melagrana

O lynx, keep the edge on my cider

250

Keep it clear without cloud

We have lain here amid kalicanthus and sword-flower

The heliads are caught in wild rose vine

The smell of pine mingles with rose leaves

O lynx, be many

255

of spotted fur and sharp ears.

O lynx, have your eyes gone yellow,

with spotted fur and sharp ears?

Therein is the dance of the bassarids

Therein are centaurs

260

And now Priapus with Faunus

The Graces have brought ‘Αϕροδίτην

Her cell is drawn by ten leopards

O lynx, guard my vineyard

As the grape swells under vine leaf

265

’′Ηλιος is come to our mountain

there is a red glow in the carpet of pine spikes

O lynx, guard my vineyard

As the grape swells under vine leaf

This Goddess was born of sea-foam

270

She is lighter than air under Hesperus

δεινὰ εἱ, Κύθηρα

terrible in resistance

Κόρη καὶ Δήλια καὶ Μαια

trine as praeludio

275

Κύπρις ‘Αϕρόδιτη

a petal lighter than sea-foam

Κύθηρα

aram

nemus

280

vult

O puma, sacred to Hermes, Cimbica servant of Helios.

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—
Ezra Pound

The Pisan Cantos, 1948