Canto LXXXIII

ὕδωρ

HUDOR et Pax

Gemisto stemmed all from Neptune

hence the Rimini bas reliefs

5

Sd Mr Yeats (W. B.) “Nothing affects these people

Except our conversation’

lux enim

ignis est accidens and,

wrote the prete in his edition of Scotus:

10

Hilaritas the virtue hilaritas

the queen stitched King Carolus’ shirts or whatever

while Erigena put greek tags in his excellent verses

in fact an excellent poet, Paris

toujours Pari'

15

(Charles le Chauve)

and you might find a bit of enamel

a bit of true blue enamel

on a metal pyx or whatever

omnia, quae sunt, lumina sunt, or whatever

20

so they dug up his bones in the time of De Montfort

(Simone)

Le Paradis n'est pas artificiel

and Uncle William dawdling around Notre Dame

in search of whatever

25

paused to admire the symbol

with Notre Dame standing inside it

Whereas in St Etienne

or why not Dei Miracoli:

mermaids, that carving,

30

in the drenched tent there is quiet

sered eyes are at rest

the rain beat as with colour of feldspar

blue as the flying fish off Zoagli

pax, ὕδωρ ῞ΥΔΩΡ

35

the sage

delighteth in water

the humane man has amity with the hills

as the grass grows by the weirs

thought Uncle William consiros

40

as the grass on the roof of St What's his name

near “Cane e Gatto’

soll deine Liebe sein

it would be about a-level the windows

the grass would, or I dare say above that

45

when they bless the wax for the Palio

Olim de Malatestis

with Maria's face there in the fresco

painted two centuries sooner,

at least that

50

before she wore it

As Montino's

in that family group of about 1820

not wholly Hardy's material

or πάντα ‘ρει

55

as he was standing belo

“When every hollow is full

it moves forward’

to the phantom mountain above the cloud

But in the caged panther's eyes:

60

“Nothing. Nothing that you can do...’

green pool, under green of the jungle,

caged: “Nothing, nothing that you can do.’

Δρυάς, your eyes are like clouds

Nor can who has passed a month in the death cells

65

believe in capital punishment

No man who has passed a month in the death cells

believes in cages for beasts

Δρυάς, your eyes are like the clouds over Taishan

When some of the rain has fallen

70

and half remains yet to fall

The roots, go down to the river's edge

and the hidden city moves upward

white ivory under the bark

With clouds over Taishan-Chocorura

75

when the blackberry ripens

and now the new moon faces Taishan

one must count by the dawn star

Dryad, thy peace is like water

There is September sun on the pools

80

Plura diafana

Heliads lift the mist from the young willows

there is no base seen under Taishan

but the brightness of 'udor ὕδωρ

the poplar tips float in brightness

85

only the stockade posts stand

And now the ants seem to stagger

as the dawn sun has trapped their shadows,

this breath wholly covers the mountains

it shines and divides

90

it nourishes by its rectitude

does no injury

overstanding the earth it fills the nine fields

to heaven

Boon companion to equity

95

it joins with the process

lacking it, there is inanition

When the equities are gathered together

as birds alighting

it springeth up vital

100

If deeds be not ensheaved and garnered in the heart

there is inanition

(have I perchance a debt to a man named Clower)

that he eat of the barley corn

and move with the seed's breath

105

the sun as a golden eye

between dark cloud and the mountain

“Non combaattere” said Giovanna

meaning, as before stated, don't work so hard

don't

110

as it stands in the Kung-Sun Chow.

San Gregorio, San Trovaso

Old Ziovan raced at seventy after his glories

and came in long last

and the family eyes stayed the same Adriatic

115

for three generations (San Vio)

and was, I suppose, last month the Redentore as usual

Will I ever see the Giudecca again?

or the lights against it, Ca’ Foscari, Ca’ Giustinian

or the Ca', as they say, of Desdemona

120

or the two towers where are the cypress no more

or the boats moored off le Zattere

or the north quai of the Sensaria DAKRUŌN ΔAKPYΩN

and Brother Wasp is building a very neat house

of four rooms, one shaped like a squat indian bottle

125

La vespa, la vespa, mud, swallow system

so that dreaming of Bracelonde and of Perugia

and the great fountain in the Piazza

or of old Bulagaio's cat that with a well timed leap

could turn the lever-shaped door handle

130

It comes over me that Mr. Walls must be a ten-strike

with the signorinas

and in the warmth after chill sunrise

an infant, green as new grass,

has stuck its head or tip

135

out of Madame La Vespa's bottle

mint springs up again

in spite of Jones’ rodents

as had the clover by the gorilla cage

with a four-leaf

140

When the mind swings by a grass-blade

an ant's forefoot shall save you

the clover leaf smells and tastes as its flower

The infant has descended,

from mud on the tent roof to Tellus,

145

like to like colour he goes amid grass-blades

greeting them that dwell under XTHONOS XΘONOΣ

OI XΘONIOI; to carry our news

εἰς χθονιους to them that dwell under the earth,

begotten of air, that shall sing in the bower

150

of Kore, Περσεϕόνεια

and have speech with Tiresias, Thebae

Cristo Re, Dio Sole

in about ½ a day she has made her adobe

(la vespa) the tiny mud-flask

155

and that day I wrote no further

There is fatigue deep as the grave.

The Kakemono grows in flat land out of mist

sun rises lop-sided over the mountain

so that I recalled the noise in the chimney

160

as it were the wind in the chimney

but was in reality Uncle William

downstairs composing

that had made a great Peeeeacock

in the proide ov his oiye

165

had made a great peeeeeeecock in the...

made a great peacock

in the proide of his oyyee

proide ov his oy-ee

as indeed he had, and perdurable

170

a great peacock aere perennius

or as in the advice to the young man to

breed and get married (or not)

as you choose to regard it

at Stone Cottage in Sussex by the waste moor

175

(or whatever) and the holly bush

who would not eat ham for dinner

because peasants eat ham for dinner

despite the excellent quality

and the pleasure of having it hot

180

well those days are gone forever

and the traveling rug with the coon-skin tabs

and his hearing nearly all Wordsworth

for the sake of his conscience but

preferring Ennemosor on Witches

185

did we ever get to the end of Doughty:

The Dawn in Britain?

perhaps not

Summons withdrawn, sir.)

(bein’ aliens in prohibited area)

190

clouds lift their small mountains

before the elder hills

A fat moon rises lop-sided over the mountain

The eyes, this time my world,

But pass and look from mine

195

between my lids

sea, sky, and pool

alternate

pool, sky, sea,

morning moon against sunrise

200

like a bit of the best antient greek coinage

und

Mir sagen

Die Damen

Du bist Greis,

205

Anacreon

And that a Madonna novecento

cd/ be as a Madonna quattrocento

This I learned in the Tirol

and as perfect

210

where they paint the houses outside with figures

and the deep inner courts run back triple

“Das heis’ Walterplatz’

heard in Bozen (Bolzano)

and in my mother's time it was respectable,

215

it was social, apparently,

to sit in the Senate gallery

or even in that of the House

to hear the fire-works of the senators

(and possibly representatives)

220

as was still done in Westminster in my time

and a very poor show from the once I saw it)

but if Senator Edwards cd/ speak

and have his tropes stay in the memory 40 years, 60 years?

in short / the descent

225

has not been of advantage either

to the Senate or to “society’

or to the people

The States have passed thru a

dam'd supercilious era

230

Down, Derry-down /

Oh let an old man rest.

—
Ezra Pound

The Pisan Cantos, 1948