Or the ending of "Near Périgord":
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ewildering spring, and by the AuvezèrePoppies and day's-eyes in the green émailRose over us; and we knew all that stream,And our two horses had traced out the valleys;Knew the low flooded lands squared out with poplars,In the young days when the deep sky befriended.And great wings beat above us in the twilight,And the great wheels in heavenBore us together ... surging ... and apart ...Believing we should meet with lips and hands ... There shut up in his castle, Tairiran's,She who had nor ears nor tongue save in her hands,Gone, ah, gone--untouched, unreachable!She who could never live save through one person,She who could never speak save to one person,And all the rest of her a shifting change,A broken bundle of mirrors...! Then turn at once to "To a Friend Writing on Cabaret Dancers." It is easy to say that the language of "Cathay" is due to theChinese. If one looks carefully at (1) Pound's other verse, (2)other people's translations from the Chinese (e.g., Giles's), itis evident that this is not the case. The language was ready forthe Chinese poetry. Compare, for instance, a passage from"Provincia Deserta": I have walkedinto PérigordI have seen the torch-flames, high-leaping,Painting the front of that church,--And, under the dark, whirling laughter,I have looked back over the streamand seen the high building,Seen the long minarets, the white shafts.I have gone in Ribeyrac,and in Sarlat.I have climbed rickety stairs, heard talk of Croy,Walked over En Bertran's old layout,Have seen Narbonne, and Cahors and Chalus,Have seen Excideuil, carefully fashioned. with a passage from "The River Song": He goes out to Hori, to look at the wing-flapping storks,He returns by way of Sei rock, to hear the new nightingales,For the gardens at Jo-run are full of new nightingales,Their sound is mixed in this flute,Their voice is in the twelve pipes here. It matters very little how much is due to Rihaku and how much toPound. Mr. Ford Madox Hueffer has observed: "If these areoriginal verses, then Mr. Pound is the greatest poet of thisday." He goes on to say: The poems in "Cathay" are things of a supreme beauty. Whatpoetry should be, that they are. And if a new breath ofimagery and handling can do anything for our poetry, thatnew breath these poems bring.... Poetry consists in so rendering concrete objects that theemotions produced by the objects shall arise in thereader.... Where have you better rendered, or more permanentlybeautiful a rendering of, the feelings of one of thoselonely watchers, in the outposts of progress, whether it beOvid in Hyrcania, a Roman sentinel upon the great wall ofthis country, or merely ourselves, in the lonely recesses ofour minds, than the "Lament of the Frontier Guard"?... Beauty is a very valuable thing; perhaps it is the mostvaluable thing in life; but the power to express emotion sothat it shall communicate itself intact and exactly isalmost more valuable. Of both these qualities Mr. Pound'sbook is very full. Therefore, I think we may say that thisis much the best work he has done, for, however closely hemay have followed his originals--and of that most of us haveno means of judging--there is certainly a good deal of Mr.Pound in this little volume. "Cathay" and "Lustra" were followed by the translations of Nohplays. The Noh are not so important as the Chinese poems(certainly not so important for English); the attitude is lessunusual to us; the work is not so solid, so firm. "Cathay" will,I believe, rank with the "Sea-Farer" in the future among Mr.Pound's original work; the Noh will rank among his translations.It is rather a dessert after "Cathay." There are, however,passages which, as Pound has handled them, are different bothfrom the Chinese and from anything existent in English. Thereis, for example, the fine speech of the old Kagekiyo, as hethinks of his youthful valour: He thought, how easy this killing. He rushed with hisspearshaft gripped under his arm. He cried out, "I amKagekiyo of the Heike." He rushed on to take them. Hepierced through the helmet vizards of Miyanoya. Miyanoyafled twice, and again; and Kagekiyo cried: "You shall notescape me!" He leaped and wrenched off his helmet. "Eya!"The vizard broke and remained in his hand, and Miyanoyastill fled afar, and afar, and he looked back crying interror, "How terrible, how heavy your arm!" And Kagekiyocalled at him, "How tough the shaft of your neck is!" Andthey both laughed out over the battle, and went off each hisown way. The "Times Literary Supplement" spoke of Mr. Pound's "mastery ofbeautiful diction" and his "cunningly rhythmically prose," inits review of the "Noh." Even since "Lustra," Mr. Pound has moved again. This move is tothe epic, of which three cantos appear in the American "Lustra"(they have already appeared in "Poetry"--Miss Monroe deservesgreat honour for her courage in printing an epic poem in thistwentieth century--but the version in "Lustra" is revised and isimproved by revision). We will leave it as a test: when anyonehas studied Mr. Pound's poems in _chronological_ order, and hasmastered "Lustra" and "Cathay," he is prepared for the Cantos--but not till then. If the reader then fails to like them, he hasprobably omitted some step in his progress, and had better goback and retrace the journey.
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