Cabbages stacked up for selling outside the McDonald's on Gongti Bei Lu. November 7, 2009
Winter is Icumen in,
Lhude sing Goddamm.
Raineth drop and staineth slop,
And how the wind doth ramm!
Sing: Goddamm.
Skiddeth bus and sloppeth us,
An ague hath my ham.
Freezeth river, turneth liver,
Damm you; Sing: Goddamm.
— Ezra Pound, noted Sinologist
Comments 6
protesteth, such a post, such a period; nuanqi arrives, reign of cold ends — yet, before! not yet! such a temperature! interval of bliss! this prelude to the aria of deep winter boiler amokness, desiccating lungs, turning nostrils to leather, forcing open windows… savor the transition.
Posted 08 Nov 2009 at 6:57 am ¶Pound – traitor, fascist, and mad as a march-hare to boot. Don’t know why he felt he had to burn the first poem in the English language like this, but that’s just another one of those unanswerable ‘whys’ about the man.
Posted 13 Nov 2009 at 8:59 pm ¶@FOARP: I quote Bill Knott:
And ‘Sumer is icumen in’ was more of a round than a poem, no?
Posted 13 Nov 2009 at 9:07 pm ¶Thanks for the laugh with that Bill Knot ditty. Priceless.
Posted 02 Dec 2009 at 7:43 am ¶As for Pound being a Sinologist, I remember that most of what he produced was considered philologically indefensible nonsense by my professors, old-school Berkeley guys. And the anti-semitism. Yuck.
Posted 31 Dec 2009 at 1:07 pm ¶I remain convinced that Pound hit upon truths in e.g. his translation of the Analects that no other sinologist or translator has yet unearthed. For instance, did you know that Confucius hated the Jews?
Posted 31 Dec 2009 at 1:10 pm ¶Post a Comment