Tuesday, 4 May 2010

Ezra Pound: Farfalla in Tempesta


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File:Erynnisfuneralis.jpg

Funereal Duskywing (Erynnis funeralis): photo by kretyen, 2008




Then knelt with the sphere of crystal

That she should touch with her hands,

...........................Coeli Regina,

The four altars at the four coigns of that place,

But in the great love, bewildered

.........farfalla in tempesta

under rain in the dark:

............................ many wings fragile

Nymphalidae, basilarch, and lycaena,

Ausonides, euchloe, and erynnis

And from far

.................il tremolar della marina

chh. . ...... chh

...... the pebbles turn with the wave

chh .........ch'u

.................... "fui chiamat'

.....................................e qui refulgo"

Le Paradis n'est pas artificiel

.....................................but is jagged,

For a flash,

...............for an hour.

Then agony,

.................then an hour,

..................................then agony,

Hilary stumbles, but the Divine Mind is abundant

......................unceasing

......................improvisatore

Omniformis

.................unstill





File:Philaethria hecale 2 Richard Bartz.jpg

Banded Orange Heliconian (Dryadula phaetusa, Nymphalidae), underside: photo by Richard Bartz, 2008



File:Lycaena virgaurea1.JPG

Scarce Copper (Lycaena virgaureae): photo by Algirdas, 2006



Euchloe ausonides

Large Marble (Euchloe ausonides): photo by Joyce Gross, n.d.



File:Viceroy Butterfly.jpg

Viceroy Butterfly (Limenitis archippus) (basilarch, or Monarch Mimic): photo by Piccolo Namek, 2005




Ezra Pound: from Canto 92, in Section: Rock-Drill 85-95 de los cantares, 1955
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8 comments:

  1. gamefaced4 May 2010 at 06:22

    such a good one.
    lovely with the pictures.

    ReplyDelete
  2. STEPHEN RATCLIFFE4 May 2010 at 07:47

    Yes, we could go on and on reading/hearing this. . . .

    ReplyDelete
  3. TC4 May 2010 at 07:48

    Thank you gamefaced.

    The pictures show the butterfly species (farfalla=butterfly) which Pound lists, in the bewilderment of great love, under rain in the dark (tempesta), on the grounds of St Elizabeths Hospital for the Criminally Insane, Washington, D.C.

    There is a bit of Dante in here also, another radiance amid the darkness.

    The guest who has blest the place is probably Sherri Martinelli, a poet and painter who came down from NYC to visit him.

    The poem seems perhaps to express the confusion and vulnerability of a poet who would always be shy of speaking his emotions directly in "public".

    Cf. Purgatorio X, on the angelic butterfly (angelica farfalla) that flies into judgment without defenses.

    ReplyDelete
  4. TC4 May 2010 at 07:49

    ...and thank you Stephen, your words have just slipt in as I was pecking mine...

    ReplyDelete
  5. doowman4 May 2010 at 13:43

    TC,

    just so you know we're quietly spreading the word from detroit; that is, as fellow hopwood winner bruce shlain exclaims: "best blog anywhere."

    just so you know

    ReplyDelete
  6. billymills5 May 2010 at 06:42

    Splendid choice, Tom.

    ReplyDelete
  7. TC5 May 2010 at 06:51

    doowman, billy, many thanks, across the worlds.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Hazen25 October 2012 at 11:20

    This is wonderful. And I second doowman; yours is the best blog, bar none.

    ReplyDelete