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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

8 comments:

gamefaced said...

such a good one.
lovely with the pictures.

STEPHEN RATCLIFFE said...

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

TC said...

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.

TC said...

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

doowman said...

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

billymills said...

Splendid choice, Tom.

TC said...

doowman, billy, many thanks, across the worlds.

Hazen said...

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