The Hudson Review, Inc
Canto 96
Author(s): Ezra Pound
Source: The Hudson Review, Vol. 9, No. 1 (Spring, 1956), pp. 7-19
Published by: The Hudson Review, Inc
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EZRA POUND
Canto 96
Kp7rSezvov . . .
Kp f'Evov . . .
and the wave concealed her,
dark mass of great water.
Aestheticisme comme politique d'eglise, hardly religion.
& on the hearth burned cedar and juniper ...
that should bear him thru these diafana
Aether pluit numismata
Tellus vomit cadavera,
Thusca quae a thure,
from the name of the incense, in this province is
ROMA quae olim ....
In the province of Tuscany is Rome, a city which formerly ....
And Sabines with a crow on their flag.
Brennus came for the wine, liking its quality,
Bergamo, Brescia, Ticino,
8 inviting his wife to drink from her father's skull
(Cunimundus) a cup which I, Paulus, saw..
that Tiberius Constantine was distributist,
Justinian, Chosroes, Augustae Sophiae,
lumina mundi, ernK6oLftal . . r. v Xa6v
or a hand out. 586 chronologically
(more or less)
Authar, marvelous reign, no violence and no passports,
Vitalis beati
More water about San Zeno than had flowed since the days of Noah
on the 16th of November
15th of Childibert, a.D. 589
water and snakes over the granaries.
Theodolinda, Theuderic from Brunhilda,
Roma caput Ecclesiae, the persians into Jerusalem
and my grand-dad got out of what is now Jugoslavia
with a bow, arrows and a wolf acting as guide
till it thought gramp looked too hungry,
comes itineris
Rothar touched with the aryan heresy
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THE HUDSON REVIEW
put father, son, ghost in that order
whereas we catholics stand for equality,
And here, 77 years, lombards had been in T
and Rothar got some laws written down
and a prolog, dope already used,
even the snake cult, 585
concubines, bacchatur, and a murder in
San Giovanni's basilica.
Constans Augustus stripped the brass tiles from the Pantheon,
shipped 'em toward Constantinople,
and got bumped off in his bath
in Siracusa. 620
Reyna says the lombard
(Migne 95, 620)
Cedwald, Architriclin
From the golden font,
Cuningpert elegan
de partibus Liguriae .
Aripert sank, auro grav
Who shall learn throstle's note from banded thrush
by the wind in the holly bush
Floods came in the Via Lata
and from St. Peter's down to the bridge, Ponte Milvio
et quia Karolus followed Pippin,
not Plectrude's son but Alpaide's
Wait, wait, Martel father of Pippin,
Pippin of Charlemagne,
Alpaide's son, one of 'em, not Plectrude's
empty grave outside San Zeno, to the right as you face it,
another bloke in Milano, "seven Cardinals attended his funeral,"
apud Pictavium, Aquitaine, Narbonne and Proenqa.
Martel, that would be in the "thirties,"
Lombards pro Carolus:
ACTUM TICINI IN PALATIO,
et Arimnium, a stone in Modena by the ambon . .
sent his son to Luitprand for a hair cut,
kept peace with franks and avars
verbo et actu corruscans
Wang's middle name not in Mathews
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in the second year of Eirene sent Constans to Carolus Magnus
sardonix pario, lilia mixta rosis,
at Tyana some idea they disapproved of.
DIOCLETIAN, 37th after Augustus, thought: more if we tax 'em
and don't annihilate. Haud procul Salonis
not far from Salo otio senuit, quietly aging,
and alleged Saturn started brass currency
"changing bowers for travertine"
Vespesiano serenitas .. . urbes renovatae
Under Antoninus, 23 years without war ... apud Eboricum,
Severus' wife spoke to Philostratus about the biography
and about 1165 of the City (A.U. ab urbe)
Galla Placidia,
Pictorum,
Vandali,
"called Bosphorus from the bull tax"
treaty with lombards under Justinian,
goths out of Verona et Brixia,
all italian "reip." under law.
A memorial to archivists and librarians:
Bernicoli in Ravenna, and that stuffed-shirt who
wrote such an elegant postcard.
Some sort of embargo, Theodora died in the igth Justinian.
And the money sellers Ablavius and Marcellus
thought they would bump off Justinian.
A flood of fads swilled over all Europe.
But there could have been two Abduls
and it would not have annoyed one.
That is something to note. I mean as
personality, when one says "oriental." The third bahai
said nothing remarkable. Edgar Wallace had his kind of modesty
Caedual went to Roma, baptised 689 by some counting.
And the Eparch's book was down somewhere under all of this,
FITA PXIKON BIBAION.
After 500 years, still sacrificed to that sea gull,
a colony of Phaeacians Oifva 0EXvrsE
ALDFRID, King of Northumbria, Nordanhymbrorum
defunctus 7 oh 5,
Aldhelm, against errors of Britons,
pro virginity in hexameters,
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THE HUDSON REVIEW
de Metaplasmo, De Sinalimpha, &
fads for some hundred years,
a comet with its face toward Aquilo,
fussed about hair-cuts,
an appeal to reason is about a 13%
appeal to reality,
job-hunting in our time, and in the 3rd/ year of J
Sophia Augusta
made the money-sellers cough up something
pecuniarium venditoribus, and in the 12th
took over the synagog,
heaped fads on Eleusis, flame under the rubble
TIBERIUS 5, 7, 3
by his spending
Thrax, Cappadox,
Lombards, Avars.
(Theophanem sequitur.)
Lombards in Exarchate, MAURICIUS Imperator
Barbarians enjoyed Roman calamities,
calamitatibus delectabantur,
equestribus speculationibus and by dealings
urbem splendidam reddidit,
this is MAURICIUS, five seventy seven,
and of course there is no local freedom
without local control of local purchasing power.
Del Mar spotted "bronze to the cities,"
sanguinibus gaudium, homicidiis amorem,
infidelitatem, jactantiam et violentiam (Hormisdae).
Priscus copped the king drunk
(Musacius) @ his brother's wake,
aerumnae non defuerunt variae,
plenty of shindies, assorted,
With eyes pervanche,
all under the Moon is under Fortuna
I~-~~ ,,CHEN,
e che permutasse.
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EZRA POUND
With castled ships and images Dei Matris,
HERACLIUS, six, oh, two
imperator simul et sponsus,
found the "reip's" business unstuck,
that is, Avars made Europe a desert,
Persians exterminated all Asia
Chosdroes (Second) pro sun j.
& melted down the church vessels & coined them
vopuoapcara Ka /uAXLapcrta
(which is not in Liddell D.D.),
The Deacon, col. lo26, thinks it "argenteos,"
nummos aureos et argenteos, HERACLIUS versus Chosdroes
coined candle-sticks to keep off Chosdroes
, I
EIKOVOS
Justinian 527
Tiberius Justin
Mauricius 577
Phocas
Heraclius, six oh two, all dates approximate.
Deutschland unter Dulles, U.S.A., slightly nostalgic
by the boat-bridge over Euphrates.
Wintered then in Sebastia,
Laws aim? is against coercion.
And called them the Golden Spears, Xpvo-oXoXas,
Avars, Bulgars, Gepidae,
quatenus Hunnos,
against the City, Fu Lin.
Turcos quas Cazaros vocant. Six eighteen, that is.
God's Mother superlaudabilis
populus epulantes
Deum glorificantes,
pepper &8 zinziber, tigrides mirae magnitudinis
live ones, and antelopes,
and in sky a great phantom
from Mesembra to Arcturus
preannouncing Arabian power
and in the i 1th of Constans ashes from heaven,
in the 12th Muhavis broke the Colossus
that had stood thirteen sixty years,
mille tre centos sexaginta, and
sold 900 camel-loads, aere oneravit, of its brass
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THE HUDSON REVIEW
to a jew
(all this chronology seven years less than the accepted).
Habdimelich made peace with the 2nd Justinian
... contra Zubir and burnt his home and his idols
with their idolator, sed susciperent, we are getting to
the crux of one matter
Anno sexto imperii sui Justinianus (the second)
pacem, quam ad Habdimelich habuit, ex amentia
dissolvit, et omnem Cypriorum insulam, et populum
irrationabiliter voluit transmigrare, et characterem
qui missus fuerat ab Habdimelich, eum noviter visus
esset .... et his auditis Habdimelich satanice stimulatus
rogabat ne pax solveretur, sed susciperent monetam
suam, cum Arabes non susciperent Romanorum
incisionem in suis nummis. Verum dato
pondere auri ait: Nullum Romanis damnum effic
tur, ex eo quod Arabes nova cuderent .......
Quod et factum est, et misit Habdimelich ad aedifi
candum templum Muchan, et voluit auferre c
lumnas ..
-col. 1o6o, The Deacon, Migne's Patrolo
In fact this item, with that bit from the Eparch's edict
which was still there for Kemal in our time,
PANTA HREI, said DuBellay translating,
the base shall we say, and the slide of Byzantium,
bags, baskets full of, presumably, coinage,
and lured twenty thousand sclavons.
And in the 7th Absimarus Habdimelich died
and Justinian came back thru the aquaduct.
Franks out of Thrace in periplum,
Blood in Watling St, ruin'd by vicarious government.
Hyacinthinis,
p,eyaXorXwvo why not fake purple,
vocabulary not Dr. Liddell's,
chastised and brought into the house (coom ben)
verberator et bonis mulcator
TraeLevefo'0o Kai EelTKOKLiE'a0C)
register all silk purchases over ten aurei
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EZRA POUND
8EKa vo.Luoc-LrC v (Nicole: purpureos vestes) T- fX
but the dvat8Ms is rather nice, Dr. Nicole,
before the ,ir: av:dvoveres eXaoTTovmes Tnv ,r/L)v
and the idea of just price is somewhere,
the haggling, somewhere,
also
aXoyio-rovs quite beautifully used
tho' utopian
KaTrl)Xc1XVov or
crrofJvXo that is "mouthy"
dyopa'os forensic
XaXos babbler
*k
tzu3
chih1
to2-5
chu1
rapaX38r,s as on the East bank from Beaucaire
,tL T7 Tj ov ErapXov ec')pacLyOp,evov
not stamped with the prefect's seal goovAXX
Ka'cwrTavov vevoOev0.LEVOV
Ducange: orrarqp
Here, surely, is a refinement of language
If we never write anything save what is already
understood, the field of understanding
will never be extended. One demands the
right, now and again, to write for a few people
with special interests and whose curiosity
reaches into greater detail.
Kat voLwoJxarLTa ceE
Wd/ appear to be tetarteron tokens
not affecting the aureus
vel pactum pretium augens
and a few words about hoarding
KaLpov EvS4La5 daroOrcqoavppitr
EVOLKtov house rent
aivCcv evOIKLOt
"Sire, dist Hues . ."
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THE HUDSON REVIEW
that was de BosschOre,
leather for carriages, not for footwear,
Xoirempers do not buy sheep
or hide pigs in the house of an ark
O&KOV apXOVTLKOV
Who useth an unstamped stater
ad pretium empti
Kara rnv efovloVtv vop/luaLaroT evos'
that's how Nicole slanted it, grave on the om
meaning one aureus, bankers
to profit one keration 2 miliarisia
p,UrlSEcUL XE&rovpyta
and no liturgy (as above)
nor their beasts,
but that baking be uninterrupted
and that they take due care against fire.
TAVERNERS are to inform the prefect of w
that he arrange the modus of sale
oiKOVOJ,ta . .. . I . . rpac'KeO'Oat
constraining 'em to analogous ezonesis.
Stathmos, usually weight & aggaia, vessels
fitting in, working together.
The stathmon shd/ hold 30 litras
and the mina, as it is called, shd/ be 3,
And on great holidays and the Lord's day KvpL
not to open before 2 o'clock
by whatever 2 that was reckoned
Sevrepacs opaO
and at the second hour of night
dacrfaXAtgetv
lock up & (r,fEvvvetv ra Xefi,8La
put out their cook-fires
h3f5, a cauldron
& those who have been loafing all day there
not to come back @ night and raise ructions
TOV OlvOV q(.LfOpOV.LEVOL
"Constantinople" said Wyndham "our star,"
Mr. Yeats called it Byzantium,
emphorio, to be borne about, to be filled with
oinos, the fermented
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EZRA POUND
katakremnizo, to throw down or headlong
diaphora, variance
bias, vigors
and if wine-seller be found with false measures
& not bearing the proper seal
shall be smacked, cropped and
put out of the sunthema 4Ks&OKE'OwOcrav
IIEPI AErATAPIOT
seem to be foreign importers,
are to stay 3 months only,
the name BOOPSaN ought to explain what it means
8LaorLacdveraL but doesn't exactly
dealin' with animals S3or6v, f3orrp in the Foro Amastriani
TIv wrAsov TO aULTla
some animals are imperfect.
RE all contractors for fine work, plaster,
marble, askothurari6n, paint & the rest of 'em
AEITOTPrIfN
an ask6s is a leather bag,
with inane loquacity hoisting the wages
aveo TOV; Luo'-ovs crKaLorqT7 r&v Xoycov
lubberly, westerly o-rovXia
the stench of the profit motive has covered their names
and that louse G. burnt the Palatine
and messed up the music
to speak clearly
aXqcrArTa, insatiate KaKOVPpyta
This is not a mere stunt to lay fines
as is found in the hodge-podge.
0o'os a round building
Ka/Lapa arched over
all adro,iaetav to be unlikely to fall
Ep7reLpiav &8 experienced
0e,uEXLos the foundation, not wobbly craapo6
After all Justinian's boy had built Santa Sophia
"vurry," says Pearson, N. H. "in'erestin'."
out of odd hollows and solids
UL? TO KTmoJLuevov Xo:ov, slanty
There is an ideogram somewhere in Morrison,
de Saumase, de Reitz
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THE HUDSON REVIEW
7Trvpo, aepo%, o070ro, y7s
after Julien d'Askalon: fire, air, water, earth,
the old men on the swaying rpa7r4,tov
f,vpo-oS'aLt, raw leather
LaXaKarcappo, softeners, second process
t3vpcrootLot
/iaycL7re? the baker from his four,
governors, oveners
No yugo-slav to propose to a girl
until he has planted trees, 50 olives
(Ronnie, this year)
EyKVKXLog 1raLtevo'L
and the chaplains of cabarets
& that Nicephoras
kolobozed the tetarteron
need not have applied to the aureus
or caused Nicole to understand token coinage
in the long war between episkeptiks
and any andrarion agorian kai bAnauson
(currently rendered as s.o.b.)
12 % says Nicole, illegal
KarTa T7V TroLoTrira
(rTv Cfwv)
acc. the quality.
Good-bye to the sun, Autumn is dying
Xaipe 6 "HXMto
whom the ooze cannot blacken
Xaipe clarore.
And in the sixth year of this Justinian the devil got
into Habdimelich, satanice stimulatus, who said if
we put the same amount of gold into our coinage it
will do no harm to the Romans. Ut supra, as before
stated in latin. And he wanted some columns for
Muchan.
iustitiae .... nihil antiquius
"Honest feathers" says Dante, or: "What about murder?"
De Officiis, TWO, 89: "Quid occidere?"
Pascere satis, or in the '2os (our time)
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driving latin out of the schools
(France or whereso)
humiles non omnes improbi. Cicero
mousing round the edge of the paddock.
"An ater, an albus" Catullus in interrogative.
"Queer cuss with a sense of humour," Tully observing:
Nihil.... antiquius
and no such blue north of Capri
as on the side toward Peschiera,
Ocelle Veronensis.
Under Leo EIAPXIKON BIBAION
"Following God's example Our Serenity
(yaX7/vo'Trf, as of the sea)
to stop trampling by one on another
have codified TroXLTmLKV crfJareIJv
(To Professor Nicole's annoyance) Leo 886-911
: may buy linen to line bombazine
"les arrhes du march," re/ the drapers
J%atLXErVcL A?ov
And the notary
must have some general culture or he will
make a mess of the contracts.
: may buy gold, silver, pearls,
but not copper
ni cuivre ni tissus de lin
that is, not for resale.
Not hoard 'em and hold for a rise,
any perfumer
who wangles to get another's rent hoisted
Kara SoXov eravcov
shall be shaved, whipped and chucked out.
And not hold up coin either;
foreigners to sell in three months and leave,
Perfumers not to buy groceries,
but nard, aloe-wood, cinnamon,
stick to what's sold on a two pan balance, not a "romaine,"
a stadera, one of those things with a yard-arm.
Let him be either perfumer or grocer,
Candle-makers to work in their own ergastorios;
and that
EZRA POUND 17
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THE HUDSON REVIEW
grocers may open shops anywhere
so that one can get groceries anywhere/
And if his weights aren't stamped with the prefe
he shall be flogged, cropped and banished
profits at 16 and 3/ths (two miliarisia)
No baker or mill beast shall be subject to other
bread must go on,
No ovens in anyone's cellar
and that they go to the Prefect when the grain p
rises or falls
to find the right bread price,
Whoso tries any monkey-shines
shall be put on a jackass and led through the streets quite
slowly,
flogged, shaved, and put out. Wine shops
will close at 8 in the evening.
Anybody wanting to put up a cupola must prove experience.
If a wall falls inside of ten years the builder,
unless he can prove god's wrath must
put it up again at his own cost.
To be tabulary, must know the Manuel
to recite it, and the Basiliks, 60 books
and draw up an act in the presence, and be sponsored
by the primicier and his colleagues
and have a clear Handschrift
and be neither babbler nor insolent, nor sloppy in habits
and have a style. Without perfect style
might not notice punctuation and phrases
that alter the sense,
and if he writes down a variant
his sponsors will be responsible.
Give him time to show what he's got.
And the smoke at his consecration,
incense Ovutiacya evnrtov Kvptov
shows how his thought shd/ go. Upward, videlicet.
And be fined if he miss procession
and the college shall go to his funeral.
SILVERSMITHS may buy what pertains to their trade,
not copper,
oV IA'v XaXKOV
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EZRA POUND
nor linen save for their personal use.
If ladies (? eZ te) want to sell jewelry
let the goldsmith report to the Prefect
Be sure it is not for export.
If they adulterate
Shall cost 'em a hand XELpoKoTrei&c0)
'0 8Xov iroLv eiVc ao' r,juov
If foreigners try to sell the two metals,
report it.
If a silversmith buy sacred vessels, intact or otherwise,
let him report this to the Eparch
and a goldsmith report purchase of any unmarked
gold over one pound;
Work to be done v ... rs Mor-? on Main St.
Not in the goldsmith's home
And no one to be brought into the guild without notice
(aveu du prefet) What was the greek for aveu
in this instance? el&iqcre ToV TraPXov
rather nice use of aveu, Professor,
though you were looking at avev.
From the Palace, half-circle that street is,
ending near the seven-towered castello.
Bankers not to file coins
nor make false ones
Nor put a slave (8ovXov) in charge of their business
KaTaXXaKrn7 ( ) KEKO:LOLEVOV (double m)
If they do not notify counterfeits that come in
and from whom
shall be flogged, shaved and exiled
And in this there can have been few innovations
And before this was that affair of Habdimelich
Anno sexto imperii, of the Second Justinian
"pacem."
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