“A”-15
3 Oct.-1 Dec. 1964
359.2 hinny:
a mule got from a she-ass by a stallion; to neigh, whinny (CD). See also the
first Hebrew word from Job 3:7 quoted in the next note.
359.7 He
neigh ha lie low…: these following four stanzas through 360.14 consist primarily
of homophonic renditions from the Hebrew version of the Book of Job; however,
“homophonic” must be understood flexibly, and LZ mixes in other strategies as
well, including working from the King James Version. The following notes are
undoubtedly incomplete, although most of the Hebrew lines have been identified
with reasonable certainty. LZ’s general practice is that each of his lines
represents a half-verse of the original. My guess is that LZ was using the
Soncino edition of Job with facing Hebrew and translated text (this was in his
library), but I do not presently have that available to me. However, one can
assume that it is likely LZ also looked up individual words in his Hebrew
dictionary. The following Hebrew text, phonetic transliteration and translations
(Jewish Publication Society version) are taken from Lev Software’s Hebrew Bible
Explorer <http://www.levsoftware.com/index.htm>. In the
transcriptions, vowels are pronounced: “a” as in father; “e” as in red; “i” as
in king; “o” as in sport; “u” as in blue.
359.7: He neigh ha lie low h’who y’he
gall mood: from Job 3:7:
:וב
הננר אבת-לא דומלג יהי אוהה הלילה הנה
hine halaila hahu yehi galmud al-tavo renana vo:
Lo, let that night be desolate; let no joyful voice come therein.
359.8: So roar cruel hire / Lo to
achieve an eye leer rot off: from Job 7.7:
:בוט
תוארל יניע בושת-אל ייח חור-יכ רכז
zekhor ki-ruakh khayai lo-tashuv eini lirot tov:
O
remember that my life is a breath; mine eye shall no more see good.
359.9: Mass th’lo low o loam echo / How
deal me many coeval yammer: from Job 7.16:
:ימי
לבה-יכ ינממ לדח היחא םלעל-אל יתסאמ
maasti lo-leolam ekhye khadal mimeni ki-hevel
yamai:
I
loathe it; I shall not live always; let me alone; for my days are vanity.
359.9 Lo…:
see 14.337.8f.
359.12 Naked
on face of white rock—sea: LZ’s notebooks indicate
for this line Job 24:8:
:רוצ-וקבח הסחמ ילבמו ובטרי םירה םרזמ
mizerem harim yirtavu umibli makhse khibku-tsur:
They are wet with the showers of the mountains, and embrace the rock for want
of a shelter.
See
13.293.23 where read in that context might suggest that this line ought to be
read meta-textually: the words are naked on the white face of the page which we
are urged to see. The previous line from “A”-13 that this line echoes is a
“literal” rock with graffiti on it that asks: “Who do you love?” and any play
on sea/see/C has the potential to suggest CZ.
359.13 Then I said: Liveforever my nest / is
arable…: through 359.16 primarily working from the English version of Job
29:18-20 (Leggott 155), although 359.14 and following “Shore she” are suggested
by the Hebrew. In the King James version: “Then I said, I shall die in my nest,
and I shall multiply my days as the sand. My root was spread out by the waters,
and the dew lay all night upon my branch. My glory was fresh in me, and my bow
was renewed in my hand.” On liveforever see 1.4.29.
359.14: Is arable hymn: from Job 29.18:
:םימי הברא לוחכו עוגא ינק-םע רמאו
vaomar im-kini egva vekhakhol arbe
yamim:
Then I said: 'I shall die with my nest, and I shall multiply my days
as the sand;
359.15: Shore she: from Job 29.19:
:יריצקב ןילי לטו םימ-ילא חותפ ישרש
sharshi fatuakh elei-mayim vetal
yalin biktsiri:
My root shall be spread out to the waters, and the dew shall lie all
night upon my branch;
359.17 Wind:
Yahweh at Iyyob…: these next three stanzas are from the climatic whirlwind
section of Job 38-42:6. Through 360.1, Job 38:1-8:
359.17-18: Wind: Yahweh at Iyyob Mien
His roar ‘Why yammer: from Job 38:1:
:רמאיו הרעסה ןמ נמ בויא-תא הוהי-ןעיו
vayaan-yaveh et-iyov min min haseara vayomar:
Then
the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said
359.19-20: Measly make short hates oh /
By milling bleat doubt?: from Job 38:2:
:תעד-ילב
ןילמב הצע ךישחמ הז ימ
mi ze makhshikh etsa vemilin beli-daat:
Who is
this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge?
359.21-22: Eye sore gnaw key heaver haul
its core / Weigh as I lug where hide any?: from Job 38:3:
:ינעידוהו
ךלאשאו ךיצלח רבגכ אנ-רזא
ezar-na khegever khalatseikha veeshalkha
vehodieni:
Gird
up now thy loins like a man; for I will demand of thee, and declare thou unto
Me.
359.23-24: If you—had you towed beside
the roots? How goad Him—you’d do it by now—: from Job 38:4:
:הניב
תעדי-םא דגה ץרא-ידסיב תייה הפיא
eifo hayita beyasdi-arets haged im-yadata vina:
Where
wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? Declare, if thou hast the
understanding.
359.25-26: My sum My made day a key to
daw? / O Me not there allheal—a cave: from Job 38:5; allheal is a plant,
cat’s valerian, Valeriana officinalis,
thought to have broad healing powers:
:וק
הילע הטנ-ימ וא עדת יכ הידממ םש-ימ
mi-sam memadeiha ki teda o mi-nata aleiha kav:
Who
determined the measures thereof, if thou knowest? Or who stretched the line
upon it?
359.27-28: All mouth deny hot bough? / O
Me you’re raw—Heaven pinned Dawn stars: from Job 38:6:
:התנפ
ןבא הרי-ימ וא ועבטה הינדא המ-לע
al-ma adaneiha hatbau o mi-yara even pinata:
Whereupon
were the foundations thereof fastened? Or who laid the corner-stone thereof,
359.29-30: Brine I heard choir and weigh
by care— / Why your ear would call by now Elohim: from Job 38:7; Elohim is
one of various Old Testament names for God:
:םיהלא
ינב-לכ ועיריו רקב יבכוכ דחי-ןרב
beran-yakhad kokhvei voker vayariu kol-benei
elohim:
When
the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?
360.1: Where was soak—bid lot tie in
hum—: from Job 38:8:
:אצי
םחרמ וחיגב םי םיתלדב ךסיו
vayasekh bidlatayim yam begikho merekhem yetse:
Or who shut up the sea with doors, when it broke forth, and
issued out of the womb;
360.2: How would you have known to hum:
from Job 38.16:
:תכלהתה
םוהת רקחבו םי-יכבנ-דע תאבה
havata ad-nivkhei-yam uvkheker tehom hithalakhta:
Hast thou entered into the springs of the sea? Or hast thou walked in
the recesses of the deep?
360.3: How would you all oats rose snow
lay: from Job 38:22:
:הארת
דרב תורצואו גלש תורצא-לא תאבה
havata el-otsrot shaleg veotsrot barad tire:
Hast thou entered the treasuries of the snow, or hast thou seen the treasuries
of the hail,
360.4: Assáy how’d a rock light rollick
ore: from Job 38:24:
:ץרא-ילע םידק ץפי רוא קלחי ךרדה הז-יא
ei-ze haderekh yekhalek or yafets
kadim alei-arets:
By what way is the light parted, or the east wind scattered upon the earth?
360.5 Had
the rush in you curb, ah bay: from Job 39:20:
:המיא ורחנ דוה הבראכ ונשיערתה
hatarishenu kaarbe hod nakhro eima
Hast thou made him [the horse] to leap as a locust? The glory of
his snorting is terrible.
360.6: Bay the shophar yammer heigh horse’: from Job 39:25:
:העורתו
םירש םער המחלמ חירי קוחרמו חאה רמאי רפש ידב
bedei shofar yomar heakh umerakhok yariakh milkhama raam sarim uterua:
As oft as he heareth the horn he saith: 'Ha, ha!' and he smelleth the battle
afar off, the thunder of the captains, and the shouting.
(A
shophar (or shopfar) is an ancient Hebrew musical instrument made from a ram’s
horn, used for warning or summons.)
360.7: Wind: Yahweh at Iyyob ‘Why
yammer’: from Job 40:1:
:רמאיו בויא-תא הוהי ןעיו
vayaan yaveh et-iyov vayomar:
Moreover
the Lord answered Job, and said:
360.8-9: Wind: Iyyob at Yahweh, ‘Why
yammer / How cold the mouth achieved echo’: from Job 40:3-4:
:רמאיו
הוהי-תא בויא ןעיו :יפ-ומל יתמש ידי ךבישא המ יתלק ןה
vayaan iyov et-yaveh vayomar: hen kaloti ma
ashiveka yadi samti lemo-fi:
Then Job answered the Lord, and said Behold, I am of small
account; what shall I answer Thee? I lay my hand upon my mouth.
360.10: Wind: Yahweh at Iyyob ‘Why
yammer: from Job 40:6:
:רמאיו
הרעס ןמ נמ בויא-תא הוהי-ןעיו
vayaan-yaveh et-iyov min min seara vayomar:
Then
the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said:
360.11: Ha neigh now behēmoth and share
I see see your make: from Job 40:15:
:לכאי
רקבכ ריצח ךמע יתישע-רשא תומהב אנ-הנה
hine-na vehemot asher-asiti imakh khatsir kabakar yokhel:
Behold now behemoth, which I made with thee; he eateth grass as an ox.
360.12: Giddy pair—stones—whose rages go: from Job 40:17:
:וגרשי
וידחפ ודחפ ידיג זרא-ומכ ובנז ץפחי
yakhpots zenavo khemo-arez gidei fakhadav
fakhadav yeshoragu:
He
straineth his tail like a cedar; the sinews of his thighs are knit together.
In
this case LZ takes the “stones” from the English translation, which in the King
James version reads: “He moveth his tail like a cedar: the sinews of his stones
are wrapped together,” which apparently is an inaccurate or misleading
translation that allows this to be understood as concerning the Behemoth’s
testicles, which evidently amused LZ; see 14.337.9.
360.13: Weigh raw all gay where how
spill lay who’: from Job 40.11:
:וגרשי וידחפ ודחפ ידיג זרא-ומכ ובנז ץפחי
hafets evrot apekha uree khol-gee
vehashpilehu:
Cast abroad the rage of thy wrath; and look upon every one that is
proud, and abase him.
360.15 ‘Rain
without sun hated: hurt no one: from Job 30:28 and 31:29:
30:28: :עושא להקב יתמק המח אלב יתכלה רדק
koder hilakhti belo khama kamti vakahal ashavea:
I go mourning without the sun; I stand up in the assembly, and
cry for help.
31:29: :ער ואצמ-יכ יתררעתהו יאנשמ דיפב חמשא-םא
im-esmakh befid mesani vehitorarti ki-metsaora:
If I rejoiced at the destruction of him that hated me, or exulted when
evil found him—
31:35: In two we shadow, how hide
any’: from Job 31:35:
:יביר שיא בתכ רפסו יננעי ידש יות-ןה יל עמש יל-ןתי ימ
mi yiten-li shomea li hen-tavi shadai yaaneni vesefer katav ish rivi
Oh that I had one to hear me!—Lo, here is my signature, let the Almighty
answer me—and that I had the indictment which mine adversary hath written!
360.20 The Parkway: at the time “A”-15 was
composed, the Zukofskys lived at 160 Columbia Heights, Brooklyn in a 10th and
11th floor apartment, so presumably the Parkway would be the Brooklyn-Queens
Expressway immediately below.
360.24 the one
/ the two old / songsters would not / live to see—: John F. Kennedy was
assassinated on 22 Nov. 1963. The “two old songsters” who did not see JFK’s
death are Robert Frost (died 29 Jan. 1963) and William Carlos Williams (died 4
March 1963). Frost became something of an unofficial poet laureate when JFK
invited him to recite the 1942 poem “The Gift Outright” with a verse
introduction at the 1961 presidential inauguration.
360.36 vying
culturally / with the Russian / Puritan Bear— / to vagary of / Bear hug and
King Charles losing his head: with the support of JFK,
Robert Frost made a trip to the USSR in Sept. 1962 and had a private meeting
with Premier Khrushchev. The “bear hug” may also refer to the signing in Aug.
1963 of the Partial Test Ban Treaty by the U.S., Great Britain and the Soviet
Union, just a few months before the assassination of JFK—the latter event presumably
is referred to in the allusion to the English Civil War, in which the Puritans
triumphed and beheaded King Charles; Cf. 14.350.9-10.
361.4 the
other / a decade younger…: WCW born 1883 was a decade younger than Frost
born 1874.
361.10 a
suburb: WCW lived in Rutherford, New Jersey, more or less a suburb of NYC.
361.17 to the
hill / his grave…: WCW was buried at the Hillside
Cemetery in Lyndhurst overlooking Rutherford; see 374.6.
361.28 ‘In
another week…: Fyodor Dostoevsky (1821-1881), the final chapter of Crime and Punishment (1866); Raskolnikov
is on his way to turn himself into the police for murder: “He looked eagerly to
right and left, gazed intently at every object and could not fix his attention
on anything; everything slipped away. ‘In
another week, another month I shall be driven in a prison van over this
bridge, how shall I look at the
canal then? I should like to
remember this!’ slipped into his mind. ‘Look at this sign! How shall I
read those letters then? It’s written here “Campany,” that’s a thing to remember, that letter /a/, and to look at it
again in a month—how shall I look at it
then? What shall I be feeling and thinking then?...’” (trans. Constance
Garnett).
362.18 his
mother died: WCW’s mother, Elena Hoheb Williams, died in Oct. 1949.
362.18 walking
/ with me / to my class…: WCW lectured to students at the Brooklyn
Polytechnic Institute where LZ taught on 14 Nov. 1949 (WCW/LZ 417), which WCW mentions briefly in his Autobiography 311.
363.8 no Drum Taps / no Memories / as for Walt: Drum
Taps, first published in 1865, collected Whitman’s Civil War poems, while Memories of President Lincoln, including
“When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d,” was a sequel grouping of poems in
response to Lincoln’s assassination.
363.17 Flown back from Love Field, Dallas: JFK was assassinated in Dallas, Texas on Friday
22 Nov. 1963; Love Field is Dallas’ main airport from which Kennedy’s body was
flown back to Washington, D.C. Various details from events over the next three
days leading up to Kennedy’s burial, which were exhaustively covered on TV, are
worked into “A”-15. The basic chronology of events is as follows: Kennedy’s
body was flown back to Washington and laid in rest in the White House on
Saturday 23 Nov; on Sunday 24 Nov. a military procession took the body to the
U.S. Capitol building for public viewing and there were also a number of
eulogies including that by Senator Mansfield (366.3-13); the public viewing
lasted through the night until Monday morning when the body was again moved in
military procession, including Jackie Kennedy with children, from the Capitol
building to the White House to St. Matthew’s Cathedral, where a requiem mass
was celebrated by Cardinal Cushing, and then finally to Arlington Cemetery for
the burial.
363.19 kittenish
face / the paragon of fashion…: Jackie Kennedy, who was riding in the open
car with JFK when he was shot.
363.25 Até…:
goddess of infatuation, rash actions and mischief; sister of Ares, god of war
and storms. The image here is from Homer, Iliad
XIX.91, which LZ quotes in Bottom as:
“First-born daughter of Zeus, Ate, who blinds all . . . who steps not upon
earth, ah rather down upon the heads of men” (386).
363.30 Kings ‘dalas’ / the poorest: Heb. dal from dalah meaning
dangling and by implication weak or thin; lean, needy, poor. LZ refers to 2
Kings 24:14: “And he carried away all Jerusalem, and all the princes, and all
the might men of valour, even ten thousand captives, and all the craftsmen and
smiths; none remained, save the poorest
sort of the people of the land.” See 363.37
and 21.507.9.
363.33 the “English” teaching drudge / with a
holiday on his hands…: presumably LZ himself; most schools closed early on
Friday afternoon as news of Kennedy’s assassination spread; Monday 25 Nov.
1963, when Kennedy was buried, was declared a national day of mourning so all
schools and government offices were closed.
363.37 to atone for
your souls: from Exodus 30:15: “The rich shall not give more, and the
poor shall not give less than half a shekel, when they give an offering unto
the Lord, to make an atonement for your souls.”
364.11 Castro ‘We should
comprehend it / who repudiate assassination…: Fidel Castro (b. 1926),
President of Cuba since 1959; remarks responding to the Kennedy assassination
as reported in the New York Times for 25 Nov. 1963: “Excerpts From
Castro Talk; No Justification Negative Repercussions”: “We have to make an
objective analysis of the facts, con sequences and repercussions that the
assassination of President Kennedy might have.
We should
comprehend
it very well. This kind of act affects the ‘sensibility of every man.’
Before an act of this nature I react in this way and I believe this is the
reaction of most human beings, 'who
repudiate assassination.’ […] As Marxist-Leninists we recognize
that the role of a man
is small and relative in society.
We should be glad about the death of a system. The disappearance of a system
would always cause us joy. But the death of a man, although this man is
an enemy, does not have to cause us joy. We always bow with respect in front
of death. The death of President Kennedy can have very negative repercussions for the
interests of our country, but in this case it is not the question of our
interest, but of the interests of the whole world.”
364.16 joy of
the Irish…: JFK made an official visit to Ireland for three days in June
1963; his grandfather immigrated from Ireland and his father, Joseph P.
Kennedy, married Rose Fitzgerald from another prominent Boston family, whose
own grandfather had immigrated from Ireland. On 28 June, JFK addressed the
Irish Parliament in Dublin and included the following remarks: “This elegant
building, as you know, was once the property of the Fitzgerald family, but I
have not come here to claim it. Of all the new relations I have discovered on
this trip, I regret to say that no one has yet found any link between me and a
great Irish patriot, Lord Edward Fitzgerald. Lord Edward, however, did not like
to stay here in his family home because, as he wrote his mother, ‘Leinster
House did not inspire the brightest ideas.’ That was a long time ago, however.”
Reported in the New York Times for 29 June 1963.
365.6 (Guildencrantz)…: this name conflates the two
university friends of Hamlet (thanks to Michael Fournier). Here probably refers
to Barry Goldwater, the conservative Republican presidential candidate who lost
to Lyndon B. Johnson in the 1964 election. In response to the JFK’s
assassination, the Republican Party called for a moratorium on campaigning for
the Presidential nomination; the leading Republican contenders were Goldwater
and Nelson Rockefeller, Governor of NY.
365.17 (pricing
steel)…: in an effort to control rising inflation in 1962, the Kennedy
administration proposed self-enforced agreements by unions and corporations to
freeze wages and prices. The steel industry agreed to a contract between unions
and management to implement these proposals, but U.S. Steel promptly broke it,
announcing an across the board price rise while fixing wages, which was quickly
emulated by the rest of the industry. JFK was furious, denounced the steel
executives on national TV on 11 April, and off-camera made the widely reported
remarks LZ quotes at 365.22-28; in the end the steel industry rolled back their
prices. See New York Times for 23
April 1962, which includes Kennedy’s remark at 365.22-28: “Steel: A 72-Hour
Drama With an All-Star Cast; Period of Excitement Hints of Rise Given The Steel
Crisis: A 72-Hour Drama With All-Star Cast and Plot of Many Surprises Price
Rises Set Stage on April 10 Kennedy's Quick and Angry Reaction to News Touched
Off Fast-Paced Play How It Developed White House Reception Wednesday Curb by
Law Suggested Hold-outs Emerge Agree to Consider It Antitrust Line Pushed
F.B.I. Told to Check A Morgan Man Called Thursday Awakened By F.B.I. Quick
Rebuttal Planned Helps Friends to Meet Supports President U.S. Serves Subpoenas
Friday Defense Orders Shifted Finds Outlook ‘Abysmal.’”
365.18 twenty-third
of April…: date of Shakespeare’s death and traditionally of his birthday as
well (1564-1616), so seven months prior to JFK’s assassination.
365.29 Vietnam’s
witch…: Madame Nhu, notorious wife of South Vietnam’s Prime Minister, Ngo
Dinh Diem. On 11 June 1963, in protest against the Prime Minister’s
anti-Buddhist policies, a Buddhist monk set himself on fire in Saigon. Madame
Nhu reportedly quipped that she would “clap hands at seeing another monk
barbecue show.”
365.37 (Queen
Margaret and dying Edward’s queen) /
And
see another as I see thee now: from Shakespeare, Richard III I.iii.204; Queen Margaret, widow of Henry VI, is
ranting at Queen Elizabeth, wife of the dying Edward IV:
Long mayest thou live to wail thy children's
death,
And see another, as I see thee now,
Deck'd in thy rights, as thou art stall'd in mine!
Long die thy happy days before thy death;
And, after many length'ned hours of grief,
Die neither mother, wife, nor England's Queen!
366.3 Eloquence
/ words of / a senator’s eulogy…: Senate Majority leader Mike Mansfield of
Montana offered a poetic funeral eulogy that was nationally telecast from the
Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol on 24 Nov. 1963, in which he five times repeated
the line, “And so she [Jackie Kennedy] took a ring from her finger and placed
it in his hands,” adding as conclusion, “and kissed him and closed the lid of a
coffin.”
366.6 da capo: repeat from the beginning
(in music).
366.14 ‘Bethink
you / if Bach’s feet deserved such bounty…: a comment on Bach’s
extraordinary ability as an organ player, which in context offers a curious
link with the preceding ring motif in Manfield’s eulogy (366.3): “‘His feet,
flying over the pedals as though they were winged, made the notes reverberate
like thunder in a storm,’ till the Prince [the Crown Prince of Sweden], ‘cum stupore admiratus,’ pulled a ring
from his finger and presented it to the player. ‘Now bethink you,’ commented
[Constantin] Bellermann, ‘if Bach’s skilful feet deserved such a bounty, what
gift must the Prince have offered to reward his hands as well?’” (Terry 107).
366.18 Capella,
alpha in Auriga, little first goat:
Capella, L. for she-goat, is also called Alpha Aurigae since it is the
brightest star in the constellation of Aurigae, meaning Charioteer or Driver.
In the northern hemisphere Capella is particularly bright in the early autumn
through winter. Ahearn suggests the appearance of this image as due to the fact
that since Capella is 46 light-years away, the light that reaches earth in 1963
left the star the year of JFK’s birth in 1917 (226-227). Interestingly, Capella
plays a prominent role in the concluding part of Bunting’s Briggflatts (1966), where Bunting explicitly points out, as well as
works into the significance of his poem, this point about Capella’s light
taking about 45 years to reach Earth.
366.22 Vesper there / Vesper Olympus dig air: from the opening strophe of Catullus, Carmina 62; LZ is quoting from lines 1
and 4 of his own Catullus version: “Vesper out there, you vain knees can sure get up: Vesper, Olympus / expected all day [...] / come dig the air Hymenaeus”. Vesper is the evening
star, especially Venus.
366.24 court
orchestra of uniformed Haiduks…: at Weimar, Duke Wilhelm Ernst had a small
“court orchestra, uniformed in the hussar habit,” a style which Terry explains
in a footnote came from the Heyducs of a region in Hungary, adding, “we must
imagine Bach himself thus clothed” (87). Details of the musicians available to
Bach and his pay while at Weimar are given by Terry (91-95).
366.28 ‘Friedmann,
shall we go / over to Dresden…: a remark Bach supposedly addressed to one
of his sons indicating his lack of interest in Italian opera for which Dresden
was then famous; Terry adds, “Unlike Händel, he was little attracted by the
Italian tradition of the seventeenth century” (Terry 110-111).
366.32 Frescobaldi’s
Musical Flowers…: Girolamo Frescobaldi (1583-1643), Italian
organist and composer, who greatly influenced the development of baroque music.
J.S. Bach was so impressed by his best-known collection of organ music, Fiori musicale (1635), that he copied
out the 104 pages in full (Terry 106). Terry also notes that Bach copied out a
series of his own cantatas on paper “provided by the ducal treasury,” at the
time an expensive item.
366.34 Ziegler:
Johann Gotthilf Ziegler (1688-1747), student of and later agent for Bach, who
“instructed me when playing hymns not to treat the melody as if it alone were
important, but to interpret the words through the melody” (Terry 99).
367.2 a
rare banquet in cypress / orange almond…: from a description of a birthday
celebration in 1716 for Duke Christin of Sachsen-Weissenfels, at which Bach
performed (Terry 108).
367.5 or
the court company of comedians…: “The Puritan austerity of a court [at
Weimar] whose lights were extinguished at eight in winter and nine in summer
was relieved by occasional and decorous relaxation. The exercises of the chase
were not disdained, and in his younger days Wilhelm Ernst maintained a company
of comedians, whose dispersal synchronized with Bach’s arrival” (Terry 86).
367.7 not
‘useful to accept a post / poorer than the one he abandons’: from a 19
March 1714 letter in which Bach declines an offer of a position at Halle (Terry
105).
367.9 finger
exercises traceries little pieces of himself…: through 367.14 is a creative
paraphrase of Terry’s description of Bach’s teaching practice while at Weimar,
for which he often wrote his own exercises or “inventions.” In teaching
composition, Terry tells us, “He was as severe to those who showed him clumsy
part-writing, reminding them that each part must be regarded as an individual
conversing with his fellows, who, when he speaks, must speak grammatically and
complete his sentences, and if he has nothing to say, had better remain silent”
(99-100).
367.15 Orpheuses,
Arions: Orpheus and Arion were legendary Greek poets. Their appearance here
is from a contemporary comment on Bach’s playing skills addressed to the ghost
of the Roman rhetorician Quintilian: “I’m an honest admirer of your ancient
world, but I tell you this Bach of mine, or another, if you can find one like
him, is worth any number of Orpheuses, and twenty singers like Arion” (Terry
108).
367.16 Weimar…:
J.S. Bach spent 1703-1717 in Weimar and all Bach references on pages 366-367
are from the Weimar chapter in Terry, who makes this remark about a lack of a
street named for Bach (85). Bach left for Cöthen when an appointment he hoped
for was given to someone else, but Duke Wilhelm Ernst of Weimar had him
arrested for four weeks in an effort to prevent his departure (Terry 113-114).
367.17 Lucas
Cranach: (1472-1553), German painter who spent his last few years and died
in Weimar. Terry appears to suggest that Weimar was his native city, although
this is not the case (95).
367.18 Herder’s
house…: Johann Gottfried von Herder (1744-1803), German Romantic
philosopher who spent the latter half of his life in Weimar. This speculation
about Herder’s house does not appear in Terry, who only mentions Herder’s quip
that Weimar was “something between a capital and a village” (Terry 96).
367.19 more
certain he was arrested…: see 367.16.
367.22 statesman
stumping The Tabernacle, Salt Lake
City: JFK spoke at the Tabernacle, the main Mormon temple in Salt Lake
City, on 26 Sept. 1963, less than two months before his assassination. His speech
called for a realistic and tolerant approach to foreign policy rather than an
imposition of American ideology on others. The speech
was reported in the New York Times for 27 Sept. 1963: “Kennedy Attacks
Goldwater Line; Says in Salt Lake City That Isolationist Policy Would Be Boon
to Communists Goldwater Views Are Attacked By Kennedy at Salt Lake City Treaty
No Panacea.”
367.23 quick with his story of the first step…: on 26 July 1963 JFK made a
nation-wide address over radio and TV urging support for the signing of the
Partial Test Ban Treaty, which appeared in the New York Times for 27
July 1963. The speech concludes: “But now, for the first time in many years,
the path of peace may be open. No one can be certain what the future will
bring. No one can say whether the time has come for an easing of the struggle.
But history and our own conscience will judge us harsher if we do not now make
every effort to test our hopes by action, and this is the place to begin.
According to the ancient Chinese proverb, ‘A journey of a thousand miles must
begin with a single step.’ My fellow Americans, let us take that first step.
Let us, if we can, step back from the shadows of war and seek out the way of
peace. And if that journey is a thousand miles, or even more, let history
record that we, in this land, at this time, took the first step.”
367.26 Test
Ban Treaty: the Partial/Limited Test Ban Treaty signed
in Aug. 1963, went into effect on 10 Oct. 1963, “42 days” before JFK’s
assassination; see 360.37.
367.30 ‘not
to our size, but to our spirit’…: on 26 Oct. 1963, JFK delivered some
memorial remarks at the inauguration of the Robert Frost Library at Amherst
College, reported in the New York Times
for 27 Oct. 1963: “Kennedy, Honoring Frost, Bids U.S. Heed Its Artists”: “In America our heroes
have customarily run to men of large accomplishments. But today this college
and country honors a man whose contribution was not to our size but to our spirit; not to our political beliefs but
to our insight; not to our self-esteem but to our self-comprehension. […] And because he knew the midnight as well as the
high noon, because he understood the ordeal as well as the triumph of the
human spirit, he gave his age strength with which to overcome despair.”
368.1 Chinese
sage a thousand / years…: see quotation at 367.23.
368.11 ‘Black
Jack’ Sardar…: JFK’s military funeral procession included a riderless horse,
Black Jack, who was saddled with sword and boots in the stirrups pointing
backwards. At one point in the procession he balked and momentarily held things
up as mentioned at 368.8. There appears to be some confusion here with another
horse, Sardar (meaning Chief), given to Jackie Kennedy by the president of
Pakistan, but apparently given the additional name “Black Jack,” which was the
nickname of Jackie’s father. Black Jack in the funeral procession was a
military horse who frequently performed this duty.
368.11 with
black- / hilted sword black dangled…: McMorris points out that “as a
decorated veteran of the U.S. Navy in World War II, [JFK] receives a full dress
military funeral” (19).
368.17 Finally a valentine…: poem written
in Feb. 1963 (CSP 240); although
written before JFK’s death, LZ apparently felt it was a fitting tribute to the
president, and its first publication was in the collection, Of Poetry and Power: Poems
Occasioned by the Presidency and by the Death of John F. Kennedy, eds. Erwin A Glikes & Paul Schwaber (NY: Basic Books, 1964). Possibly it is relevant
that when LZ republished the poem as a card in Jan. 1965, he added a note
indicating it would be his “last short poem for a long time”; strictly
speaking, however, this was not quite his last written short poem (see next).
368.21 After reading, a song…: this poem (CSP 233) was written on the train-ride
back from reading in the Adams House at Harvard on 14 Dec. 1963 on the
invitation of the young poet Michael Palmer, and so three weeks after JFK’s
assassination.
368.24 John to
John-John to Johnson: i.e. JFK to John Kennedy, Jr. to LBJ.
368.30 holy
holy tetraktys / of the Pythagorean eternal flowing creation:
the tetraktys is 1+2+3+4=10, the ultimate numerological symbol or image in
Pythagoreanism, which represented these first four numbers as points forming a
pyramid or perfect triangle: four numbers creating an image with four on each
side (four is the number of justice, the highest virtue) and adding up to ten,
the number of the whole. LZ is here referring to the Pythagorean prayer to the
tetraktys preserved in the so-called Golden Lines of Pythagoras: “O holy, holy tetraktys,
thou that containest the root and source of eternally flowing creation”; see 19.419.7 for the
full prayer.
368.37 ‘I was
dreaming a high hole in rock…:
369.7 sheepsilver:
mica.
369.9 Muscovy
glass: mica, supposed used in thin sheets in Old Russia as window panes
(isinglass).
369.10 The Glass Mountain: popular 1949
British film about a composer.
369.14 the
dead’s church / remembered not a moment too soon / to absolve the Jews of
Yeshua’s…: JFK (“the dead”) was a Roman Catholic.
Vatican II (see 18.398.20)
officially absolved the Jews of responsibility for the death of Jesus, although
the official document was not published until 1965 it was already being
reported in 1964. Yeshua is the Heb. (or originally Aramaic) name for Jesus and
means salvation.
369.18 Gibbon:
Edward Gibbon (1737-1794), English historian; see 370.17.
369.19 ‘spare them the
pains of thinking’: from Edward Gibbon, The Decline and Fall of the
Roman Empire, Chap. IX: “The State of Germany Till the Invasion of the
Barbarians”: “In the dull intervals of peace, these barbarians [the Germans]
were immoderately addicted to deep gaming and excessive drinking; both of
which, by different means, the one by inflaming their passions, the other by
extinguishing their reason, alike relieved them from the pain of
thinking.” However, also see Ludwig Wittgenstein, Philosophical
Investigations: “I should not like my writing to spare other people the
trouble of thinking” (Preface vi).
369.20 under
the aspic of eternity: pun on Spinoza’s “under the aspect of eternity,”
meaning the highest level of understanding that involves the closest possible
identification with God and thus of self-knowledge. “Aspic” is a clear jelly
used in cooking as mould, but also serves as a preservative.
369.22 great
Cow of Heaven: any of various forms of the Great Mother goddess in Egyptian
mythology—e.g. Hathor, Nut and Neith are all depicted as cow figures giving
birth to and suckling the cosmos.
369.23 Birjand,
October five thousand nine hundred eleven / (an anagram)…: through 369.32
from F. Hale, From Persian Uplands
(London 1920), a volume of letters by a British officer stationed in Birjand in
eastern Persia (Iran) near the Afghan border from 1913-1919. The letter from
which LZ quotes is headed: Birjand, 10th October 1915, but he has deliberately
scrambled (anagramized) the numbers of the year:
”We
have been out hawking with the Amir,
so as it was my first experience, and as hawking is an old British sport, I must tell you about it. […] Within ten minutes
a covey of see-see, the little partridge
that frequents these bare hills, rose
with a whistle and disappeared round
a bend. We dismounted and advanced, the
falconers leading with bright-eyed
hawks held on their gloved hands by
a slender thong attached to a leg-ring. The hawks had at no time been hooded: they were now straining
for their release, which came shortly. The see-see rose
again twenty yards ahead of us, the falconers raised their hands and let go,
and the hawks simultaneously rose and
pursued in different directions. One of them disappeared and pinned its quarry
a hundred yards away. The other went straight ahead of us, lost or overshot its
mark, and alighted on a jutting rock that overlooked the ‘field.’ The Amir’s
men came up and commenced to search the ground for the crouching partridge,
while the hawk watched the proceedings from fifty yards’ distance. After a
minute or two a couple of birds were put up again, and a lightening chase
followed, which ended a hundred yards off. The falconer ran up and took the
quarry, bringing the hawk back. We again went forward, and in a short time put
up another covey. This time the hawk pursued unerringly. Its victim skimmed
along a few years above the ground, seeking cover, till it was brought to earth. When I arrived on the
scene the hawk was poised on its quarry with it claws gripping behind the neck and had begun to pluck the feathers from the back of the
silent wide-eyed and motionless partridge. The
falconer came up, took the neck and back of the still-living partridge in his left hand and its legs in his
right, and with one pull dismembered
the body. He then presented the legs,
which had brought away the greater part of the bird’s flesh, to the waiting hawk. When this gruesome
business was over I felt little inclination to see the process repeated. The
hawk had received his meal, however, and the royal and ancient sport was ended
for the day” (79-82).
370.4 young
Isaac / burning for Rebecca: puzzling since Isaac’s marriage to Rebecca was
arranged by his father Abraham when he was 40 years old, and this description
seems more apt in describing his son Jacob’s passion for Rachel, for whom he
worked twice seven years for Rachel’s father Laban. On the other hand, Genesis
24:67 states that with his marriage to Rebecca, “Isaac was comforted after his
mother’s death.”
370.6 not
all and scorned in Augustine:
St. Augustine of Hippo (354-430), largely credited with establishing the
theological orthodoxy of the early Catholic Church, he generally took a very
severe line on all matters of the flesh, but agreed with Paul that “it is
better to be married than to burn.”
370.7 Eros
agh nick not hay mock…: through 370.9 from Sophocles, Antigone lines 781-782 and 801, spoken by the Chorus (Woods 176);
the translation is that of the Loeb Classical Library, Sophocles, vol. I,
trans. F. Storr (1912):
Eros agh nick hot hay mock on Eros us
inked massy / pipped eyes
Έρως άνίκατε μάχαν, Έρως, ός έν κτήμασι πίπτεις,
Erôs anikate machan, Erôs, hos en ktêmasi
pipteis,
(Love
resistless in fight, all yield at a glance of thine eye,)
now on th’heyday caught as thus mown
νϋν δ΄
ήδη ΄γώ καύτός θεσμών
nun d' êdê 'gô kautos thesmôn
(Lo I
myself am borne aside.)
370.14 the fourth kingdom shall be as strong as
iron…: from Daniel 2:40.
370.17 ‘perpetual
violation of justice…” through 373.32 from a famous summarizing passage in
Edward Gibbon, The Decline and Fall of
the Roman Empire (1776-1788), Chap. 38: General Observations on the Fall of
the Roman Empire in the West:
“The Greeks, after their
country had been reduced into a province, imputed the triumphs of Rome, not to
the merit, but to the fortune, of the republic. The inconstant goddess who so
blindly distributes and resumes her favours, had now consented (such was the
language of envious flattery) to resign her wings, to descend from her globe,
and to fix her firm and immutable throne on the banks of the Tiber. A wiser Greek,
who has composed, with a philosophic spirit, the memorable history of his own
times, deprived his countrymen of this vain and delusive comfort, by opening to
their view the deep foundations of the greatness of Rome. The fidelity of the
citizens to each other and to the state was confirmed by the habits of
education and the prejudices of religion. Honour, as well as virtue, was the
principle of the republic; the ambitious citizens laboured to deserve the
solemn glories of a triumph; and the ardour of the Roman youth was kindled into
active emulation as often as they beheld the domestic images of their
ancestors. The temperate struggles of the patricians and plebeians had
finally established the firm and equal balance of the constitution, which united
the freedom of popular assemblies with the authority and wisdom of a senate and
the executive powers of a regal magistrate. When the consul displayed the
standard of the republic, each citizen bound himself, by the obligation of an
oath, to draw his sword in the cause of his country till he had discharged the
sacred duty by a military service of ten years. This wise institution
continually poured into the field the rising generations of freemen and
soldiers; and their numbers were reinforced by the warlike and populous states
of Italy, who, after a brave resistance, had yielded to the valour and embraced
the alliance of the Romans. The sage historian, who excited the virtue of the
younger Scipio and beheld the ruin of Carthage, has accurately described their
military system; their levies, arms, exercises, subordination, marches,
encampments; and the invincible legion, superior in active strength to the
Macedonian phalanx of Philip and Alexander. From these institutions of peace
and war Polybius has deduced the spirit and success of a people incapable of
fear and impatient of repose. The ambitious design of conquest, which might
have been defeated by the seasonable conspiracy of mankind, was attempted and
achieved; and the perpetual violation of
justice was maintained by the political virtues of prudence and courage.
The arms of the republic, sometimes vanquished in battle, always victorious in
war, advanced with rapid steps to the Euphrates, the Danube, the Rhine, and the
Ocean; and the images of gold, or silver, or brass, that might serve to
represent the nations and their kings, were successively broken by the iron
monarchy of Rome.
The
rise of a city, which swelled into an
empire, may deserve, as a singular prodigy, the reflection of a philosophic
mind. But the decline of Rome
was the natural and inevitable effect of immoderate greatness. Prosperity ripened the principle of decay; the causes of destruction multiplied
with the extent of conquest; and as soon as time or accident had removed the
artificial supports, the stupendous fabric yielded to the pressure of its own
weight. The story of its ruin is simple and obvious; and instead of inquiring why the Roman empire was destroyed, we should rather be surprised that it had subsisted so long. The
victorious legions, who, in distant wars, acquired the vices of strangers and
mercenaries, first oppressed the freedom of the republic, and afterwards
violated the majesty of the purple.
The emperors, anxious for their personal safety and the public peace, were reduced to the base expedient
of corrupting the discipline which rendered them alike formidable to their
sovereign and to the enemy; the vigour of the military government was relaxed
and finally dissolved by the partial institutions of Constantine; and the Roman world was overwhelmed by a
deluge of Barbarians.
The decay of Rome has been
frequently ascribed to the translation of the seat of empire but this history
has already shown that the powers of Government were divided rather than
removed. The throne of Constantinople was erected in the East; while the West
was still possessed by a series of emperors who held their residence in Italy,
and claimed their equal inheritance of the legions and provinces. This
dangerous novelty impaired the strength and fomented the vices of a double
reign: the instruments of an oppressive and arbitrary system were multiplied;
and a vain emulation of luxury, not of
merit, was introduced and supported between the degenerate successors of
Theodosius. Extreme distress, which
unites the virtue of a free people, embitters the factions of a declining monarchy. The hostile favourites of
Arcadius and Honorius betrayed the republic to its common enemies; and the
Byzantine court beheld with indifference, perhaps with pleasure, the disgrace
of Rome, the misfortunes of Italy, and the loss of the West. Under the
succeeding reigns the alliance of the two empires was restored; but the aid of
the Oriental Romans was tardy, doubtful, and ineffectual; and the national
schism of the Greeks and Latins was enlarged by the perpetual difference of
language and manners, of interests, and even of religion. Yet the salutary
event approved in some measure the judgment of Constantine. During a long
period of decay his impregnable city repelled the victorious armies of barbarians,
protected the wealth of Asia, and commanded, both in peace and war, the
important straits which connect the Euxine and Mediterranean seas. The
foundation of Constantinople more essentially contributed to the preservation
of the East than to the ruin of the West.
As
the happiness of a future life is the
great object of religion, we may hear without surprise or scandal that the introduction, or at least the abuse of Christianity, had
some influence on the decline and fall of the Roman empire. The clergy
successfully preached the doctrines of patience and pusillanimity; the active
virtues of society were discouraged; and the last remains of military spirit
were buried in the cloister: a large portion of public and private wealth
was consecrated to the specious
demands of charity and devotion; and
the soldiers’ pay was lavished on the useless multitudes of both
sexes who could only plead the merits of abstinence and chastity. Faith,
zeal, curiosity, and more earthly passions of malice and ambition, kindled the
flame of theological discord; the church, and even the state, were distracted
by religious factions, whose conflicts were sometimes bloody and always
implacable; the attention of the emperors was diverted from camps to synods; the Roman world was oppressed by a
new species of tyranny; and the
persecuted sects became the secret enemies of their country. Yet
party-spirit, however pernicious or absurd, is a principle of union as well as
of dissension. The bishops, from eighteen hundred pulpits, inculcated the duty
of passive obedience to a lawful and orthodox sovereign; their frequent
assemblies and perpetual correspondence maintained the communion of distant
churches; and the benevolent temper of the Gospel was strengthened, though
confirmed, by the spiritual alliance of the Catholics. The sacred indolence of the monks was devoutly embraced by a servile and
effeminate age; but if superstition had not afforded a decent retreat, the
same vices would have tempted the unworthy Romans to desert, from baser motives,
the standard of the republic. Religious
precepts are easily obeyed which indulge and sanctify the natural inclinations
of their votaries; but the pure
and genuine influence of Christianity
may be traced in its beneficial, though imperfect, effects on the barbarian
proselytes of the North. If the decline of the Roman empire was hastened by
the conversion of Constantine, his victorious religion broke the violence of
the fall, and mollified the ferocious temper of the conquerors.
This
awful revolution may be usefully applied to the instruction of the present age. It is the duty of a
patriot to prefer and promote the exclusive interest and glory of his native
country: but a philosopher may be permitted to enlarge his views, and to
consider Europe as one great republic, whose various inhabitants have attained
almost the same level of politeness and cultivation. The balance of power will
continue to fluctuate, and the prosperity of our own or the neighbouring
kingdoms may be alternately exalted or depressed; but these partial events
cannot essentially injure our general state of happiness, the system of arts,
and laws, and manners, which so advantageously distinguish, above the rest of
mankind, the Europeans and their colonies. The
savage nations of the globe are the common enemies of civilized society; and we
may inquire, with anxious curiosity, whether
Europe is still threatened with a repetition of those calamities which formerly
oppressed the arms and institutions of Rome. Perhaps the same reflections will
illustrate the fall of that mighty empire, and explain the probable causes of
our actual security.
I. The Romans were ignorant of the
extent of their dangers and the number of their enemies. Beyond the Rhine and
Danube the northern countries of Europe and Asia were filled with innumerable
tribes of hunters and shepherds, poor,
voracious, and turbulent; bold in arms, and impatient to ravish the fruits of
industry. The barbarian world was agitated by the rapid impulse of war; and
the peace of Gaul or Italy was shaken by
the distant revolutions of China. The Huns, who fled before a victorious
enemy, directed their march towards the West; and the torrent was swelled by
the gradual accession of captives and allies. The flying tribes who yielded to
the Huns assumed in their turn the spirit of conquest; the endless column of
barbarians pressed on the Roman empire with accumulated weight; and, if the
foremost were destroyed, the vacant space was instantly replenished by new
assailants. Such formidable emigrations no longer issue from the North; and the
long repose, which has been imputed to the decrease of population, is the happy
consequence of the progress of arts and agriculture. Instead of some rude
villages thinly scattered among its woods and morasses, Germany now produces a
list of two thousand three hundred walled towns: the Christian kingdoms of
Denmark, Sweden, and Poland have been successively established; and the Hanse
merchants, with the Teutonic knights, have extended their colonies along the
coast of the Baltic as far as the Gulf of Finland. From the Gulf of Finland to
the Eastern Ocean, Russia now assumes the form of a powerful and civilized
empire. The plough, the loom, and the forge are introduced on the banks of the
Volga, the Oby, and the Lena; and the fiercest of the Tartar hordes have been
taught to tremble and obey. The reign of independent barbarism is now
contracted to a narrow span; and the remnant of Calmucks or Uzbecks, whose
forces may be almost numbered, cannot seriously excite the apprehensions of the
great republic of Europe. Yet this apparent security should not tempt us to
forget that new enemies and unknown dangers may possibly arise from some
obscure people, scarcely visible in the map of the world. The Arabs or
Saracens, who spread their conquests from India to Spain, had languished in
poverty and contempt till Mahomet breathed into those savage bodies the soul of
enthusiasm.
II. The empire of Rome was firmly
established by the singular and perfect coalition of its members. The subject
nations, resigning the hope and even the wish of independence, embraced the
character of Roman citizens; and the provinces of the West were reluctantly
torn by the barbarians from the bosom of their mother country. But this union
was purchased by the loss of national freedom and military spirit; and the
servile provinces, destitute of life and motion, expected their safety from the
mercenary troops and governors who were directed by the orders of a distant
court. The happiness of an hundred millions depended on the persona merit of
one or two men, perhaps children, whose minds were corrupted by education,
luxury, and despotic power. The deepest wounds were inflicted on the empire
during the minorities of the sons and grandsons of Theodosius; and, after those
incapable princes seemed to attain the age of manhood, they abandoned the
church to the bishops, the state to the eunuchs, and the provinces to the
barbarians. Europe is now divided into twelve powerful, though unequal
kingdoms, three respectable commonwealths, and a variety of smaller, though
independent states: the chances of royal and ministerial talent are multiplied,
at least, with the number of its rulers; and a Julian, or Semiramis, may reign
in the North, while Arcadius and Honorius again slumber on the thrones of the
South. The abuses of tyranny are restrained by the mutual influence of fear and
shame; republics have acquired order and stability; monarchies have imbibed the
principles of freedom, or, at least, of moderation; and some sense of honour
and justice is introduced into the most defective constitutions by the general
manner of the times. In peace, the progress of knowledge and industry is
accelerated by the emulation of so many active rivals: in war, the European
forces are exercised by temperate and indecisive contests. If a savage
conqueror should issue from the deserts of Tartary, he must repeatedly vanquish
the robust peasants of Russia, the numerous armies of Germany, the gallant
nobles of France, and the intrepid freemen of Britain; who, perhaps, might
confederate for their common defence. Should the victorious barbarians carry
slavery and desolation as far as the Atlantic Ocean, ten thousand vessels would
transport beyond their pursuit the remains of civilized society; and Europe
would revive and flourish in the American world, which is already filled with
her colonies and institutions.
III. Cold, poverty, and a life of danger and fatigue fortify the strength
and courage of barbarians. In every age they have oppressed the polite and peaceful nations of China, India, and Persia, who neglected, and still neglect, to
counter-balance these natural powers by the resources of military art. The
warlike states of antiquity, Greece, Macedonia, and Rome, educated a race of
soldiers; exercised their bodies, disciplined their courage, multiplied their
forces by regular evolutions, and converted the iron which they possessed into
strong and serviceable weapons. But this superiority insensibly declined with
their laws and manners: and the feeble policy of Constantine and his successors
armed and instructed, for the ruin of the empire, the rude valour of the
barbarian mercenaries. The military art has been changed by the invention of
gunpowder; which enables man to command
the two most powerful agents of nature, air
and fire. Mathematics, chemistry, mechanics, architecture, have been applied to
the service of war; and the adverse parties oppose to each other the most
elaborate modes of attack and of defence. Historians may indignantly observe
that the preparations of a siege would found and maintain a flourishing colony;
yet we cannot be displeased that the subversion of a city should be a work of
cost and difficulty; or that an industrious people should be protected by those
arts which survive and supply the decay of military virtue. Cannon and
fortifications now form an impregnable barrier against the Tartar horse; and Europe is secure from any future irruption
of barbarians; since, before they can conquer, they must cease to be barbarous.
Their gradual advances in the science of war would always be accompanied, as we
may learn from the example of Russia, with a proportionable improvement in the
arts of peace and civil policy; and they themselves must deserve a place among
the polished nations whom they subdue.
Should
these speculations be found doubtful or fallacious, there still remains a more
humble source of comfort and hope. The discoveries of ancient and modern
navigators, and the domestic history or tradition of the most enlightened
nations, represent the human savage
naked both in mind and body, and destitute of laws, of arts, of ideas, and
almost of language. From this abject condition, perhaps the primitive and
universal state of man, he has gradually arisen to command the animals, to fertilise
the earth, to traverse the ocean, and to measure the heavens. His progress in
the improvement and exercise of his mental and corporeal faculties has been
irregular and various; infinitely slow in the beginning, and increasing by
degrees with redoubled velocity: ages of laborious ascent have been followed by
a moment of rapid downfall; and the several climates of the globe have felt the
vicissitudes of light and darkness. Yet the experience of four thousand years
should enlarge our hopes and diminish our apprehensions: we cannot determine to
what height the human species may aspire in their advance towards perfection;
but it may safely be presumed that no
people, unless the face of nature is changed, will relapse into their original
barbarism. The improvements of society may be viewed under a threefold aspect.
1. The poet or philosopher illustrates his age and country by the efforts of a
single mind; but these superior powers of reason or fancy are rare and
spontaneous productions; and the genius of Homer, or Cicero, or Newton, would excite less admiration if
they could be created by the will of a prince or the lessons of a preceptor. 2. The benefits of law and
policy, of trade and manufactures, of arts and sciences, are more solid and
permanent; and many individuals may be qualified, by education and discipline,
to promote, in their respective stations, the interest of the community. But
this general order is the effect of skill and labour; and the complex machinery
may be decayed by time, or injured by violence. 3. Fortunately for mankind, the
more useful, or, at least, more necessary arts, can be performed without
superior talents or national subordination; without powers of one, or the union of many. Each village, each family,
each individual, must always possess both ability and inclination to perpetuate
the use of fire and of metals; the propagation and service of domestic animals;
the methods of hunting and fishing; the rudiments of navigation; the imperfect
cultivation of corn or other nutritive grain; and the simple practice of the
mechanic trades. Private genius and
public industry may be extirpated, but these hardy plants survive the
tempest, and strike an everlasting root into the most unfavourable soil. The
splendid days of Augustus and Trajan were eclipsed by a cloud of ignorance; and
the barbarians subverted the laws and palaces of Rome. But the scythe, the invention or emblem of Saturn, still continued
annually to mow the harvests of Italy; and the human feasts of the Laestrigons
have never been renewed on the coast of Campania.
Since the first discovery of the
arts, war, commerce, and religious zeal have diffused among the savages of the
Old and New World these inestimable gifts: they have been successively
propagated; they can never be lost. We may therefore acquiesce in the pleasing
conclusion that every age of the world has increased and still increases the
real wealth, the happiness, the knowledge, and perhaps the virtue, of the human
race.”
373.33 No lady
Rich is very poor…: cf. Shakespeare, King
Lear I.i: “France: Fairest
Cordelia, that art most rich being poor.”
373.35 kneecheewoe—:
373.37 first lady astronaut…: Valentina Tereshkova of the
USSR became the first female in space in June 1963; several months later in
Nov. 1963 she married fellow cosmonaut, Andrian Nikolayev, who is alluded to at
14.347.4. The New York Times for 20 June 1963 reported on her landing:
"2 Russians Land in Central Asia After Space Trip; First Woman Astronaut
Gets Bruised Nose Bykovsky Sets Record of 81 Orbits.”
374.6 hill
near town the little cemetery…: referring to WCW; see 361.17. Erie in the
next line refers to the Erie railway station in Jersey City, NJ, which LZ would
often pass through on his way to visit WCW in Rutherford. In his 1958 “A
Citation” for WCW, LZ states that his “preferred” way to visit was to take the
ferry then the train from the Erie station and mentions the station’s “iron
girders and vaulting of the station” (Prep+
47). See also 8.76.21
and 17.380.5-6.
374.12 button into the / rest of it:
uncertain but this possibly relates to Helen Kane’s 1929 hit song “Button Up
Your Overcoat”, the title stanza of which WCW quotes in his review of EP’s
first thirty Cantos (see 14.349.18), which WCW sent to LZ for feedback (WCW/LZ 80-82).
374.14 the life of the
fugue of it: Cf. Samuel Butler, The Way of All Flesh: “Life is like a fugue,
everything must grow out of the subject and there must be nothing new.” Qtd. Bottom
210, 266.
374.17 The dog
as the old friend lay dead / would not cross his threshold…: Paul Mariani
mentions this detail of Williams’ Shetland sheep-dog, Stormy, refusing to enter
his death-room, which LZ probably heard from Floss Williams (William Carlos Williams: A New World Naked,
McGraw-Hill, 1981: 767). The 50th anniversary issue of Poetry 101.1-2 (Oct.-Nov. 1962) published the poem “Stormy” (Collected Poems II, 380), which as far
as Floss could discern was the last poem WCW finished (Mariani 766), and LZ
would have seen this poem since he also appeared in the same issue.
374.30 Nestor,
‘Odysseus—where…: through 375.2 from Homer, Iliad X.544-579 describing the return of Odysseus and Diomedes from
their night-time raid, bringing back as booty the horses of Rhesos, King of
Thracia:
"[Nestor
speaking:] ‘Do tell me about it, Odysseus!
I can’t praise you enough this is a
feather in your cap! How did you get
those horses? Did you really get into the Trojan camp, or did some god meet
you and make you a present? Like the shining sun, I do declare! I am always
about in the battle, and I don’t bide in the rear, old as I am; but I have never set eyes on any horses like these. I suppose a god met
you and gave them to you; for you are both well loved by Almighty Zeus
Cloudgatherer and his daughter Athena Brighteyes!’
Odysseus
answered:
‘Nestor
Neleïdês, most illustrious King! It is
easy for a god, if he will, to
bestow even better horses than these;
for the gods are almighty. But these horses which you ask of, sir, are newly
come. They are Thracians, and the Thracian King has been killed by Diomedês,
and twelve of his best men by his side. Then for a thirteenth we killed a scout
near our lines, who had been sent to spy out the camp by Hector and his
princes.’
Then
laughing aloud for joy, he drove the horses across the moat. They went on to
Diomedês’ quarters, and tethered them in the stable with his other horses, and
gave them a feed of corn. Odysseus hung up the blood-stained spoils of Dolon on
the stern of his own ship, until he could prepare a sacrifice for Athena.
Now
he and Diomedês waded into the sea, and washed off the sweat from shins and thighs
and neck. Then clean again, and refreshed, they bathed in their stone tubs. So bathed and well rubbed with oil they sat down to dine, and dipping their
cups in a well-filled bowl of delicious wine, they poured the sacred grace for
Athena” (trans. W.H.D. Rouse).
375.4 . . o
poor . . away from all baths . .: from Homer, Iliad XXII; as Andromeche prepares for Hector’s return from battle,
unaware that he has already been killed by Achilles: “She called to the
servants to put a cauldrnon to boil on
the fire, that Hector might have a warm bath when he came in from the battle. Poor creature, she knew not that he was
far away from all baths, brought low
by the hands of Achillês and the will of Brighteyes Athena” (trans. W.H.D.
Rouse).
375.5 Hecuba
with bare breast…: Hecuba is the wife of Priam, King of Troy, and mother of
Hector. These three lines refer to Homer, Iliad
XXII.77-89, when his parents plead with Hector not to return to the field of
battle immediately before his fatal encounter with Achilles:
“As
the old man [Priam] spoke he tore the white hairs from his head; but Hector
would not listen. His mother stood there also, weeping; she loosened the fold
of her dress, and with the other hand bared her breast, and through her tears
cried out the secrets of her heart:
‘O
Hector, my own child, by this I beseech you, have pity of me, if ever I gave
you the soothing breast! Remember this, my love, and come behind these walls—
let these walls keep off that terrible man!” (trans. W.H.D. Rouse).
375.9 Thetis
/ and the nymphs…: catalog of Nereids that appears in Homer, Iliad XVIII.35-48. These Nereids support
and join Thetis, Achilles’ mother, in grieving at the news of Achilles violent
reaction to the death of Patroclus; they are “of the deepest bath” at 375.21 because
they are in “the deep sea.”
375.22 negritude: an aesthetic and ideology
insisting on the independent nature, quality and validity of Black culture
(AHD) and affirming African cultural heritage. It first developed as a
conscious movement in the 1930s in the work of the Francophone poets Aimé
Césaire from Martinique and Léopold Senghor from Senegal.
375.23 African
violet: various East African herbs of the genus Saintpaulia, having basal leaf rosette and a showy cluster of
violet or sometimes pink or white flowers; grown as ornamentals (AHD).
375.25 Job:
possibly referring here to Job’s-tears (Coix
lacryma-jobi), a grass that produces pearly white, tear-shaped seeds that
have long been prized for beading, including for rosaries.
375.26 white pods of honesty / stainflower:
honesty is Lunaria annua (see 14.356.12), a
European plant cultivated for its fragrant purplish flowers and round flat,
papery, silver-white seedpods; also called satinpod, satin flower or moonwort,
although the latter also confusedly names the fern Botrychium lunaria.
In any case, LZ associated these plants together due to their moon or lunar
names, which in turn are due to their having moon image features, and so
further associated with CZ since LZ associates various crescent images with C.
