“A”-15
3 Oct.-1 Dec. 1964
359.2 hinny: a mule got from a she-ass by a stallion; to neigh, whinny
(CD).
359.7 He neigh ha lie low…: these following four stanzas through 360.14
consist 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 notes
that follow 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. The following Heb. 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: see 13.293.23.
359.13 Then I said: Liveforever my
nest / is arable…: through 359.16 primarily working with the King James
Version of Job 29:18-21: “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. Unto me men gave ear, and waited, and kept silence at my counsel”
(Leggott 155). On liveforever see 1.4.29.
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 khege.ver 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 uv.kheker 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,
360.6: 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 King
James translation: “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.
360.20 The Parkway: this alludes
to when the Zukofskys lived at 160 Columbia Heights, Brooklyn on the 11th
floor, 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 Love Field, Dallas: JFK assassinated in Dallas, Texas; Love Field
is Dallas’ main airport originally a WWI training base named after Moss Lee
Love, killed in a plane crash in 1913, one of the earliest American military
aviation deaths.
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, Illiad 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.”
363.37 to atone for your souls:
see Leviticus 17:11: “For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have
given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is
the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul.”
364.11 Castro ‘We should comprehend it…: Fidel Castro (b. 1926), President
of Cuba since 1959.
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 does not inspire the brightest ideas.’ That was a long
time ago, however.”
365.6 (Guildencrantz): university friend of Hamlet. Here probably refers
to Barry Goldwater, the Republican presidential candidate who lost to Lyndon B.
Johnson in the 1964 election.
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.
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. Capella is particularly bright in winter and is at the zenith in
the northern hemisphere in early winter when Kennedy was assassinated. Ahearn
explains 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: evening star, especially Venus.
366.22 Vesper Olympus: see opening of Catullus, Carmina 62.
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.
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 closed with: “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 on Robert Frost at Amherst College, in which he
spoke the words quoted through 367.32: “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…: as part of JFK’s military funeral procession,
a horse was saddled but riderless 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. The horse, Sardar (meaning Chief), was 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.
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. 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’:
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.
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: ancient city in southeast Iran, famous for carpets.
369.24 (an anagram):
369.25 ‘hawking with the Amir (like old Briton)…:
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):
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, the unconquered in battle, Love, you who
descend upon riches,)
now on
th’heyday caught as thus mown
νϋν δ΄ ήδη ΄γώ καύτός θεσμών
nun d'
êdê 'gô kautos thesmôn
(But now, witnessing this, I too am carried
beyond the bounds of loyalty.) (trans. R.C. Jebb)
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…:
373.35 kneecheewoe—:
373.37 first lady astronaut…: Valentina Tereshkova of the USSR became the
first female in space in June 1963; she married fellow cosmonaut, Andrian
Nikolayev in Nov. 1963.
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:
374.17 The dog as the old friend lay dead / would not cross his threshold…:
Paul Mariani in William Carlos Williams:
A New World Naked (McGraw-Hill, 1981) mentions this detail of Williams’
dog, Stormy, refusing to enter his death-room, which LZ probably heard from
Floss Williams (767).
374.30 Nestor, ‘Odysseus—where…: through 375.2 from Homer, The Iliad Book 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:] ‘Come tell me now, Odysseus,
greatly to be praised, great glory of the Achaeans, how ye twain took these horses. Was it by entering the throng of
the Trojans? Or did some god that met you give you them? Wondrous like are they
to rays of the sun. Ever do I mingle in battle with the Trojans and nowise
methinks do I tarry by the ships, old warrior though I be; howbeit never yet saw I such horses neither
thought of such. Nay, methinks some god hath met you and given you them; for
both of you twain doth Zeus the cloud-gatherer love and the daughter of Zeus
that beareth the aegis, even flashing-eyed Athene.’
Then
in answer spake unto him Odysseus of many wiles: ‘Nestor, son of Neleus, great
glory of the Achaeans, easily might a
god that willed it bestow even
better horses than these, for the gods are mightier far. But these horses,
old sir, whereof thou askest, are newly come from Thrace, and their lord did
brave Diomedes slay, and beside him twelve of his comrades, all them that were
the best. And for the thirteenth we slew a scout near the ships, one that
Hector and the other lordly Trojans had sent forth to spy upon our camp.’
So
spake he, and drave the single-hooved horses through the trench, exultingly,
and with him went joyously the rest of the Achaeans. But when they were come to
the well-builded hut of the son of Tydeus, the horses they bound with shapely
thongs at the manger where stood the swift-footed horses of Diomedes, eating
honey-sweet corn. And on the stern of his ship did Odysseus place the bloody spoils
of Dolon until they should make ready a sacred offering to Athene. But for
themselves they entered the sea and washed away the abundant sweat from shins
and necks and thighs. And when the wave of the sea had washed the abundant
sweat from their skin, and their hearts were refreshed, they went into polished
baths and bathed. But when the twain
had bathed and anointed them richly with oil, they sate them down at supper, and from the full mixing-bowl they drew
off honey-sweet wine and made libation to Athene.” (Trans. A.T. Murray).
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, The Iliad Book XXII.77-89, when they
plead with Hector to come from the field of battle immediately before his fatal
encounter with Achilles:
“Thus
spake the old man [Priam], and with his hands he plucked and tore the hoary
hairs from his head; but he could not persuade the heart of Hector. And over
against him the mother in her turn wailed and shed tears, loosening the folds
of her robe, while with the other hand she showed her breast, and amid shedding
of tears she spake unto him winged words:
‘Hector,
my child, have thou respect unto this and pity me, if ever I gave thee the
breast to lull thy pain. Think thereon, dear child, and ward off yon foemen
from within the wall, neither stand thou forth to face him. Cruel is he; for if
so be he slay thee, never shall I lay thee on a bier and bewail thee, dear
plant, born of mine own self, nay, nor shall thy bounteous wife; but far away
from us by the ships of the Argives shall swift dogs devour thee’” (Trans. A.T.
Murray).
375.9 Thetis / and the nymphs…: catalog of Nereids that appears in Homer,
The 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 ocean.
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 honesty: Lunaria annua, a European plant
cultivated for its fragrant purplish flowers and round flat, papery,
silver-white seedpods; also called satin flower (AHD); see 14.356.12.
375.27 satinflower: a plant of
coastal California having showy, red-blotched flowers (AHD); see preceding
note.
