“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