Submitted: 23rd January 2010
Course: Poetry of the 20th Century (ENGL 361)
Ezra Pound’s Cathy is a compilation of his translation of the 8th Century Chinese poet, Li Po’s poems. As discussed in class, one of Pound’s motivations might be that by translating such poems, he would be “carrying the past to the present” (Class Notes). However, we are immediately led to doubt the faithfulness of such translations. Pound’s version of “Lament of the Frontier Guard” was the result of a series of reinterpretations of Li Po’s poem: Ernest Fenollosa’s notes and the various Japanese scholars he studied with. Pound himself didn’t understand a word of Chinese, so there does seem to be a lack of characteristics of 1) Chinese poetry during the 8th century and 2) Li Po as poet. Yet, it is precisely this ambivalent link between Li Po and Pound’s poetry which puts the “Lament of the Frontier Guard” within the political and literary reality of the early 20th century.
In the “Lament of the Frontier Guard”, Pound establishes a persona different from that of the poet himself. When we compare “In the Station of the Metro” and “Lament of the Frontier Guard”, Pound has a larger authorial presence in the former. Readers could almost imagine Pound himself standing amongst the “apparition of these faces” (Pound 351) in the metro station, giving readers a sense of immediacy. On the contrary, in “Lament of the Frontier Guard”, Pound composes a fictional narrative where at first glance, the persona seems to be the guard at the North Gate. Yet, the persona is actually embedded within nature itself. This is achieved through the juxtaposition of the richness of nature with the absence of man and of the individual. This idea seems to correspond with that of Hulme’s, one of those in Pound’s circle, who held that “human beings are finite and limited” (Ramazani, Ellmann and O’Clair 347). In the poem, the “desolate castle” is contrasted with the “sky, the wide desert”; thus, the emptiness of a human habitation is contrasted with the vastness of nature. In the next few lines, the absence of a “wall” to the “village” is contrasted with the “high heaps” of “frosts” (Pound 353) in a similar way. While it is within the Chinese poetic tradition to draw on nature as a medium of self-expression, this style serves Pound’s ideologies in two ways.
Readers aren’t asked to relate the author’s subjective emotions, but to the atmosphere of the era. Historically speaking, it was an era of war, of uncertainties, of tension and of violence. This tension is reinforced by the three-part rhetorical questions “Who” (Pound 353). The feeling of uncertainty is expressed through the progression of the seasons. This natural progression from autumn, winter, spring and then back to autumn, winter, spring and then back to autumn is juxtaposed with the unchanging face of war here the “turmoil of wars-man” continues throughout the years. In the literary world, there was an era of the Imagists. Pound’s definition of this is that “which presents an intellectual and emotional complex in an instant of time”
(Ramazani, Ellmann and O’Clair 347). The “Lament of the Frontier Guard” attempts to do so through the imagery of nature. “Bones white with a thousand frosts/High heaps, covered with trees and grass” (Pound 353) is an exemplar of this. This imagery conflates the horrific results of war with the bitter frost of winter, forcing an immediate emotional response from the reader.
Pound likens the Chinese war during the 8th century with the World War that was being fought on European grounds during 1915. By doing so, Pound also conflates the plight of the solders and the horrific outcomes of all the wars being fought, regardless of time and space. Thus, this ambivalent link between Li Po’s original and Pound’s version places the meaning of authenticity not in a specific time period and place, but in the images and the atmosphere embedded in such images.
Works Cited
Jahan Ramazani, Richard Ellmann, Robert O’Clair, ed. The Norton Anthology of Modern and Contemporary Poetry. New York, NY: W. W. Norton & Company, 2003. Print.
Pound, Ezra. “In a Station of the Metro.” The Norton Anthology of Modern and Contemporary Poetry. Ed. Jahan Ramazani, Richard Ellmann, Robert O’Clair. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2003. 351. Print.
Pound, Ezra. “Lament of the Frontier Guard.” The Norton Anthology of Modern and Contemporary Poetry Ed. Jahan Ramazani, Richard Ellmann, Robert O’Clair. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2003. 353. Print.
