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Ezra Pound and Mary deRachewiltzThe fatherUnorthodox patriot or traitor?Discretions: Ezra Pound, Father and Teacher, by Mury de-wHachewiltz. New' Directions,$4.75.Reviewed by Dana GioiaOn May 5,1945 two ex-fascist, Italian convicts knocked with gun butts at the door of Ezra Pound’s home in Rapallo, Italy. They took the 59-year-old poet to the Allied Forces, who had just reached that part of Italy, and collected a ransom. Later Pound was driven through Rapallo in an open jeep handcuffed to a rapist killer and eventually taken to a military concentration camp near Pisa.Imprisoned i n an outdoor wire cage on the death row of the camp. Pound was literally housed and treated like an animal. During several weeks of solitary confinement, Pound became very ill from exposure and eye infections. The military authorities eventually moved him to a tent. Here Pound wrote some of our century’s most famous90poems, The Pisan Cantos. A few weeks later he was flown to the States where he became one of the few Americans since Aaron Burr ever indicted for treason.The few facts hint at one of the great riddles of modern American intellectual history. No one has ever satisfactorily explained what the Americans did to EzraPound or more importantly whatPound did to America. He has been accused of treason, praised as an unorthodox patriot, excused as an eccentric and ignored as a brilliant lunatic.Influential poetThere is no doubt that Ezra Pound is the most influential American poet of the 20th century. There is also little doubt that he has been the most controversial in both his poetics and his politics. (’.radually the poetic issues have been resolved, overwhelmingly in Pound’s favor. But the political questions still confound his readers.Most critics refuse to discuss Pound’s (or any poet’s) politics. They try to maintain a distance between a poet’s art and his politics. But Pound himself refused to make this distinction in his work, and even his early work before the Cantos has a keen edge of social criticism.Pound asked for his work to be judged politically, not as a final judgment perhaps but as a necessary step toward it. Yet except for a few perf unctory (and usually uninformed) comments, the academic critics, who have flocked to Pound’s work in recent years after a half century of•rneglect, have ignored this side of his work.Stanford's own William Chace has written the only intelligentfull-length study of Pound’s politics. His book. The Political Identities of Ezra Pound and T.S. Eliot examines the questions with intelligence and accuracy. Chace took the time to read everything he wrote about with care, and his book avoids the unbelievably bad scholarship of some earlier books.Yet Professor Chace’s radical orientation hardly makes him sympathetic to the direction of Pound’s political activities. He has done the best possible job of illuminating Pound from one political perspective. A complementary book from another angle is still needed. Perhaps a more political version of Hugh Kenner’s monumental The Pound Era would be the nature of this book.Mary deRachewiltz’s memoirgoes a long way in filling thisgap. It presents an inside view of the poet and his position within fascist Italy. While deRachewiltz never explicitly defends her father’s politics, she does present a credible and sympathetic view of the intellectual milieu in which he lived.Impressive defenseMost Americans have been unable to distinguish Mussolini’s Italv from Hitler’s Ger-many. The causes, effects and manifestations of fascism weredrastically different in bothcountries. In an unobtrusive way Discretions captures the flavor of Pound’s emigre existence in Venice and Rapallo during Mussolini's regime. By neither defending nor commenting on the scene, deRachewiltz has written an impressive defense of her father.A sympathetic personal portrait of Pound is long overdue. Most versions of Pound are grotesque caricatures: the cerebral polyglot translating Chinese, the poetic entrepreneur taking literary London by storm, the jew-baiting fascist broadcasting for Mussolini. Hundreds of people have left us snapshots of the poet, but few of them give us much idea about the whole man.Discretions is an invaluable book because it gives us a fascinating portrait of Pound as a man. Until now there has been very little trustworthy information available in English about Pound’s years in Italy. Pound spent the 20 most productiveyears of his life in Italy, thelongest amount of time he spent in any one country during his adult life. Until now most of the crucial events of these years have remained vague and distorted.Discretions also provides genuine insights into The Cantos. Pound’s most ambitiousliterary work. His daughter never discusses the book assuch, but she continuallyweaves in passages from the Cantos into her text. These quotes are passages Pound wrote in his poem that reflect incidents in his daughter’s life. Many puzzling passages in the poem become absolutely lucid through deRachevviltz’s skillful juxtaposition.DeRachevviltz’s memoir is an amazing book. She tells herstorvin a quiet, sympathetic way andnever preaches or propagandizes. Tlic* hum,m storv she re-lates takes precedence over a political apologia for her father. Her calm recollections will certainly defend Pound’s humanism more eloquently than any frenetic tirade. While in Pisa•rPound wrote “filial, fraternal affection is the root of hu mu ness the root of the process.” His daughter has certainly proven • her filial affection in the best possible way.The daughterFrom peasant to princessBy Dana GioiaThe Princess Mary deRachewiltz is tlu* only daughter ot Ezra Pound. Russian by title. Italian by birth. American byW0parentage, deRachewiltz’s cosmopolitan identity reflects tin?mobility of her parents, the great American poet and his mistress, the famous violinist and musicologist. Olga Rudge.In Italv Marv deRachewiltz is widely known as a poet and translator. Three hooks of her own poetry have appeared in Italian. She has translated most ot her lather's work into Italian (including most of tlu* formidable Cantos)us well as the works of E.E. Cummings, Robinson |offers . Denise Levertov and Marianne Moore.In the English-speaking world Mary deRachewiltz is becoming widely-known for her important book of memoirs. Discretions: Ezra Pound, Father and Teacher. Enough books have been published on Pound to fill a large bookcase, but this volume is the first full-length memoir of Pound written bv someone who90knew him intimately.• IDeRachewiltz has a childhood reminiscent of a fairy tale. Left by her parents as an infant in tlu? hands of a Tyrolean peasant family. she was raised speaking a German dialect in the Italian Alps. She joined the family in chores and tended her own flock of sheep. Gradually she was in-, . s’world in Venice. Although both of her parents were American, they spoke to her in Italian, since this was the country in which they in-tended to stay.In the Tyro Is she received hereducation in Italian, the language made mandatory by the new fascist regime. After she had joined her parents in Italy she was tutored in English and Greek by her father and in French and Latin by Desmond Shute, an Englishman living in Italy. To perfect her knowledge of Italian she was sent to a convent school in Florence.have Pound's gift. Until the war«md Pound’s imprisonment Olg.i Rudge seemed cold and aloof to her daughter.The difference between her parents is captured in one incident deRachewiltz recalls in her memoirs. After seeing a GingerRogers-Lred Astaire film in Venice Pound tap-danced his way home, encouraging his daughter to do likewise. Once home Pound went to his room, took off his coat and proceeded to do a deafening Fred Astaire imitation. His wife entered the roomand quickly put an end to Pound's spontaneous antics. I ler scolding the poet tor his lack of propriety was typical of her proper and reserved demeanor.The war and its aftermath left deRachewiltz like so many other Europeans in a state of desperate confusion. Her troubles were increased when her father was taken to the United States to stand trial for treason and then confined to St. Elizabeth’s Hospital. Yet like so many of her contemporaries she survivedand did so brilliantly.Soon after the warshe marriei an exiled Russian prince, Boris deRachewiltz. Together the\ took over a dilapidated casth near her childhood village aru slowly renovated it. VYhib working for her father’s release she gradually joined interna tional literary circles and begat publishing verse and transla tions of her father’s work.As a girl deRachewiltz heldboth of her parents in considerable awe. Almost like her Tyro-lean foster parents she considered them in a class above her. Pound gradually broke through these barriers. His frankness and affection spoke to the girl in a paternal way. Mary's mother, the temperamental virtuoso, did notNow an established author i two languages Mary de Rachewiltz guards her father’ memory quite literally. She ha become the curator of the Fzr Pound archive at Yale Univer sitv. Occasinally she lectures oi her father’s work. She is keepinj his memory alive with a per sonal touch. Few poets are thaluckv.—Photo courtesy Walter MartinPOUND THE POET — Most would agree that Ezra Pound is one of the most talented and influential poets of the 20th century. But disagreement lies in his political beliefs; was he a traitor or a patriot? Pound refused to make a distinction between his art and notifies, a factor that most critics try to overlook when discussing his work. Pound asked that his work be judged politically as most of his writings are distinctly social critiques.rOur jetfares toEurope arelaec tli anCATCHftPOCOSTUDIO PRINT REPRINTSin deluxe Silk Finishfrom your favoriteKodacolornegatives.one size onlySPECIAL5 f°r QQ0THIS COUPON MUST ACCOMPANY ORDERS-MSP-183Offer expires:April 15, 1976
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Stanford Daily
Stanford, California, US
Fri, Apr 09, 1976
Page 5
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USA 25 Jun 2020
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