Pound's Fascist Cantos (1997)

Cover design: Jack Ross

Ezra Pound’s Fascist Cantos (72 & 73) together with Rimbaud’s “Poets at Seven Years Old.” Trans. Jack Ross. Auckland: Perdrix Press. [ii] + 42 pp. [25 numbered copies].

Contents:

[Ezra Pound]: Canto LXXII: Presences

[Ezra Pound]: Canto LXXIII: Cavalcanti / Republican Dispatches

Samples:

Canto LXXII: Presences

Canto LXXIII: Cavalcanti / Republican Dispatches

Online Text:

Perdrix Press

Available:

Perdrix Press
6A Hastings Rd
Mairangi Bay
North Shore City 0630
Auckland

RRP: $NZ 5.00 [Out of print]

Reviews & Comments:

1. John O’Connor. JAAM 12 (1999): 126-28.
   

   
   … Ross’s versions are alive with Pound’s energy and convictions; they spark and jar ... It is a tribute to Jack Ross and an indication of his capability as a translator that these pieces stand fresh and intelligent even in their perversity, a perversity of which Ross is acutely aware.



2. Massimo Bacigalupo. "Correspondence: Pound’s Italian Cantos." Ka Mate Ka Ora 4 (September 2007): 154-57.
   

   
   … Your final quotation of Cockram doesn’t seem to make it clear enough that she is misguided in faulting the moral stance of these cantos. I find it strange that many readers insist that they are inexcusable, when passages like the Jew-baiting in canto 52 are much worse than anything to be found in them. Written as they were in a turbulent period, they may be said to exhibit moderation. I would also question your calling them ‘fascist cantos’. ‘War Cantos’ or ‘Italian Cantos’ would be more appropriate. Pound’s take on Fascism was very peculiar, in fact he thought he had to explain its merits to Italians! Besides, cantos 31-71 and 74-84 are no less fascistic than these. Anyhow, I find your commentary very astute, especially concerning the opening of the Pisan cantos and Pound’s use of persona.

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