CANTO XXVII

From Confucius back into the intricacies of the modern world and its revolutions. I was started in the middle of canto 27.

Let the last five build the wall.

refers to the warriors of the Cadmus legend, the five who survived of those who had sprouted from the teeth Cadmus had scattered over the ground — the teeth of a monster he had killed with a stone. 

And tovarish is the Russian compagno. In Russia there is no civilization because there is no stone and they had a revolution without arriving at anything. Tovarish is like the corn, unconscious; like the corn, being sowed in the earth and then baked and eaten —

 And that tovarish cursed and blessed wihout aim.

When the second half got into the flowing stage, I could start at the beginning of the Canto: “Observed that the paint was — refers to one of Kipling’s naval reports.” And they elected a Monsieur Brisset — a damn country boor, intended to be a poet and they got him to Paris, all sorts of attentions and honors and I was passing through Paris at the time...”

Mary de Rachewiltz. Ezra Pound, Father and Teacher: Discretions 158.

RELATED CANTOS

CANTO XVI - war and revolution

SIENA CANTOS - the constructive will of a community