A broken bundle of mirrors...!


Then turn at once to "To a Friend Writing on Cabaret Dancers."

It is easy to say that the language of "Cathay" is due to the
Chinese. If one looks carefully at (1) Pound's other verse, (2)
other people's translations from the Chinese (e.g., Giles's), it
is evident that this is not the case. The language was ready for
the Chinese poetry. Compare, for instance, a passage from
"Provincia Deserta":

I have walked
into Perigord
I have seen the torch-flames, high-leaping,
Painting the front of that church,--
And, under the dark, whirling laughter,
I have looked back over the stream
and seen the high building,
Seen the long minarets, the white shafts.
I have gone in Ribeyrac,
and in Sarlat.
I have climbed rickety stairs, heard talk of Croy,
Walked over En Bertran's old layout,
Have seen Narbonne, and Cahors and Chalus,
Have seen Excideuil, carefully fashioned.

with a passage from "The River Song":

He goes out to Hori, to look at the wing-flapping storks,