The Translations of Ezra Pound

New York: New Directions, [1953]. First Edition (presumed; no prior editions or printings cited). 408 pages; 23 cm. Very good in well edge-tattered good(-) jacket; now in archival mylar. Hardcover.

First collected gathering of Pound’s translations, edited with an introduction by Hugh Kenner, issued while Pound was still confined at St. Elizabeths. Contents run from the Cavalcanti poems and Arnaut Daniel, with the Italian and Provençal originals printed alongside, through Cathay, “The Seafarer,” and the Noh plays worked up from Ernest Fenollosa’s notes and commentary, to versions from Rémy de Gourmont and a closing section of miscellaneous poems. The Cavalcanti work spans four decades of revision, from the 1910 introduction through the 1912 Sonnets and Ballate to the revisions of 1920 and 1931. Superseded by Faber’s enlarged edition of 1970, which added further versions from Latin and Provençal, including Catullus, so this first issue preserves the canon as Kenner first framed it.Contents: Cavalcanti poems -- Arnaut Daniel poems -- Cathay -- The seafarer -- Noh plays -- Dust for sparrows / by Rémy de Gourmont -- Miscellaneous poems. To Formianus' young lady friend: after Valerius Catallus -- Descant on a theme by Cerclamon -- Her monument, the image cut thereon: from the Italian / by Leopardi -- Rome: from the French / of Joachim du Bellay -- Dieu! Qu'il la fait / from Charles D'Orléans -- Pierrots: from the French / of Jules Laforgue.;English translations by Ezra Pound of literature in various languagesChinese poetry -- Translations into English. Italian poetry -- Translations into English. Nō. Nō plays -- Translations into English. French poetry -- Translations into English. English poetry -- Old English, ca. 450-1100 -- Translations into English. Anthologies. English literature. Littérature anglaise. Anthologies. Nō. anthologies. English literature Anthologies Chinese poetry English poetry -- Old English French poetry Italian poetry Literature Nō Nō plays Collections Translations Literature. Littérature. Time: 450 - 1100