XVII By Ezra Pound
So that the vines burst from my fingers
And the bees weighted with pollen
More heavily in the vine-shoots:
Chirr—chir—chir-rikk—a purring sound,
And the birds sleepily in the branches.
ZAGREUS! IO ZAGREUS.
With the first pale-clear of the heave
And the cities set in the hills,
And the goddess of the fair knees
Moving there, with the oak-woods behind her,
The green slope, with white hounds
leaping about her;
And thence down to the creek’s mouth, until evening,
Flat water before me,
and the trees growing in water,
Marble trunks out of stillness,
On past the palazzo,
in the stillness,
The light now, not of the sun.
Chrysophrase,
And the water green clear, and blue clear;
On, to the great cliffs of amber.
Between them,
Cave of Nerea,
she like a great shell curved,
And the boat drawn without sound,
Without odor of ship-work,
No bird cry, nor any noise of wave moving,
Nor splash of porpoise, nor any noise of wave moving,
Within her cave, Nerea,
she like a great shell curved
In the suavity of the rock,
cliff green-gray in the far,
In the near, the gate-cliffs of amber,
And the wave
green clear, and blue clear,
And the cave salt-white, and glare-purple,
cool, porphyry smooth,
the rock sea-worn.
No gull-cry, no sound of porpoise,
Sand as malachite, and no cold there,
the light not of the sun.
Zagreus, feeding his panthers,
the turf clear as on hills under light.
And under the almond-trees, gods,
with them, choros nympharum. Gods,
Hermes and Athene,
As shaft of compass,
Between them, trembled—
To the left is the place of fauns,
sylva nympharum;
The low wood, moor-scrub,
the doe, the young spotted dear,
leap up through the broom-plants,
as dry leaf amid yellow.
And by one cut of the hills,
the great alley of Memnons.
Beyond, sea, crests seen over dune
Night sea churning shingle,
To the left, the alley of cypress.
A boat came,
One man holding her sail,
Guiding her with oar caught over gunwhale, saying:
“ There, in the forest of marble,
“ the stone trees—out of water—
“ the arbours of stone—
“ marble leaf, over leaf,
“ silver, steel over steel,
“ silver beaks rising and crossing,
“ prow set against prow,
“ stone, ply over ply,
“ the gilt beams flare of an evening”
Borso, Carmagnola, the men of craft, i vitrei,
Thither, at one time, time after time,
And the waters richer than glass,
Bronze gold, the blaze over the silver,
Dye-pots in the torch-light,
The flash of wave under prows,
And the silver beaks rising and crossing.
Stone trees, white and rose-white in the darkness,
Cypress there by the towers,
Drift under hulls in the night.
“In the gloom the gold
Gathers the light about it.”
Now supine in burrow, half over-arched bramble,
One eye for the sea, through the peek-hole,
Gray light, with Athene.
Zothar and her elephants, the gold loin-cloth,
The sistrum, shaken, shaken,
the cohorts of her dancers.
And Aletha, by the bend of the shore,
with her eyes seaward,
and in her hands sea-wrack
Salt-bright with foam.
Kore through the bright meadow,
with green-gray dust in the grass:
“For this hour, brother of Circe.”
Arm laid over my shoulder,
Saw the sun for three days, and none after,
Splendour, as the splendour of Hermes,
And shipped thence
to the stone place,
Pale white, over water,
known water,
And the white forest of marble, bent bough over bough,
The pleached arbour of stone,
Thither Borso, when they shot the barbed arrow at him,
And Carmagnola, between the two columns,
Sigismundo, after that wreck in Dalmatia.
Sunset like the grasshopper flying.
Originally Posted by Virgil
. Just from my quick reading of the poem I thought maybe it would be a good idea if we could sort out some of the allusions in the poem, so here are a few glosses I could make right away. Maybe others can contribute more.
) but I thought 'oak woods behind her' refers to the headboard/frame of the bed and hills to the curves of a woman's body... 