Ezra Pound




from Canto LXXIX

ελεησν                      Kyrie eleison  
                 each under his fig tree
                 or with the smell of fig leaves burning
so shd/ be fire in winter
with fig wood, with cedar, and pine burrs

                  O Lynx keep watch on my fire.

So Astafieva had conserved the tradition
From Byzance and before then 
                  Manitou remember this fire
O lynx, keep the phylloxera from my grape vines
          Ιακε,Ιακε,Χαιρε, AOI
                 “”Eat of it not in the under world”
                     See that the sun or the moon bless thy eating
Κορη, Κορη,     for the six seeds of an error
or that the stars bless thy eating

                     O Lynx, guard this orchard,
                     Keep from Demeter’s furrow

This fruit has a fire within it,
                     Pomona, Pomona,

No glass is clearer than are the globes of this flame
what sea is clearer than the pomengranate body
            holding the flame?
                                    Pomona, Pomona,

                    Lynx, keep watch on this orchard
                    That is named Melagrana
or the Pomegranate field
                     The sea is not clearer in azure
                      Nor the Heliads bringing light

         Here are lynxes                      Here are lynxes,
         Is there a sound in the forest  
                                  of pard or of bassarid
         or crotale             or of leaves moving?

                                      Cythera, here are lynxes
Will the scrub-oak burst into flower?
          There is a rose vine in this underbrush
Red? White? No, but a color between them
           When the pomegranate is open and the light falls
half thru it 
                      
                        Lynx, beware of these vine-thorns
                        O Lynx, γλβυκωπις coming up from the olive yards,
                        Kuthera, here are Lynxes and the clicking of crotales
There is a stir of dust from old leaves
            Will you trade roses for acorns
             Will lynxes eat thorn leaves?
             What have you in that wine jar?
                                       ιχωρ, for lynxes?

Maelid and bassarid among lynxes;
                   how many? There are more under the oak trees,
We are here waiting the sun-rise
             and the next sunrise
for three nights amid lynxes. For three nights
             of the oak-wood
and the vines are thick in their branches
             no vine lacking flower,
no lynx lacking a flower rope
             no Maelid minus a wine jar
this forest is named Melagrana

                      O lynx, keep the edge on my cider
                      Keep it clear without cloud

We have lain here amid kilicanthus and sword-flower
              The heliads are caught in wild rose vine
The smell of pine mingles with rose leaves
                      O lynx, be many
                      of spotted fur and sharp ears.
                      O lynx, have your eyes gone yellow,
                      With spotted fur and sharp ears?

Therein is the dance of the bassarids
        Therein the centaurs
And now Priapus with Faunus
         The Graces have  brought αφροδιτην
          Her cell is drawn by ten leopards
          O lynx, guard my vineyard
          As the grape swells under vine leaf
           Ηλιοσ  is come to our mountains
          there is a red glow in the carpet of pine spikes

          O lynx, guard my vineyard
          As the grape swells under vine leaf

          This Goddess was born of sea-foam
          She is lighter than air under Hesperus
                δεινα ει, Κυϑηα
terrible in resistance
                 Κορη και Δηλια
 και Μαια
trine as praeludio
                 Κυπρισ Αφροδιη

a petal lighter than sea-foam
               Κυθηρα
                         aram  
                           nemus
                             vult

O puma, sacred to Hermes, Cimbica servant of Helios.