Olga Rudge & Ezra Pound: "What Thou Lovest Well..."

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The Subject Is—Wartime
1941–1945
‘‘Two di√erent consorts of one god’’
The war began in earnest. Ezra was in Rome expounding his economic
and political theories on the American Hour for Rome Radio, for
which he was paid 350 lire (then approximately twelve dollars) a broadcast.
On January 23 he wrote to Olga: ‘‘made 2 discs yesterday . . . 9
discursi in a fortnight. . . . No goddam light / no goddam stamps / no
tabac open . . . can’t see—God damn hotel with no light! . . . typing in the
dark / typing in the twilight / she decipher if she can.’’
He composed a poem for Katue Kitasono, his Tokyo correspondent:
Stage, a room on the hill among the olive trees,
the violinist playing the air of Mozart’s 16th violin sonata
Then a finch or some bird that escapes my ornithology tried to
counterpoint (all though in key)
I suppose the subject is: War time.
The Rapallo concerts had ceased. ‘‘The foreign subscribers are gone . . .
no Gerhart Münch, no pianist / no public.’’
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