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

171 What Thou Lovest Well Remains
ment to take back the territory annexed by the Italians in World War I
accelerated. Easter week saw a renewal of the old rites of spring, mostly
pagan. Twelve villages assembled in Gais, with bearers of the cross
dressed in Tyrolean costume. ‘‘Work in the fields is dropping little by
little,’’ Mary wrote. She had been to market to buy sheep with Herr
Marcher, and ‘‘in the evening I enjoy the Tragic Muse.’’ The ‘‘daughter
lost’’ sent her mother gifts of butter, speck (bacon), a pair of socks, and
wool for mending.
Olga shared her life in Sant’Ambrogio with Ezra. Her days, she wrote,
‘‘all seem much the same. In [the] morning, correspondenza; afternoon,
downhill for three lessons . . . at noon, a sandwich tostato from the
delicatessen (pastry better than pre-war) . . . translated a love letter into
English for the cameriera of the lavandaia, then back to Rapallo to a
devoted pupil, served real co√ee . . . making enough to keep fed. . . . for 200
[lire] a day, one should be able to have meat, eggs and fish . . . [but] most of
my pupils [pay] at old prices, and I don’t know how to ask them to pay
more.’’
Olga again focused her attention on Mary, who announced her intention
to marry a young man she had met at Princess Troubetzkoi’s picnic
while visiting Ezra in Rome, Boris Baratti. He was the half-Russian, half-
Italian scion of a family with ‘‘rickety titles,’’ in Mary’s words, and at the
time of their courtship, penniless. He was, in Olga’s view, a most unsuitable
suitor.
There were heated discussions, and in April, Mary seemed to capitulate.
To Olga, she wrote: ‘‘If you have some advice to o√er me, I’ll be grateful
for it. I am feeling more sensible now. . . . When I first kissed Boris, I knew
nothing about his title. I knew only that he was more clever than anyone
else I had met—except Babbo, of course, he has no par.’’ She confided that
‘‘Frau Marcher is not pleased at the idea of marriage because we are too
young.’’
While Boris was visiting Gais, the young lovers discovered a castle near
Mary’s birthplace and began to dream of making it their home. Mary
described the situation to her mother: ‘‘I took B. there and told him it was a
pity such a nice old place should fall in the hands of a rich butcher in
Bruneck who wants to make a hotel out of it. . . . He said it would be much