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

194 A Visitor to St. Elizabeth’s
had since before the flood.’’ Olga was happier about their situation:
‘‘Them children are living in Paradiso all right . . . Walter [is] a very
charming child, great sensitivity to the sound of words.’’ The alpine path
was too steep for the little ones to climb, and she was planning to buy a
donkey to carry the children from Brunnenburg to Merano. A donkey cost
less than a double baby carriage, she considered, and the Count had
o√ered to order the animal from Sardinia through his fattore.
Life at the ancient castle was not always an earthly Paradiso. In early
June, the dining room ceiling collapsed, breaking furniture and china and
smashing a clock, requiring repairs costing more than half a million lire.
Uncle Teddy appeared in their time of need, to Mary’s eyes, a benevolent
genie: ‘‘The most sensible man I’ve ever met. I would say a Saint, if that
wouldn’t sound funny.’’
Back in Siena, Olga found the same intrigues and uncertainties, the
population doubled, the streets a hell with camions, cars, and vespas, the
concerts spoiled by tra≈c noise. One pleasant diversion from the ‘‘zoo’’
was a performance of Verdi’s Don Carlo in Florence with Count Chigi.
Referring to the Chigi family motto, Micat in Vertice (Shining at the
Summit), Ezra queried ‘‘if Chigi knows his Mycat, or vortex, is out of
Svetorius Caesar’s soul risen to heaven—so [the] star allus on top over his
statue?’’
In July 1951, Olga returned to Paris, her first visit to the ‘‘Center of the
Universe’’ since the war; she had been ‘‘fearing disappointment at coming
back after all these years, but it is . . . more beautiful!’’ As Suzanne Baumgartner’s
guest on the rue de La Fontaine in the Sixteenth Arrondissement,
she was just around the corner from the rue Chamfort where the concierge,
to her surprise, recognized her: ‘‘nothing changed, except me!’’
She was to represent the Accademia Musicale Chigiana at the Third
International Congress of Music Librarians (July 22–25) sponsored by
UNESCO. A cocktail party hosted by the publisher of a music review, and
a visit backstage of the foyer de danse of the Paris Opera with congress
members, were highlights.
Julien Cornell, Pound’s lawyer, was also in Paris, which gave Olga an
opportunity to meet with him. A graduate of Swarthmore College and
Yale Law School, Cornell was a Quaker, an idealist, and a pacifist, to