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

239 The Last Ten Years
nolly, whom she had never met, protesting remarks in his article about
Louis Zukovsky. Connolly had written that he could not forgive Pound for
condoning the actions of the Nazis at Belsen and other concentration
camps. Olga defended Ezra. During the war, she said, they were cut o√
completely, with no news, only one radio, and when Ezra was in the Pisan
camp, he had not heard about the atrocities or, she insisted, he would have
written about them in The Cantos. Many of his good friends were Jews—
she mentioned Luigi Franchetti (a grandson of a Rothschild), Giorgio
Levi, Lonnie Mayer—and some had appeared at the Rapallo concerts.
This was the beginning of a long correspondence—and friendship—with
Connolly.
After years of waiting, Olga at last had her prize. One observer noted
that ‘‘Miss Rudge was clearly the sea in which he [Pound] floated. She
cleaned, she shopped, she stoked the old stove.’’ And she appeared to
enjoy every day with Ezra. ‘‘Why is it, in old age, dancing seems better?
We had a gramophone, dancing with Him to Vivaldi [was] His idea!’’
After many lonely Christmases past, she now could enjoy the holidays
with her lover. They saw the New Year in with ‘‘His new couch, Vivaldi,
rain on the roof, dinner on a tray, later chocolates and grog—hot!’’
Their daily lives followed a familiar pattern: Ezra did yoga exercises
before breakfast, ‘‘spontaneously.’’ Lunch at the Pensioni Montin or Cici,
visits with friends, walks along the Zattere, a light supper at home (Olga
strictly monitored Pound’s diet). In the evening, Ezra often read selections
from The Cantos.
Along with notations about Ezra’s diet and daily activities (and eyeglasses
purchased), Olga noted their current reading—a preface to C. G.
Jung’s work, important to Pound because of Jung’s interest in the I Ching.
In answer to Olga’s query if it made sense, Ezra replied: ‘‘The things one
calls chance being a result of more laws than one knows.’’
They celebrated Olga’s April birthday with Else Bernheim and Joan
Fitzgerald at Fitzgerald’s studio viewing the just completed bust of Ezra;
he was pleased with it. Many old friends—and often curious strangers—
found their way to the calle Querini. Mrs. Philip Barry, the playwright’s
widow and Grace Kelly’s aunt, was sent to them by Caresse Crosby. The
poet Paul Blackburn, who translated Provençal poets following in Pound’s