by T. S. Eliot
In the letter to Paulhan, 7 Dec 1949, TSE wrote of Perse: “his influence can be seen in some of the poems I wrote after I finished the translation: he influenced my images and also perhaps my rhythm. Whoever examines my late work will find that this influence perhaps never disappeared”, Honneur à St.-John Perse: Hommage et témoignages littéraires (1965) 19.
To Perse, 3 Feb 1958: “I think that the first requirement for a translator is to realise that he does not know French as well as he should and the second qualification is that he should realise that he does not know his own language as well as he should. I experienced both these realisations when translating Anabase.”
TSE on Perse: “The interesting point is that Léger wanted to avoid the (French) Bible, and whenever he spotted the Bible in my translation he wanted me to alter it”, to Herbert Read [6 Dec 1929].
Perse on TSE: “Eliot’s interest in words was literary and etymological; he learned about words by reading the Oxford dictionary; whereas my own vocabulary comes from my knowledge of many skills and crafts”, in conversation with Kathleen Raine, Southern Review Jan 1967.
Readings from editions other than 1959 are designated variant.
I
I viii towns on the slopes with powder (variant: in sugar of coral the diverse quarters of cities on the slopes): “palaces on slopes · · · sherbet”, Journey of the Magi 9–10.
I ix the idea pure as salt: for Remy de Gourmont’s fascination with “l’idée pure”, see note to First Debate between the Body and Soul 8.
I xv men from the marches: “the guards shake dice on the marches”, Coriolan I. Difficulties of a Statesman 24. Anabase: “gens des confins” [men of the borders].
I xv variant O light folk blown by a breath of wind: “Carrying | Away the little light dead people”, WLComposite 175–76. “My life is light, waiting for the death wind”, A Song for Simeon 4.
I xv in the little dawn wind: “blown, like the metal leaves | Before the little dawn wind unresisting”, Little Gidding II 35 variant.
[Poem II 85–87 · Textual History II 644–45]
I xix destiny · · · the seeds of time: Macbeth I iii: “If you can look into the seeds of time, | And say which grain will grow, and which will not”.
I xx god-drunken: Novalis, on Spinoza: “Ein Gott-betrunkener Mensch” [A God-intoxicated man].
I xxi drawing to our dockyards eternal keels: “forever bailing, | Setting and hauling · · · drawing their money, drying sails at dockage”, The Dry Salvages II 25–28.
II
II v, III x the same man may burn with desire for a woman and for her daughter · · · the man tainted with gonorrhoea washes his linen in clean water: “Mrs. Porter | And · · · her daughter | They wash their feet in soda water”, The Waste Land [III] 199–201 (see note).
III
III i imposing: TSE underlined “emphatiques” in TSE’s Anabase, with “collocation of conversat. rhetorical”.
III iii variant Senectus: Anabase: “vieillesse”. See note to Gerontion 19–20, “juvescence”.
III v And doubt is cast on the reality of things: to Virginia Woolf, 5 Mar 1933: “In this country, as my friend St. Léger Léger says in his Anabase: Doubt is Cast on the Reality of Things.” 25 Apr: “Very grateful thanks I proffer for your letter. If I had more such letters it would help me to preserve my sense of the Reality of Things.” if a man shall cherish his sorrow: for Pater on those who “wilfully lived in sadness”, see note to The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock 13–14. “There is no relief but in grief”, Five-Finger Exercises I. Lines to a Persian Cat 6 (see note).
III viii the power of signs and visions: “we would see a sign”, Gerontion 18 (“Scenters of signs and seeds”, Anabasis, I xv).
III ix, IV x the princes, the ministers, the captains · · · the bankers: “The captains, merchant bankers, eminent men of letters”, East Coker III 3.
III ix The saddle of the weakling is burnt: Bonamy Dobrée to TSE, 24 July 1930, on the translation of “On fait brûler la selle du malingre”: “I think your wilfulness here and there goes too far (incidentally I don’t believe that Perse knows any English worth speaking of). Nothing will persuade me that Anabasis does not contain two undeniable mistakes. ‘They burnt the saddle of the malingerer’ (I quote from memory) should be ‘They burnt the dung of the weakling’ · · · If you don’t like dung for selle, you could use the similar word stool.” TSE to Dobrée, 28 July: “Léger ought to know enough English to distinguish between dung and saddle; but there you may be right · · · I owe you a glass of sherry about selle. Léger certainly overlooked that? But why should the stool of the weakling (malingerer) rather than his saddle [be burnt]? Answer me that. If he belonged to a race of horsemen it wd. be more significant to burn his saddle than his stool. Can you cite any authorities for burning the stool of the malingerer? Anyway, it’s not so bad as the German translator who turned Fétus de paille into ‘foetuses made of straw’” (III ii; TSE translates correctly as “bits of straw”). TSE emended “saddle” to “stools” in US 1938 only, before reverting to “saddle”.
[Poem II 87–93 · Textual History II 645–46]
III xii my soul · · · say to the Prince to be still: “I said to my soul, be still”, East Coker III 23.
IV
IV v living waters on the mountains: “exhausted wells · · · among the mountains”, The Waste Land [V] 384–85 and for “the fountain of living waters”, see note to [V] 384; for “the living Rock”, see note to Airs of Palestine, No. 2.
IV vii disembarkation of girls: Laforgue: “Et comment quelques couples vraiment distingués | Un soir ici ont débarqué …” [and how several really refined couples disembarked here one evening …], Cythère 11–12. See Goldfish II, note to title Embarquement pour Cythère.
IV viii ships taller than Ilion: Marlowe: “Was this the face that launched a thousand ships | And burnt the topless towers of Ilium?” Doctor Faustus sc. XIV (see note to A Proclamation 7, 19). the white peacock: D. H. Lawrence’s first novel was The White Peacock (1911). He died the year before Anabasis was published.
IV vii variant in our places: “returned to our places”, Journey of the Magi 40.
IV viii the ships · · · having crossed the bar: Tennyson: “When I have crost the bar”, Crossing the Bar.
IV ix deadwater: OED “dead water, dead-water”: “still water”. See note to Little Gidding II 10–11. Anabase: “point mort” [dead point].
IV x vacant lots and rubbish: Anabase: “ce quartier aux détritus” [this area of rubbish]. vacant lots: see Preludes IV 16 and note.
IV xiv girls’ waist cloths hanging at the windows: “Out of the window perilously spread | Her drying combinations”, The Waste Land [III] 224–25. The previous eds. had translated “ses caleçons de filles” as “camiknickers” (1930), “knickerbockers” (US 1938) and “drawers” (US 1949). (See “the publication of the bride-sheets”, X v.)
IV xv lunation: OED 1. “The time from one new moon to the next, constituting a lunar month.” 2. “The time of full moon.” 3. “A menstruation. rare.”
V
V i variant an hundred fires in towns wakened by the barking of dogs: TSE to Dobrée, 28 July 1930: “the Manchester Guardian says I have made the towns, not the fires, ‘awakened’. Error.” Emended in US 1938 and US 1949 to “in towns an hundred fires revived by the barking of dogs”, and in 1959 to “an hundred fires revived in towns by the barking of dogs”. Anabase: “cent feux de villes avivés par l’aboiement des chiens”.
V v–vi squadrons of stars · · · bivouacs: for Meredith’s “the stars · · · marched, rank on rank, | The army”, see note to Cousin Nancy 13.
V vii falling Bielides: OED: “An Andromede … supposed to come from the remains of Biela’s comet”, with “The Bielid meteors were observed here in considerable numbers”, Science (1885). (See A. J. Knodel, PMLA June 1964.) For “Comets … Leonids”, see East Coker II 13 (and note to II 1–17).
[Poem II 93–99 · Tex
tual History II 646–47]
V xii benighted: OED 1: “To be overtaken by the darkness of night (before reaching a place of shelter)”. Variants: “put up for the night” (1930), “held up for the night” (US 1938). Anabase: “l’étoile s’anuitait” [the star turns to night]. “Under the twinkle of a fading star · · · dying stars”, The Hollow Men III 6, IV 3.
V xii–xiii when the star · · · did we know · · · spears · · · Ablutions: Blake: “When the stars threw down their spears | And watered heaven with their tears, | Did he smile”, The Tyger 13–15.
V xv the woman extends herself from nail to nail: “Princess Volupine extends | A meagre, blue-nailed, phthisic hand”, Burbank with a Baedeker: Bleistein with a Cigar 25–26. In TSE’s Anabase, TSE underlined “la femme s’étire sur son ongle” with “de bout” and “du pied”.
V xix there is no more substance of man in him: John 8: 44: “there is no truth in him”. winged seeds, like a poet in his thoughts: Tennyson: “his thoughts were · · · winged with flame · · · like the arrow-seeds · · · wingèd shafts”, The Poet 10–11, 19, 26.
VI
VI i variant scented girls, who shall soothe us with a breath of silk webs: “And the silken girls bringing sherbet”, Journey of the Magi 10. See note to I viii.
VI i–ii girls · · · silk webs · · · springes for happiness: OED “springe”: “A snare for catching small game”, citing Farquhar, Love and a Bottle: “And have your ladies no springes to catch ’em in?” girls · · · high places · · · springes: Hamlet I iii, OPHELIA: “with all the vows of Heaven”. POLONIUS: “Ay, springes to catch woodcocks.” (See Textual History for variants including “daughters”.)
VI iii sang · · · like Memnon: Lemprière: “The Ethiopians, over whom Memnon reigned, erected a celebrated statue to the honour of their monarch. This statue had the wonderful property of uttering a melodious sound every day, at sunrising, like that which is heard at the breaking of the string of a harp when it is wound up.”
VI vi shaking an iron tree: “shaken from the wrath-bearing tree”, Gerontion 47.
VI viii this race settled on the slopes: the three editions 1930–US 1949 read “this folk squatting on the slopes” (“the Jew squats on the window-sill”, Gerontion 8). Anabase: “cette race établie sur les pentes” [this race established on the slopes]. See note to IX v. swift upon the seeds of sedition: Francis Bacon quotes John Morton, Lord Chancellor of England and Archbishop of Canterbury: “it is not the blood spilt in the field that will save the blood in the city · · · the true way is, to stop the seeds of sedition and rebellion in their beginning”, Henry VII.
VI x peace · · · military endowments · · · treaties of amity and of boundary, conventions of people with people: “I believe that modern war is chiefly caused by some immorality of competition which is always with us in times of ‘peace’; and that until this evil is cured, no leagues or disarmaments or collective security conferences or conventions or treaties will suffice to prevent it”, The Church’s Message (1937). cisterns: see The Waste Land [V] 384 and note. leaves of gold, treaties of amity and of boundary: following the Anglo-French treaty of 1514, Henry VIII met Francis I of France in amity in 1520 at the Field of the Cloth of Gold, in what was then the English Pale of Calais.
[Poem II 99–107 · Textual History II 647–48]
VI xiii an odour of violets: to John Hayward, with diagrams of various states of dress and undress of gentlemen’s legs 25 June [1934]: “The radial lines indicate that peculiar emanation or rather effulgence which usually accompanied with the odour of Violets is accustomed to envelop the Limbs and torso of very Holy persons.” (OED “odour” 5: “odour of sanctity (Fr. odeur de sainteté, 17th c.) · · · a sweet or balsamic odour stated to have been exhaled by the bodies of eminent saints at their death, or on subsequent disinterment · · · reputation for holiness: sometimes used ironically or sarcastically.”)
VII
VII iv variant Camels, gentle beneath the shears: Dobrée to TSE, 24 July 1930: “Chamelles douces sous la tonte · · · I do not think means that the camels didn’t mind being clipped: I should say rather: As camels smoothed by the shears, stitched with mauve scars · · · douces being opposed to the shagginess of unclipped camels: clipped camels do look as though they were cousues de mauves cicatrices. I think that the whole paragraph is simply comparing a line of hills to a trail of camels, which finally barrack in the distant mist.” TSE to Dobrée, 28 July: “I admit that you know more about camels than I do; but then why did he put she-camels instead of he- or he-and-she camels? You are quite right about the camels and the hills, but I found that out in discussion with Léger.” TSE emended “Camels” (1930) to “Milch-camels”, US 1938+.
VII v sandsmokes: sole citation in OED (“sand” n.2).
VII vii wind · · · wonders: “windy spaces · · · wonders”, Gerontion 16–17.
VII viii, x the jujuba · · · a great bird: Carroll: “Beware the Jubjub bird”, The Jabberwocky in Through the Looking-Glass ch. I.
VII ix Levy a wilderness of mirrors: “multiply variety | In a wilderness of mirrors”, Gerontion 64–65. Anabase: “un peuple de miroirs” (= a people, nation, of mirrors).
VIII
VIII ii clepsydrae: OED: “An instrument used by the ancients to measure time by the discharge of water; a water-clock”, with Sir Thomas Browne, “They measured the hours not only by .. water in glasses called Clepsydræ, but also by sand in glasses called Clepsammia”, Pseudodoxia Epidemica (Vulgar Errors, 1646) V xviii.
VIII iv vacance: OED: “poet. nonce-use. A rendering of Fr. absence”, citing this only.
VIII v the frontiers of the spirit: on Maritain’s Situation de la poésie: “he is concerned with the risks to which are exposed those poets who endeavour to cross les frontières de l’esprit · · · poetry, if it is not to be a lifeless repetition of forms, must be constantly exploring ‘the frontiers of the spirit.’ But these frontiers are not like the surveys of geographical explorers, conquered once and for all and settled. The frontiers of the spirit are more like the jungle · · · always ready to encroach and eventually obliterate the cultivated area”, That Poetry is Made with Words (1939); see note to East Coker V 11–18. (To Robert Waller, 19 Oct 1942, alluding to Mallarmé’s retort to Degas: “Poetry is made with words not with ideas, though it exploits ideas just as a poet exploits his private experiences and emotions. It isn’t that he wants to tell the world about what he feels, but that what he feels is the only thing he has to tell it: he wants to write a poem, and so he uses whatever material he has. A poem is primarily FORM and making words come alive.”) selucid: OED “Seleucid”: “One of the Seleucidæ or members of the dynasty · · · which reigned over Syria from 312 to 65 B.C. and subjected a great part of Western Asia.”
[Poem II 109–113 · Textual History II 648]
VIII viii To the place called the Place of the Dry Tree: Luke 23: 33: “to the place, which is called Calvary”.
VIII xiii Indian cocculus · · · intoxicating properties: OED: “cocculus indicus”: “a climbing plant found in Malabar and Ceylon; the berry is a violent poison, and has been used to stupefy fish, and in England to increase the intoxicating power of beer and porter.”
IX
IX i making westward, what: Wordsworth: “What, you are stepping westward?”, Stepping Westward.
IX v old · · · seated on the heights: Tennyson (first line and title): “Of old sat Freedom on the heights”. seated: the three editions 1930–US 1949 read “squatting” (Anabase: “assis”). See note to VI viii.
IX xiv his sex: Dobrée to TSE, 24 July 1930: “I do not think that sex for sexe (meaning cock, prick or tool) is English, though I see from one of the American magazines that it is American. I do not think that in English I can wash my sex any more than I can wash my nationality. What I wash is my parts.” TSE to Dobrée, 28 July 1930: “As for sex, that was deliberate on my part, an innovation if you like.” OED: “sex” 3c: “Genitalia; a penis. slang
” from 1938.
X
X i with the brim seduced: TSE annotated Perse’s “séduit” in TSE’s Anabase: “cf. Latin: se ducere” (= “to lead aside”). provinces · · · the things of the plain: Genesis 19: 29: “the cities of the plain”. Proust’s À la recherche du temps perdu: Sodome et Gomorrhe (1921–22) was published in C. K. Scott Moncrieff’s translation as The Cities of the Plain (1928), two years before Anabasis.
