Tempus loquendi,
Tempus tacendi.
[a] a joke on the reader– Cantos 1-30 in general
and 17-30 in particular [minus
a few foreshadowings of Jefferson and Kung] have
alternated between Rennaisance history and modern
economic history. This opening sounds like we’re going
back to the Rennaisance again….but Ez has in mind
what he considers the second Rennaisance….
[b] the phrase [which means ‘A time to talk, a time to
keep silent’] : motto of Sigismundo Malatesta….but
as the use of cypher makes clear Jeff. also knew times
to keep silent…”Liberty always in danger” as Burke said
Said Mr. Jefferson: it wd. Have given us
time….
modern dress for your statue….
Some wanted a ‘classical’ statue of Washington in Roman toga; Jeff wanted him in contemporary garb.
Cf Sigismundo’s shockingly ‘modern’ Temple [by the standards of his time[; Pound’s role as agitator for
modernism in literature, painting, sculpture, music etc.;
see especialy:
For years no water came, no rains fell
for the Emperor Tching Tang
grain scarce, prices rising
so that in 1760 Tching Tang opened the copper mines
(ante Christum)
made discs with square holes in their middles
and gave these to the people
wherewith they might buy grain
where there was grain
der in Baluba das Gewitter gemacht hat
Tching prayed on the mountain and
wrote MAKE IT NEW
on his bath tub
Day by day make it new
hsin
jih
jih
hsin
cut underbrush,
pile the logs
keep it growing
Consider their sweats, the people’s
If you wd/ sit calm on throne
Canto 53
MAKE IT NEW: These ideograms which I rendered hsin jih jih hsin mean ax/logs, day, day, ax/logs — or, more generally house-building, every day, house-building;
or renew, day after day, renew. The idea: we can’t repeat the past exactly, must renew/revitalize it. Kung made this quote from Tching central to his politics; Pound made it central to his art and his art criticism.
BTW, Jefferson agreed with Tchng [and Ez] that an honest state has credit and need not borrow from private banks
I remember having written you while congress sat at An-
napolis,
on water communication between ours and the western
country,
particularly the information….of the plain between
Big Beaver and Cayohoga, which made me hope that a canal
navigation of Lake Erie and the Ohio. ..
You must have had
occasion of getting better information on this subject
and if you have you wd. oblige me
by a communication of it. I consider this canal,
if practicable, as a very important work.
T. J. to General Washington, 1787
Cf the bombards of Sigismundo; cf Kung [Canto 13]
“get up and do something useful”‘; cf Ez’s grandpaw
“sweating blood” to build his railway.[cantos 21-22]..
Ez built his own funiiture BTW and Bucky Fuller
admired its TEXNE
…no slaves north of Maryland district….
Jeff giving up [temporarily] on abolition of slavery
and concentrating on limiting its spread;
Pound’s heroes always appear with warts visible
…flower found in Connecticut that vegetates when suspended
in air….
screw more effectual if placed below surface of water.
Suspect that a countryman of ours, Mr Bushnell of Connecticut
is entitled to the merit of prior discovery.
Compare the contents of Sigismundo’s pouch [Canto 9];
two ideogrammic definitions of “Rennnaisance man’
And thus Mr Jefferson (president) to Tom Paine:
You expressed a wish to get a passage to this country
in a public vessel. Mr. Dawson is charged with orders
to the captain of the Maryland to receive and accommodate
you
with passage back, if you can depart on so short a warning…
in hopes you will find us returned to sentiments
worthy of former time…..in these you have laboured as
much as any man living. That you may long live to
continue your labours and to reap their fitting reward…
Assurances of my high esteem and attachment.
To illustrate Jeff.s solidarity with rationalism; this
kinda guy cd never succeed in American politics today
This country is really supposed to be on the eve of a XTZBK49HT
(parts of this letter in cipher)
Jefferson, from Paris, to Madison, Aug. 2, 1787
…care of the letters now enclosed. Most of them are
of a complexion not proper for the eye of the police.
From Monticello, April 16th. 1811
To Mr Barlow departing for Paris.
“A time to keep silence” See?
But observe that the public were at the same time paying
on it an interest exactly the same amount
(four million dollars). Where then is the gain to either
party which makes it a public blessing? to Mr Eppes, 1813
think about it…and about the current deficit
