'L'autrui.' Poem by Michael Walker

'L'autrui.'

Helas les peu de gens dans mon pays,
Oh reste assservi.

Des artistes brises contre lui,
Egares, perdus dans les villages,
Mefies, diffames,

Les amants de beaute, affames,
Contrecarries des systemes,
Impuissants contre le controle;

Vous qui ne pouvez vous fatiguer
A persister aux reussites,
Vous qui ne pouvez que parler,
Qui ne pouvez vous armer a la reiteration;

Vous qui avez un plus beau sentiment,
Casse contre le faux savoir,
Vous qui connaissez de premier main,
Hais, enfermes, mefies:

Reflichissez:
Moi, j'ai resiste a l'orage,
J'ai vaincu mon exil.

- 'The Rest.' 1915. Ezra Pound (1885-1972) .

Wednesday, November 4, 2015
Topic(s) of this poem: exile
POET'S NOTES ABOUT THE POEM
Pound addresses the writers who have stayed in the U.S.-while he has gone to live in England. Later, Pound would move to France, then Italy. He made pro-Fascist radio broadcasts in World War II,
for which he was imprisoned at Pisa. Ezra Pound was tried for treason in the U.S. in 1945. He was found to be insane enough to be confined to St. Elizabeth's Hospital, Washington for ten years.Poets, led by Frost, Eliot, MacLeish eventually persuaded the government that Pound was no longer insane or a traitor, and he was discharged. Ezra Pound returned to Venice to live, for the rest of his life.
When you think about it, Pound's life was one long exile. I think he showed great strength of character to still write the 'Cantos', which were unfinished at his death. I read all the 'Cantos' and liked them. The English poem is p.178, 'Twentieth-Century American Poetry', edited by D. Gioia, D. Mason, Meg Schoerke.
COMMENTS OF THE POEM
READ THIS POEM IN OTHER LANGUAGES
Close
Error Success