Item #5781 Cathay. Translations by Ezra Pound For the Most Part From the Chinese of Rihaku, From the Notes of the Late Ernest Fenollosa, and the Decipherings of the Professors Mori and Ariga. Li Bai, Ezra Pound, Li Bo Li Po.
Cathay. Translations by Ezra Pound For the Most Part From the Chinese of Rihaku, From the Notes of the Late Ernest Fenollosa, and the Decipherings of the Professors Mori and Ariga
Cathay. Translations by Ezra Pound For the Most Part From the Chinese of Rihaku, From the Notes of the Late Ernest Fenollosa, and the Decipherings of the Professors Mori and Ariga
Cathay. Translations by Ezra Pound For the Most Part From the Chinese of Rihaku, From the Notes of the Late Ernest Fenollosa, and the Decipherings of the Professors Mori and Ariga
Cathay. Translations by Ezra Pound For the Most Part From the Chinese of Rihaku, From the Notes of the Late Ernest Fenollosa, and the Decipherings of the Professors Mori and Ariga

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Cathay. Translations by Ezra Pound For the Most Part From the Chinese of Rihaku, From the Notes of the Late Ernest Fenollosa, and the Decipherings of the Professors Mori and Ariga

London: Elkin Mathews, Cork Street, 1915. 12mo, original printed tan wrappers. 31, [1] pp. Without the advertisement leaf at rear found in some copies. Bookplate designed by Jack Butler Yeats for Eleanor and Fred Reid tipped onto verso of flyleaf, bearing printed date of 1953.

First edition. One of 1000 copies printed. Pound’s translation of eighteen medieval poems chiefly by Li Po (A.D. 701–762), including “The River-Merchant’s Wife: A Letter” and “Lament of the Border Guard.” Widely considered a masterpiece, the volume is all the more remarkable considering that Pound actually knew no Chinese, relying instead on notes by Ernest Fenollosa. Literary critic George Steiner notes that Cathay’s poems “altered the feel of the language and set the pattern of cadence for modern verse.”

REFERENCES: Gallup A9.

CONDITION: Very good, toned, minor edge wear.

Item #5781

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