Pound's Translations of Confucius

Literary/ Cultural Context Essay

Yi-Kuan Su (University College London)

Ed. by Matthew Hofer, University of New Mexico
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 3.2.4: American (US) Writing and Culture: Postwar and Contemporary, 1945-present.
Vol. editors: Sofia Ahlberg (Uppsala University), Patrick Chura (University of Akron), Emory Elliott (University of California, Riverside), Dale Enggass (University of Utah), Christopher Hugh Gair (University of Glasgow), Matthew Hofer (University of New Mexico), Stephen E. Meats (Pittsburg State University), Kerry Myler (Birmingham Newman University), Justin Parks (UiT - The Arctic University of Norway), Nick Selby (University of East Anglia)

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Literature Topic

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Date of occurrence 1928-1954

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United States (Location)
China (Involved)

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Introduction

Canto XIII of Ezra Pound’s modernist epic begins with the lines “Kung walked / by the dynastic temple / and into the cedar grove.” “Kung” is the idiosyncratic French spelling of the name of the Chinese philosopher Confucius. The clarity and precision of the word “dynastic” links the poem not only to the past, but also to the perpetuating of traditions. Pound perceived himself as a devoted disciple of “Kung” and proclaimed that he had a mission to translate and transmit the moral philosophy of his master to the West: “The blossoms of the apricot / blow from the east to the west, /And I have tried to keep them from falling” (Canto XIII/60).

Canto XIII of Ezra Pound’s modernist epic begins with the lines “Kung walked / by the dynastic temple / and into…

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4784 words

Citation: Su, Yi-Kuan. "Pound's Translations of Confucius". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 26 January 2018 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=19500, accessed 26 November 2024.]

Pound's Translations of Confucius

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