L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E Manifesto

• To question conventional attitudes to speech and referentiality.

• To use the influence of Louis Zukofsky as a model.
• To use the influence of Gertrude Stein (remember language divorced from its reference – silences!!).
• To react to Wittgenstein’s ideas of language as a game.
Anh biết rằng hồi chuông thực chất chỉ là một tiếng chuông mà thôi — tiếng
chuông ấy tạo ra hồi ức, và hồi ức lại tạo ra hồi ức, tạo ra hồi ức, tạo ra hồi
ức…

Anh biết rằng mọi thời đại chỉ là một thời đại mà thôi — thời đại ấy tạo ra hồi
ức, và hồi ức lại tạo ra hồi ức, tạo ra hồi ức, tạo ra hồi ức…

Anh biết rằng, mọi hành vi chỉ là một hành vi mà thôi — hành vi ấy tạo ra hồi
ức, và hồi ức lại tạo ra hồi ức, tạo ra hồi ức, tạo ra hồi ức…
In a Station of the Metro
BY EZRA POUND
The apparition of these
faces in the crowd:
Petals on a wet, black
bough.
The River-Merchant’s Wife: A Letter
BY EZRA POUND
After Li Po

While my hair was still cut straight across my

forehead
I played about the front gate, pulling flowers.
You came by on bamboo stilts, playing horse,
You walked about my seat, playing with blue
plums.
And we went on living in the village of Chōkan:
Two small people, without dislike or suspicion.
At fourteen I married My Lord you.
I never laughed, being bashful.
Lowering my head, I looked at the wall.
Called to, a thousand times, I never looked back.
At fifteen I stopped scowling,
I desired my dust to be mingled
with yours
Forever and forever, and forever.
Why should I climb the look out?
At sixteen you departed
You went into far Ku-tō-en, by
the river of swirling eddies,
And you have been gone five
months.
The monkeys make sorrowful
noise overhead.
You dragged your feet when you went out.
By the gate now, the moss is grown, the
different mosses,
Too deep to clear them away!
The leaves fall early this autumn, in wind.
The paired butterflies are already yellow with
August
Over the grass in the West garden;
They hurt me.
I grow older.
If you are coming down through the narrows
of the river Kiang,
Please let me know beforehand,
And I will come out to meet you
As far as Chō-fū-Sa.
The River Merchant's Wife: A Letter" is a poem loosely translated by Ezra Pound from a
poem by Chinese poet Li Bai. It first appeared in Pound's 1915 collection Cathay. It is the
most widely anthologized poem of the collection. Zhaoming Qian has referred to "The
River Merchant's Wife" as an "imagist and vorticist [masterpiece]".
The poem is written from the perspective of a girl married to a
river merchant, and describes her gradually increasing affection for
him and the pain she feels when he is away.

The poem honors constancy and faithfulness as the wife reflects on

the development of their life together and expresses her growing
sorrow as she anxiously awaits his return. One important theme in the
poem reveals the process through which the love between the man
and woman develops.

Form: The River-Merchant’s Wife: A Letter’ by Ezra Pound is a five

stanza poem that is separated into uneven sets of lines. The first
stanza contains six lines, the second: four, the third: four, and the fifth
has the most at eleven lines. As was the case with all of Pound’s
poetry, as a leader of the Modernist movement, particular of the
Imagism, there is no rhyme scheme or metrical pattern. This is a
technique known as free verse.
As an imagist, Pound respected the economical use of language
and disregarded any need for enhanced poetic diction or
overcomplicating syntax.

Pound also makes use of anaphora, or the repetition of a word or

phrase at the beginning of multiple lines, usually in succession.
This technique is often used to create emphasis. A list of phrases,
items, or actions may be created through its implementation. This
can be seen through the use of “You” at the beginning of multiple
lines of ‘The River-Merchant’s Wife: A Letter’. This makes sense
considering the importance that the intended listener, the young
woman’s husband, plays in the poem. She is telling their story and
addressing every line to him
interruption occurs when a line is split in half,
sometimes with punctuation, sometimes not. The use
of punctuation in these moments creates a very
intentional pause in the text. A reader should consider
how the pause influences the rhythm of one’s reading
and how it might come before an important turn or
transition in the text. There is a good, impactful
example in the seventh line of the fifth stanza. It reads:
“They hurt me. I grow older”. It falls in the section
that includes the young woman’s depictions of the
gardens around their home and how everything is
changing. Time is passing and she’s still alone.