The world of the troubadours of medieval Provence--of Bertran de Born,
Arnaut de Mareuil, and Peire Bremon lo Tort--always fascinated Ezra
Pound and, as Stuart McDougal shows, provided both themes and techniques
for his early poetry.
Pound's first translations of Provençal poetry were a way of penetrating
an alien sensibility and culture and making it his own; they were also
important technical exercises. Confronted with the problem of finding a
suitable form and language for the Provencal experience, he condensed,
deleted, expanded--the results were highly original works.
Among Pound's early experiments were the studies of individual Provencal
poets, each representing one of the qualities of Provençal culture that
attracted him--Bertran is the man of action and Vidal is an example of
the close connection between man and the "vital universe."
Implicit in Pound's treatment of the past is his belief in the
contemporaneity of these medieval values. This belief remains constant
in The Cantos, although as the work developed it became clear that no
single cultural framework could encompass it. Nevertheless, the medieval
world remained the cornerstone of Pound's paradise--a brilliantly
unified, vibrant world against which he could contrast the chaos and
sterility of contemporary civilization.
Originally published in 1973.
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