Re: Yiddishe Cup: Not rotten!

[George Robinson <GRComm...>]

Kame'a Media wrote:

> Yes, he was.  Pound conducted  regular radio broadcasts
> for the Nazis from his home in Italy throughout the War.
> He was later punished by the Americans.
>
> It is absurd to see him quoted in a Jewish music promo.
> <yidishe kop>?  <katzenkop> is more like it.
>
> This is the kind of thing that illustrates the dearth of
> Jewish historical and cultural literacy of all-too-many klezmer musicians.
>
> Anybody can make a mistake.
>
> Wolf
>

I'm not sure I want to get into this particular kettle of worms (NB: mixed 
metaphor
inserted deliberately), however ---

Actually, Pound did his radio broadcasts for Mussolini, who he thought was
downright wonderful. Yes, he was a vicious anti-Semite (read any of the "usura"
cantos for a sample).  On the other hand, and I don't want to make any more of 
this
than necessary, there is a famous encounter between him and Allen Ginsberg 
toward
the end of Pound's life -- Ginsberg interviewed him for, of all things, Ramparts
Magazine, and Pound told the younger poet that he had "taken a vow of silence, 
in
atonement for my suburban sin of anti-Semitism."
A great poet, but a strange, troubled and troubling man.

L'shana tova,
George Robinson


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