The Waste Land

“

Nam Sybillam quidem Cumis ego ipse oculis meis vidi in ampulla pendere, et cum pueri illi dicerent: Στβμλλ τί Θέλεις; respondebat illa: άπσΘνειν Θελω.^[1]

”

For Ezra Pound^[2]
il miglior fabbro.^[3]

Notes

↑ This epigraph is from Petronius' Satyricon. Apollo had granted the Sybil immortality, but she had forgotten to ask for perpetual youth, so she still aged. Literally: “I have seen with my own eyes the Sibyl hanging in a jar, and when the boys asked her ‘What do you want?’ She answered, “I want to die.’”
↑ Pound suggested cuts and edits tot he first manuscript of the poem.
↑ “The better craftsman.” From Dante’s Purgatory (26.117)

[1] This epigraph is from Petronius' Satyricon. Apollo had granted the Sybil immortality, but she had forgotten to ask for perpetual youth, so she still aged. Literally: “I have seen with my own eyes the Sibyl hanging in a jar, and when the boys asked her ‘What do you want?’ She answered, “I want to die.’”

[2] Pound suggested cuts and edits tot he first manuscript of the poem.

[3] “The better craftsman.” From Dante’s Purgatory (26.117)

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