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“Amitiés” by Ezra Pound 🇺🇸🇮🇹 (30 Oct 1885 – 1 Nov 1972)
Old friends the most.
—W. B. Y.
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I.
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To one, on returning certain years after.
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You wore the same quite correct clothing,
You took no pleasure at all in my triumphs,
You had the same old air of condescension
Mingled with a curious fear
That I, myself, might have enjoyed them.
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Te voilà, mon Bourrienne, you also shall be immortal.
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II.
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To another.
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And we say good-bye to you also,
For you seem never to have discovered
That your relationship is wholly parasitic;
Yet to our feasts you bring neither
Wit, nor good spirits, nor the pleasing attitudes
Of discipleship.
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III.
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But you, bos amic, we keep on,
For to you we owe a real debt:
In spite of your obvious flaws,
You once discovered a moderate chop-house.
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IV.
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Iste fuit vir incultus,
Deo laus, quod est sepultus,
Vermes habent eius vultum
A-a-a-a—A-men.
Ego autem jovialis
Gaudero contubernalis
Cum jocunda femina.