First edition

CATHAY | TRANSLATIONS BY | EZRA POUND | FOR THE MOST PART FROM THE CHINESE | OF RIHAKU, FROM THE NOTES OF THE | LATE ERNEST FENOLLOSA, AND | THE DECIPHERINGS OF THE | PROFESSORS MORI | AND ARIGA | | LONDON | ELKIN MATHEWS, CORK STREET | MCMXV

31pp. 19.3 x 13.3 cm. Heavy tan paper wrappers, printed in black on pages [i] and [iv], folded over end-papers; fore and bottom edges untrimmed.

Published 6 April 1915 at 1s.; 1000 copies printed. Imprint at foot of page [32]: Chiswick Press: Printed by Charles Whittingham and Co. Tooks Court, Chancery Lane, London.

Contents: Song of the Bowmen of Shu. By Kutsugen [i.e. Bunno]—The Beautiful Toilet. By Mei Sheng—The River Song. By Rihaku—The River-Merchant’s Wife: A Letter. By Rihaku—The Jewel Stairs’ Grievance. By Rihaku [with “Note”]—Poem by the Bridge at Ten-Shin. By Rihaku—Lament of the Frontier Guard. By Rihaku—Exile’s Letter. By Rihaku—The Seafarer (from the Early Anglo-Saxon Text)—From Rihaku: Four Poems of Departure [with epigraph beginning “Light rain is on the light dust”): (“Separation on the River Kiang”; “Taking Leave of a Friend”, “Leave-taking near Shoku”; “The City of Choan”)—South-Folk in Cold Country—[Note] “I have not come to the end of Ernest Fenollosa’s notes by a long way, nor is it entirely perplexity that causes me to cease from translation. ... But if I give [the poems] ... with the necessary breaks for explanation, and a tedium of notes, it is quite certain that the personal hatred in which I am held by many, and the invaia which is directed against me because I have dared openly to declare my belief in certain young artists, will be brought to bear first on the flaws of such translation, and will then be merged into depreciation of the whole book of translations. Therefore I give only these unquestionable poems.” (Note, signed: E. P., p. [32]) An advertisement leaf headed “Ezra Pound’s New Book [ie. Cathay]” was loosely laid in some copies and inserted following page [32] in others.

Note: All the poems in Cathay were reprinted, with four additional poems from the Fenollosa notebooks, in Lustra ([1916])—A11, in Personae (1926)—A27, in Selected Poems ([1928])—A30, in Collected Shorter Poems ([1952])—Az27d, in The Translations ([1953])—A66, in Selected Poems 1908-1959 ([1975])—Ag7, and in Collected Early Poems ([1976])—Ag8.