Not Out on Interest

Pound gives us the sense that he picked up where the Psalmist left off. With regard to David the Psalmist, there remains an unsettling, tantalizing passage in "The Pisan Cantos."


        to redeem Zion with justice

sd/Isaiah. Not out on interest said David rex

                                                 the prime s.o.b.


In this unique parallelistic structure we try to unravel the inner workings relevant to the original Biblical contexts from which these phrases are taken, taking into account the Bible versions Pound might have used.


The theme of justice and interest, apparent in this passage, which has long attracted Pound will be examined, drawing comparison with a Japanese Confucian Aizawa.  


Eiichi Hishikawa

Professor, Graduate School of Humanities, Kobe University