RECURRING DECIMAL: Cf. note GK 238.

Gavin Douglas … Golding made a new Ovid: Cf. note GK 149–50.

Chun-Tchi … translation of the Odes: The excerpt in Latin is from the preface by Ch'ing emperor Chun-Tchi in Lacharme's version of the Confucian Odes (cf. notes GK 34, 205). Pound misspells the accusative singular “hanc” (“this”) as “haec” (“these”), which Lacharme renders correctly. Loosely translated, the passage reads, “So much benefit emanates from this book that I wanted to heap praises on it, hence this preface.” Canto 59 opens with the beginning of Chun-Tchi's preface:

Mussolini … monetary issue: The Duce's understanding of the cultural capital and political power of poetry (or at least poetic rhetoric) can be discerned in a speech he gave in Florence on April 26, 1924, following a speech by Delcroix (cf. note GK 229). Mussolini praises Delcroix's “magnifica impressione di poesia” (“magnificent poetic impression”) and his “alato e spendente discorso” (“sublime and radiant speech”). Delcroix's remark is from a letter to Pound dated February 19, 1935, “It is necessary for poets to concern themselves with economics and with every other political and civil question, because the world is going to ruin above all from the fact that poetry has become in a certain sense extraneous to life.”

Ickes: Harold L. Ickes (1874–1952), progressive Republican appointed by Roosevelt as Secretary of the Interior in 1933, the only cabinet minister to serve all twelve years of the Roosevelt administrations. The author of several books, including New Democracy (1934) and Back to Work: The Story of the PWA (1935), Ickes shared Pound's distrust of plutocratic power.