Ezra Pound

De Aegypto

De Aegypto - meaning Summary

Mystical Flight and Voice

The speaker asserts a mystical identity as one who knows celestial paths, repeatedly claiming the wind as his body and flight with swallows. He encounters a divine feminine figure, seeks to utter an acceptable, pure song, and evokes images of lotus, moon, and pearl. The poem presents a visionary voice of initiation and poetic vocation, blending ecstatic motion, ritual language, and sensory images to convey spiritual authority and the task of right speech.

Read Complete Analyses

I even I, am he who knoweth the roads Through the sky, and the wind thereof is my body. I have beheld the Lady of Life, I, even I, who fly with the swallows. Green and gray is her raiment, Trailing along the wind. I, even I, am he who knoweth the roads Through the sky, and the wind thereof is my body. Manus animam pinxit, My pen is in my hand To write the acceptable word. . . . My mouth to chant the pure singing! Who hath the mouth to receive it, The song of the Lotus of Kumi? I, even I, am he who knoweth the roads Through the sky, and the wind thereof is my body. I am flame that riseth in the sun, I, even I, who fly with the swallows. The moon is upon my forehead, The winds are under my lips. The moon is a great pearl in the waters of sapphire, Cool to my fingers the flowing waters. I, even I, am he who knoweth the roads Through the sky, and the wind thereof is my body.

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