Ezra Pound

Canto 1

And then went down to the ship,
Set keel to breakers, forth on the godly sea, and

[So, when does seas become godly? When they become big, all powerful, pernicious?]

We set up mast and sail on that swart ship,

[swart - dark, black]

Bore sheep aboard her, and our bodies also
Heavy with weeping, so winds from sternward
Bore us out onward with bellying canvas,
Circe's this craft, the trim-coifed goddess.

[coiffed - she had a hairdresser.]

Then sat we amidships, wind jamming the tiller,
Thus with stretched sail, we went over sea till day's end.
Sun to his slumber, shadows o'er all the ocean,
Came we then to the bounds of deepest water,
To the Kimmerian lands, and peopled cities

[Kimmerian lands = an ancient tribe, maybe means mysterious tribe]

Covered with close-webbed mist, unpierced ever
With glitter of sun-rays

[Thick fog covered the ship.]

Nor with stars stretched, nor looking back from heaven
Swartest night stretched over wretched men there.
The ocean flowing backward, came we then to the place
Aforesaid by Circe.
Here did they rites, Perimedes and Eurylochus,

Perimedes, Wikipedia

Eurylochus


And drawing sword from my hip
I dug the ell-square pitkin;

[ell-square pitkin ?]

Poured we libations unto each the dead,
First mead and then sweet wine, water mixed with white flour.
Then prayed I many a prayer to the sickly death's-head;
As set in Ithaca, sterile bulls of the best

[Ithaca = Home of Odysseus]

For sacrifice, heaping the pyre with goods,

[pyre = a heap of combustible material]

A sheep to Tiresias only, black and a bell-sheep.

Tiresias - Wikipedia

Dark blood flowed in the fosse,

[fosse -ditch, moat]

Souls out of Erebus, cadaverous dead, of brides

Erebus - Wikipedia

Of youths and at the old who had borne much;
Souls stained with recent tears, girls tender,
Men many, mauled with bronze lance heads,
Battle spoil, bearing yet dreory arms,

[dreory - dreary?

These many crowded about me; with shouting,
Pallor upon me, cried to my men for more beasts;

[pallor - an unhealthy pale appearance]

Slaughtered the heards, sheep slain of bronze;
Poured ointment, cried to the gods,
To Pluto the strong, and praised Proserpine;
Unsheathed the narrow sword,
I sat to keep off the impetuous impotent dead,
Till I should hear Tiresias.
But first Elpenor came, our friend Elpenor,

Elpenor - Wikipedia

[I think Odysseus narrates this as he returns from Troy. Just a guess.]

The rest of Stanza 1

But first Elpenor came, our friend Elpenor,
Unburied, cast on the wide earth,
Limbs that we left in the house of Circe,
Unwept, unwrapped in sepulchre, since toils urged other.
Pitiful spirit. And I cried in hurried speech:
"Elpenor, how art thou come to this dark coast?
Cam'st thou afoot, outstripping seamen?"

Elpenor - Wikipedia

Stanza 2

And he in heavy speech:
"Ill fate and abundant wine. I slept in Circe's ingle.

[ingle - firepace]

Going down the long ladder unguarded,
I fell against the buttress,
Shattered the nape-nerve, the soul sought Avernus.

[nape-nerve - neck]
[Avernus - entrance to the underworld]

But thou, O King, I bid remember me, unwept, unburied,
Heap up mine arms, be tomb by sea-bord, and inscribed:

[be tomb by sea-bord - bury me by the sea???]

A man of no fortune, and with a name to come.
And set my oar up, that I swung mid fellows."

[Maybe Odysseus and Elpenor have arrived in Hades. Just a guess]