British Museum, W.C.1. - Sorry he missed Trevelyan, who must stay with them next time he comes to London. Has done some 'miscellaneous T'ang poems', mainly by contemporaries of Po Chu-I, and encloses one [no longer present]. Is going to Tidmarsh [home of Lytton Strachey] on Sunday and is most excited: wants to see 'the education of those patient females' with his own eyes. Is attending a meeting of the Philological Society to hear a paper on 'the Ergonics [sic] of the Japanese Language'; does not know 'in the least what that means'. Asks if Trevelyan heard James Strachey's 'address to the 1917 Club on the Sex Question" on Tuesday evening. Can see 'the unmistakeable figure of [Harry] Norton] from the window, perhaps going from Gordon Square to 'tea with his sister Betty in Grays Inn'. Asks if Trevelyan has read the "Poet's Pilgrimage" by W. H. Davies, which he almost liked better than 'the tramp book' ["The Autobiography of a Super-Tramp"]
Department of Prints and Drawings, British Museum, London W.C. - Trevelyan should stay on Friday night. If they do not meet earlier in the day, will see him at the 1917 Club. Has asked Francis Birrell to dine with them if he can,
13, Hanover Terrace, Ladbroke Grove, W.11. - Has signed an agreement with Constable & Co. to publish "One Hundred and Seventy Chinese Poems" by 1 May [1918]; it will be sold at six shillings. Has not been doing much translation recently, but researching Chinese letters; thinks these would be good. There are only seven of Po Chu-i's surviving. Unfortunately the [British] Museum is 'very poor in this branch of literature', but there is a collection of 'letters by famous men' at the Cambridge University Library. Asks Trevelyan whether he will be in town; perhaps he will see him at the 1917 Club on Wednesday. Copies out a poem he has written, beginning 'On the back of a visiting-card / On a spill picked out of the grate...' which he fears is 'rather absurd'.
13, Hanover Terrace, Ladbroke Grove, W. - Very sorry that Bob has been 'having such a bad time with this disease', and is sending 'an inhaling apparatus which is an infallible preventative' [see 17/35]; hopes it will reach him in time. Has given the "Summons to the Soul" and the "Pitcher" exclusively to [J.C.] Squire for the "New Statesman"; has only his Po translations and cannot 'stain the pages of "Reconstruction" with such bilge'; would send anything he had gladly, and perhaps by next month will have some more Po Chu-I poems. His elder brother [Sigismund] is getting married on Tuesday 'with oriental pomp'; Hubert is at home with a cold, having a 'very good rest'. Saw Goldie [Lowes Dickinson] at the [1917?] Club on Tuesday, in 'great spirits'; also sees [Eric?] Maclagan sometimes, who is 'still rather washed out'. Asks Bob about a line of poetry, "And my young wife walks up the path alone", which he had thought came from the 'Chinese poems' in [Robert] Bridge's [anthology] "Spirit of Man". Has found a Li Po poem which he thinks is the original of the English line; it ends 'young wife alone mounts tower'.
Sees that [Laurence] Binyon has another volume of poetry out ["The New World: Poems"]; he is currently 'lecturing to soldiers in France on the Civilization of China', and Bob may see him in Paris. [Campbell] Dodgson, the Keeper of Prints [at the British Museum] has received an Order of the British Empire [CBE], but 'did not seem unduly elated'. Must be 'great fun being translated into French'; hopes 'Vildrac will soon get going' on him, and that 'poets are demobilized early in France'; 'Makers of "India rubber Medical appliances" came first on the list in England. Sir Auckland [Geddes] is evidently afraid of an undue increase in the birth-rate'. Sends his love to Francis [Birrell], and asks Bob to tell him Waley has lost his letter about where to get a 'copy of Foy [?]'. Wonders if [his translation of] the letter from Wang Wei to a friend could do for "Reconstruction" and encloses a copy [no longer present], but will not mind if it is no use. Thinks the "Summons" will be in the "New Statesman" and will send Bob a copy (possibly one for B.B. [Berenson] as well); will also send the second number of the Bulletin [of the School of Oriental and African Studies, in which further translations by Waley of Po Chu-'s works appear] when it comes out. Understands that [Thomas] Sturge Moore will continue to come to London [after a move to the countryside], and has organised 'a "poetry reading" for a proximate date'; would be 'harrowing if he were absolutely banished'. W.H. Davies has 'been in a tremendous flutter' due to sitting for a portrait by Augustus John; he has 'a passion for being painted by swells'; afraid that Davies' new poems are not selling well; does not think Fifield are good publishers.
13, Hanover Terrance, Ladbroke Grove, W. - Apologises for not writing sooner; has heard 'a good deal' about Trevelyan from Francis [Birrell?], [Goldsworthy Lowes] Dickinson and [Harry] Norton. Is working on Li Po 'in deference to the wishes of the public', translating, amongst others 'about 15 that have been done before' by Giles, St-Denys, Pound and so on; when it is printed, it may 'amuse' Trevelyan to compare the versions. Has not changed his own opinion of Li Po at all, but is 'taking a lot of trouble with him', he thinks he may be 'making him seem better than he is'. Impossible to get across in translation that Li Po is 'so largely a patchwork': for instance, the reference in the "River Merchant's Wife" to Wei who appears in 'the "Robber Che [Chih]" (chapter 29 of "Chuang Tzu" [Zhuangzi])", or that in another poem to the sailor with whom seagulls played in "Lieh Tzu [Liezi]"; St-Denys had obviously never read Lieh Tzu. The Oxford [University] Press has accepted his "Japanese Poetry: the Uta", which will come out in the spring. Heard a story about Alix [Sargant Florence] in Cornwall: she wanted to try the cream, but was told it 'would only be sold in compliance with a doctor's certificate', so she wrote to James [Strachey] to get one from Noel [Olivier] who refused; supposes this was when she and Norton were in Cornwall. Now she is there with James, who has flu. Lytton is also ill, with shingles. Rather likes Fredegond [Shove]'s poems ["Dreams and Journeys"?] except for 'the sonnets & the mysticism; Norton 'complained they reminded him of country holidays'. Has talked to Adrian Stephen a few times at the [1917?] Club, and likes him 'better than Norton, or Clive [Bell], or James'. Asks if Trevelyan has seen W. H. Davies's new book; has not read it properly himself, but there are some 'good things in it'. Davies was recently annoyed that the newspapers had described his clothes at a poetry reading as 'homely', when his 'buttons alone cost more than anything Yeats had on'. Has had a 'very kind and generous letter from Cranmer-Byng, a quite unsollicited [sic] "peccavi"'.
University College, Rangoon. - E. J. Farmer would like to meet Trevelyan; he is a senior Indian Civil Service man in Burma who due to old age and 'the stoniness of Burma' would like to do some political or social work in England. Asks if he could be introduced to people such as Woolf, Allen, Keynes and Desmond MacCarthy, and put up for membership at the 1917 Club if that still exists.
9 Brunswick Square W.C.1. - Is afraid he will not be able to meet Trevelyan before he leaves England; when he returns next year, he will 'be wiser'. Presents his compliments to Trevelyan's wife and signs off in Italian.
9 Brunswick Square W.C.1. - Will be in London on Nov 26-27, and leaves England on the morning of 28 Nov; will write again when his plans are final and arrange a time to meet.
9 Brunswick Square W.C.1. - Should not have accepted the invitation to the 1917 Club on Nov 15, as he already had another engagement to lecture in Oxford; presented in the format of a mathematical proof that 'Salvemini is a dreadful idiot'.
Calcutta. - Apologises for typing - it is 'too hot and clammy' to write by hand. Glad to hear that Trevelyan has invited his friends [the Germanova/Kalitinsky household] to visit the Shiffolds; it will be very good for Andriusha to come to England, and perhaps Trevelyan might have time to take him to Cambridge to see the University. He feels very far away, and fears that the reference Trevelyan made to Ulysses and his dog [Argos] in his poetic epistle to him may come true: feels Rex [his dog]'s reproach keenly, but does not see how he could return to Europe with no work. Talk of offering him a University Professorship in Indian Fine Arts; is not particularly keen, but would get a year's study leave at once to spend in Europe. Sure Trevelyan will do all he can to fix him up at the League [of Nations]; it would be useful if [Clifford] Allen could talk to Albert Thomas or other Secretariat official.
Trevelyan must have heard of Andriusha's 'wonderful success'; a shame he cannot go to see Madame Germanova play at the Pitoëff's. Sometimes has news of Julian from his friends in Paris; worries that he might not make as many friends there as in Cambridge, he is 'really much too nice and clever for the ineffectual Monte[p]arnasse set'. Is looking forward to Trevelyan's next book of poems ["Rimeless Numbers"]; has been talking to mutual friends about him, such as his old Oxford friend [Apurba Kumar?] Chanda, Principal of Chittagong College, and Arun Sen, a barrister who knew Lowes Dickinson at Cambridge. There is also Abany Banerjee, also a barrister, who used to be prominent in the 1917 Club. The reading of post-Tennysonian English poetry he had to do for his two lectures at Hyderabad has inspired him to write some poetry again, 'under the influence of such diverging people as Kipling, Housman and Yeats'; will send them later. Encloses two photographs taken at the Singhs' at Bhagalpur.