China Cat Sunflower: Issa's Sunday Service, #141

Photograph by gira4

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China Cat Sunflower

Look for awhile at the China Cat Sunflower
proud-walking jingle in the midnight sun
Copper-dome Bodhi drip a silver kimono
like a crazy-quilt stargown
through a dream night wind

Krazy Kat peeking through a lace bandana
like a one-eyed Cheshire
like a diamond-eye Jack
A leaf of all colors plays
a golden string fiddle
to a double-e waterfall over my back

Comic book colors on a violin river
crying Leonardo words
from out a silk trombone
I rang a silent bell
beneath a shower of pearls
in the eagle wing palace
of the Queen Chinee

[Editor's note: Usually, the Sunday Service is good old fashioned, light weight rock n' roll fun. Inadvertently,  today's posting unearthed a serious topic, serious beyond the usual "literary" serious, and what results below was something of a struggle. It is neither meant to offend nor to preach - more than likely, it's come up short in its intent. Just sayin'.]

You can find more information than you could ever want, on this song or any other in their repertoire, at the Grateful Annotated Lyrics site, one of the most amazing sites dedicated to the works of a particular rock group or personality.  Among the many things pointed out there is the somewhat oblique inspiration of the work of Edith Sitwell on "China Cat Sunflower." The song makes it on this list because of the obvious reference to Lewis Carroll (the one-eyed Cheshire) but for the Sitwell, one must dig a bit deeper.

According to the Dead lyric site, Robert Hunter, the Dead's lyricist, mentions Sitwell's influence on the lyrics, with a special mention of the following poem, "Polka":

Polka   Dame Edith Sitwell

'Tra la la la la la la la
La
La!
    See me dance the polka,'
Said Mr. Wagg like a bear,
With my top hat
And my whiskers that--
(Tra la la la) trap the Fair.

Where the waves eem chiming haycocks
I dance the polka; there
Stand Venus' children in their gay frocks--
Maroon and marine--and stare

To see me fire my pistol
Through the distances blue as my coat;
Like Wellington, Byron, the Marquis of Bristol,
Buzbied great trees float.

While the wheezing hurdy-gurdy
 Of the marine wind blows me
 To the tune of Annie Rooney, sturdy,
 Over the sheafs of sea;

And bright as a seedsman's packet
With zinnias, candytufts chill,
Is Mrs. Marigold's jacket
As she gapes at the inn door still,

Where at dawn in the box of the sailor,
Blue as the decks of the sea,
Nelson awoke, crowed like the cocks,
Then back to dust sank he.

And Robinson Crusoe
Rues so

The bright and foxy beer--
But he finds fresh isles in a Negress' smiles--
The poxy doxy dear,

As they watch me dance the polka,'
Said Mr. Wagg like a bear,
'In my top hat and my whiskers that--
Tra la la la, trap the Fair.

Tra la la la la--
Tra la la la la--
Tra la la la la la la la

    La
    La
    La!'

In addition to the oblique references, it would seem that pacing and style were perhaps more influential than the actual lyrics themselves.

Another quote which Hunter mentions is from the Dame Edith Sitwell poem "Trio for Two Cats and a Trombone," which has a little more direct connection:

  "To the jade 'Come kiss me harder'

    He called across the battlements as she

    Heard our voices thin and shrill

    As the steely grasses' thrill,

    Or the sound of the onycha

    When the phoca has the pica

    In the palace of the Queen Chinee!"

Hunter quotes Sitwell directly with "palace of the Queen Chinee," so I attempted to run down the term "Chinee," which gives off a vague sense of the derogatory, though I'm not sure about it in the context of either the poem or song. Still, it should be noted; even if not meant offensively, ignorance, on anyone's part, is no legitimate defense.

A couple of databases of racial slurs listed the term as offensive, a couple of others did not; it evidently originated as a back formed singular for Chinese in the plural sense, but probably found bigoted popularity in the inability of Chinese people to speak English well, thereby mimicking their pronunciation of English in a derogatory way. Another source defined the term as a Chinese person living in England.

[More on the Sitwell, after a bit of investigation. "Trio for Cats and a Trombone" was part of a larger musical piece called Façade, which was something of a scandal when initially performed. You can find a great deal of background on it here. Evidently, after being variously condemned on its initial performance (with Sitwell reciting the poems, through a megaphone protruding from a curtain, to musical accompaniment), it became quite popular, going through a number of reworkings and even being the basis for a ballet. Interestingly, Wikipedia, which goes into a great deal of detail, does not mention her use of ethnic terms.]

The All Music Guide, in reviewing Façade, says

"Furthermore, either because she was satirizing the upper crust's casual racism or because she shared it, Sitwell's verse does have some mildly racist lines that are somewhat disturbing today. "

I thought about excluding the song because of all this, but it seemed more honest to face up to it and recognize it for what it is and put it out there to consider. Obviously, the Sitwell piece achieved fame in its own way. Certainly, "China Cat Sunflower" has long been one of the Dead's most popular tunes. I leave it to you to make what you will of Hunter's quote of Sitwell. From the Dead site, it appears to be pure homage. Perhaps, too, something is to be gleaned about late 60s America, around the time the Dead song was composed.

Here is the whole piece, Façade, which runs some 32 minutes in length:

If above link is wonky, you can listen here

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Besides these references to Sitwell poems, there is the Alice in Wonderland reference, plus the song is jammed packed with other things - allusions to Buddhism (Bodhi), Leonardo da Vinci, maybe Ginsberg and Kerouac's sunflower in the train yard (to say nothing of Blake's sunflower), and maybe even Dylan's waiting on the Double-E.

For Cheshire Cat fans, here's a little something that might be taken as advice for the current, ahem, election season:

 

For traditionalists, here's a collection of Cheshire Cat scenes, voiced by the incomparable Sterling Holloway:

       

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Photo by Umberto Salvagnin

heat shimmers--
how the cat talks
in her sleep!

Issa
translated by David G. Lanoue

best,
Don 

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