Detail of the portrait of a young woman (so-called Sappho) with writing pen and wax tablets. The net in her hair is made of golden threads and typical for the fashion of the Neronian period. Fresco from Regio VI (insula occidentalis) in Pompeii. Museo Archeologico Nazionale (Naples) Deutsch: Detail eines Porträts einer jungen Frau (sogenannte Sappho) mit Schreibgerät und Wachstäfelchen. Das aus Goldfäden gefertigte Haarnetz ist typisch für die Zeit Neros. Römisches Fresko aus dem der Regio VI (insula occidentalis) in Pompeji. Museo Archeologico Nazionale (Neapel) THE POETRY OF SAPPHO: FRAGMENT 1 Deathless Aphrodite - Daughter of Zeus and maker of snares - On your florid throne, hear me My lady, do not subdue my heart by anguish and pain But come to me as when before You heard my distant cry, and listened: Leaving, with your golden chariot yoked, your fathers house To move beautiful sparrows swift with a whirling of wings As from heaven you came to this dark earth through middle air And so swiftly arrived. Then you my goddess with your immortal lips smiling Would ask what now afflicts me, why again I am calling and what now I with my restive heart Desired: Whom now shall I beguile To bring you to her love? Who now injures you, Sappho? For if she flees, soon shall she chase And, rejecting gifts, soon shall she give. If she does not love you, she shall do so soon Whatsoever is her will. Come to me now to end this consuming pain Bringing what my heart desires to be brought: Be yourself my ally in this fight. FRAGMENT 16 For some - it is horsemen; for others - it is infantry; For some others - it is ships which are, on this black earth, Visibly constant in their beauty. But for me, It is that which you desire. To all, it is easy to make this completely understood For Helen - she who greatly surpassed other mortals in beauty - Left her most noble man and sailed forth to Troy Forgetting her beloved parents and her daughter Because the goddess led her away... Which makes me to see again Anaktoria now far distant: For I would rather behold her pleasing, graceful movement And the radiant splendour of her face Than your Lydian chariots and foot-soldiers in full armour... FRAGMENT 22 Gather your lyre and sing for me Soon As desire once again enhances your beauty: Your dress excites, and I rejoice For I once doubted Aphrodite But now have asked that soon You will be with me again... FRAGMENT 23 When I look at you I know that even Hermione Was not such as you - Fairer to compare you to Helen The golden-haired... FRAGMENT 31 I see he who sits near you as an equal of the gods For he can closely listen to your delightful voice And that seductive laugh That makes the heart behind my breasts to tremble. Even when I glimpse you for a moment My tongue is stilled as speech deserts me While a delicate fire is beneath my skin - My eyes cannot see, then, When I hear only a whirling sound As I shivering, sweat Because all of me trembles; I become paler than drought-grass And nearer to death... FRAGMENT 34 Awed by her brightness Stars near the beautiful moon Cover their own shining faces When she lights earth With her silver brilliance Of love... FRAGMENT 41 Beautiful girls, towards you My thoughts will never change... FRAGMENT 47 Love shook my heart Like the mountain wind Falls upon trees of oak... FRAGMENT 58 Age seizes my skin and turns my hair From black to white: My knees no longer bear me And I am unable to dance again Like a fawn. What could I do? I am not ageless: My youth is gone. Red-robed Dawn, immortal goddess, Carried Tithonus to earths end Yet age siezed him Despite the gift from his immortal lover... I love delicate softness: For me, love has brought the brightness And the beauty of the sun... FRAGMENT 94 I can reveal to you that I wished to die – For with much weeping she left me Saying: Sappho - what suffering is ours. For it is against my will that I leave you. In answer, I said: Go, happily remembering me For you know what we shared and pursued – If not, I wish you to see again our former joys... The many braids of rose and violet you wreathed Around yourself at my side And the many garlands of flowers With which you adorned your soft neck: With royal oils from fresh flowers You anointed yourself And on soft beds fulfilled your longing For me... FRAGMENT 96 She honoured you like a goddess And delighted in your choral dance. Now she is pre-eminent among the ladies of Lydia As the rose-rayed moon after the sinking of the Sun Surpasses all the stars and spreads its light upon the sea And the flowers of the fields To beautify the spreading dew, freshen roses Soft chervil and the flowering melilot... Restless, she remembers gentle Atthis - Perhaps her subtle judgement is burdened By your fate... For us, it is not easy to approach Goddesses in the beauty of their form But you... FRAGMENT 126 May you sleep on the breasts Of your tender companion... FRAGMENT 130 Once again, desire - That loosener of limbs and bitterly sweet - Makes me to tremble You are irresistible... FRAGMENT 138 Believe me, in the future someone Will remember us... FRAGMENT 147 Because you love me Stand with me face to face And unveil the softness in your eyes... ANAKTORIA Yes, Atthis, you may be sure Even in Sardis Anaktoria will think often of us of the life we shared here, when you seemed the Goddess incarnate to her and your singing pleased her best Now among Lydian women she in her turn stands first as the red- fingered moon rising at sunset takes precedence over stars around her; her light spreads equally on the salt sea and fields thick with bloom Delicious dew purs down to freshen roses, delicate thyme and blossoming sweet clover; she wanders aimlessly, thinking of gentle Atthis, her heart hanging heavy with longing in her little breast She shouts aloud, Come, we know it; thousand-eared night repeats that cry across the sea shining between us. AND THEIR FEET MOVE And their feet move rhythmically, as tender feet of Cretan girls danced once around an altar of love, crushing a circle in the soft smooth flowering grass. CYPRIAN, IN MY DREAMS Cyprian, in my dream the folds of a purple kerchief shadowed your cheeks - the one Timas one time sent, a timid gift, all the way from Phocaea I HAVE NO COMPLAINT I have no complaint prosperity that the golden Muses gave me was no delusion: dead, I wont be forgotten THE LYRIC POEM I took my lyre and said: Come now, my heavenly tortoise shell: become a speaking instrument IN THE SPRING TWILIGHT In the spring twilight the full moon is shining: Girls take their places as though around an altar IT WAS YOU, ATTHIS, WHO SAID It was you, Atthis, who said Sappho, if you will not get up and let us look at you I shall never love you again! Get up, unleash your suppleness, lift off your Chian nightdress and, like a lily leaning into a spring, bathe in the water. Cleis is bringing your best purple frock and the yellow tunic down from the clothes chest; you will have a cloak thrown over you and flowers crowning your hair... Praxinoa, my child, will you please roast nuts for our breakfast? One of the gods is being good to us: today we are going at last into Mitylene, our favorite city, with Sappho, loveliest of its women; she will walk among us like a mother with all her daughters around her when she comes home from exile... But you forget everything BEFORE THEY WERE MOTHERS Before they were mothers Leto and Niobe had been the most devoted of friends STANDING BY MY BED Standing by my bed in gold sandals Dawn that very moment awoke me TELL EVERYONE Tell everyone now, today, I shall sing beautifully for my friends pleasure YOU KNOW THE PLACE You know the place: then Leave Crete and come to us waiting where the grove is pleasantest, by precincts sacred to you; incense smokes on the altar, cold streams murmur through the apple branches, a young rose thicket shades the ground and quivering leaves pour down deep sleep; in meadows where horses have grown sleek among spring flowers, dill scents the air. Queen! Cyprian! Fill our gold cups with love stirred into clear nectar TONIGHT Tonight Ive watched the moon and then the Pleiades go down The night is now half-gone; youth goes; I am in bed alone WE PUT THE URN ABOARD SHIP We put the urn aboard ship with this inscription: This is the dust of little Timas who unmarried was led into Persephones dark bedroom And she being far from home, girls her age took new-edged blades to cut, in mourning for her, these curls of their soft hair WE SHALL ENJOY IT We shall enjoy it as for him who finds fault, may silliness and sorrow take him! WITH HIS VENOM With his venom Irresistible and bittersweet that loosener of limbs, Love reptile-like strikes me down TO EROS From all the offspring of the earth and heaven love is the most precious. THE LAUREL TREE You lay in wait behind a laurel tree, and everything was pleasant: you are a woman wanderer like me. I barely heard you, my darling; you came in your trim garments, and suddenly: beauty of your garments. THE HERALD Nightingale, with your lovely voice, you are the herald of spring. THE CRICKET When the sun dazzles the earth with straight-falling flames, a cricket rubs its wings scraping up a shrill song. I SAY You would want few to be carried away. Sweeter. You yourself know but someone forgot. Some might say I will love as long as there is breath in me. Ill care. I say Ive been a firm friend. Things grievous, bitter, but know I will love.
Posted on: Sat, 29 Nov 2014 10:04:41 +0000
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