600 B.C.

SAPPHO

by Sappho

Translated and Annotated

by Willis Barnstone

Copyright(C) 1962, 1967, 1988 by Willis Barnstone

THE LYRIC POEM

Come, holy tortoise shell,

my lyre, and become a poem.

NOW I BEGIN

I begin with words of air

yet they are good to hear.

HEADDRESS

My mother always said

that in her youth she was

exceedingly in fashion

wearing a purple ribbon

looped in her hair. But

the girl whose hair is yellower

than torchlight need wear no

colorful ribbons from Sardis-

but a garland of fresh flowers.

HER INNOCENCE

I do not have a rancorous spirit

but the simple heart of a child.

TO ANAKTORIA

Some say cavalry and others claim

infantry or a fleet of long oars

is the supreme sight on the black earth.

I say it is

the one you love. And easily proved.

Didn't Helen- who far surpassed all

mortals in beauty- desert the best

of men, her king,

and sail off to Troy and forget

her daughter and dear kinsmen? Merely

the Kyprian's gaze made her bend and led

her from her path;

these things remind me now

of Anaktoria who is far,

and I

for one

would rather see her warm supple step

and the sparkle of her face- than watch all the

dazzling chariots and armored

hoplites of Lydia.

ALONE *001

The moon and Pleiades

are set. Midnight,

and time spins away.

I lie in bed, alone.

TO EROS

You burn me.

THE BLAST OF LOVE

Like a mountain whirlwind

punishing the oak trees,

love shattered my heart.

SEIZURE

To me he seems like a god

as he sits facing you and

hears you near as you speak

softly and laugh

in a sweet echo that jolts

the heart in my ribs. For now

as I look at you my voice

is empty and

can say nothing as my tongue

cracks and slender fire is quick

under my skin. My eyes are dead

to light, my ears

pound, and sweat pours over me.

I convulse, greener than grass,

and feel my mind slip as I

go close to death,

yet, being poor, must suffer

everything.

WORLD

I could not hope