Stung with Love:
Poems and Fragments
by Sappho
“Some call ships, infantry or horsemen
The greatest beauty earth can offer;
I say it is whatever a person
Most lusts after."
While the title of this collection highlights the erotic attitude of the poems of Sappho, there is a wonderful fragment of a poem entitled "Troy" that presents a mythic narrative. In doing so she veers away from the emphasis of the Homeric epic and focuses on a conventionally 'feminine' theme, a wedding scene. She elevates the wedding to epic magnitude, all the while featuring excellence rather than the morality of good and evil.
Other poems and fragments present themes of goddesses, desire, girls and their family, and marriage. The result in an excellent translation is a delightful selection. Here is a typical quatrain:
Untainted Graces
With wrists like roses,
Please come close,
You daughters of Zeus.
Sappho lived in a time of transition for Greece, after the Homeric era but before the more famous Golden Age of Athens. I, like others, find her language enchanting, and the gathering of poems and fragments by subject lends an order to this collection. Her passion shines through both the millennia and the translation to charm the reader while leaving a bit of sadness that we do not have more of her oeuvre.
Other poems and fragments present themes of goddesses, desire, girls and their family, and marriage. The result in an excellent translation is a delightful selection. Here is a typical quatrain:
Untainted Graces
With wrists like roses,
Please come close,
You daughters of Zeus.
Sappho lived in a time of transition for Greece, after the Homeric era but before the more famous Golden Age of Athens. I, like others, find her language enchanting, and the gathering of poems and fragments by subject lends an order to this collection. Her passion shines through both the millennia and the translation to charm the reader while leaving a bit of sadness that we do not have more of her oeuvre.
4 comments:
When I read Sappho I was impressed. I did wonder how much to credit to the translator however. I often wonder that with translated poetry.
The classification of poems by subject sounds like a good idea.
Brian,
Your question about the translation is something I wonder about as well. This translator is very good but others are highly regarded.
Hi James, I have never been good with poetry and yet Sappho's poetry is different. I can definitely appreciate the beauty and the greatness of her poems though we only have fragments. I particularly like the first poem you chose where Sappho compares ships to horsemen.
Kathy,
Thanks for your observation. It is amazing how the beauty of Sappho's poetry can speak to us over the centuries.
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