“Once again Love, that loosener of limbs,bittersweet and inescapable, crawling thing,seizes me.”
Sappho“Evening you gather backall that dazzling dawn has put asunder:you gather a lamb, gather a kid,gather a child to its mother.”
Sappho, If Not, Winter: Fragments of Sappho“We shall enjoy itAs for him who findsfault, may sillinessand sorrow take him!”
Sappho, Sappho: A New Translation“The evening starIs the mostbeautifulof all stars”
Sappho, Sappho: A New Translation“Someone will remember us I sayEven in another time”
Sappho, If Not, Winter: Fragments of Sappho“]Sardisoften turning her thoughts here]you like a goddessand in your song most of all she rejoiced.But now she is conspicuous among Lydian womenas sometimes at sunsetthe rosyfingered moonsurpasses all the stars. And her lightstretches over salt seaequally and flowerdeep fields.And the beautiful dew is poured outand roses bloom and frailchervil and flowering sweetclover.But she goes back and forth rememberinggentle Atthis and in longingshe bites her tender mind”
Sappho, If Not, Winter: Fragments of Sappho“]sing to usthe one with violets in her lap]mostly]goes astray”
Sappho, If Not, Winter: Fragments of Sappho“In fact she herself once blamed meKyprogeneiabecause I prayed this word:I want.”
Sappho, If Not, Winter: Fragments of Sappho“their heart grew coldthey let their wings down”
Sappho, If Not, Winter: Fragments of Sappho“yet if you had a desire for good or beautiful thingsand your tongue were not concocting some evil to sayshame would not hold down your eyesbut rather you would speak about what is just”
Sappho, If Not, Winter: Fragments of Sappho“Would Jove appoint some flower to reign, in matchless beauty on the plain, the Rose (mankind will all agree). The Rose the queen of flowers should be.”
Sappho