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SAPPHO'S SURVIVING FRAGMENTS (one)
1
On the throne of many hues, Immortal Aphrodite,
child of Zeus, weaving wiles-I beg you
not to subdue my spirit, Queen,
with pain or sorrow
but come-if ever before
having heard my voice from far away
you listened, and leaving your father's
golden home you came
in your chariot yoked with swift, lovely
sparrows bringing you over the dark earth
thick-feathered wings swirling down
from the sky through mid-air
arriving quickly - you, Blessed One,
with a smile on your unaging face
asking again what have I suffered
and why am I calling again
and in my wild heart what did I most wish
to happen to me: "Again whom must I persuade
back into the harness of your love?
Sappho, who wrongs you?
For if she flees, soon she'll pursue,
she doesn't accept gifts, but she'll give,
if not now loving, soon she'll love
even against her will."
Come to me now again, release me from
this pain, everything my spirit longs
to have fulfilled, fulfill, and you
be my ally.
2
Come to me from Krete to this holy
temple, to the apple grove,
the altars smoking
with frankincense,
cold water ripples through apple
branches, the whole place shadowed
in roses, from the murmuring leaves
deep sleep descends,
where horses graze, the meadow blooms
spring flowers, the winds
breathe softly
Here, Kypris, after gathering
pour into golden cups
nectar lavishly
mingled with joys.
3
Queen Hera, may your [graceful form]
near me -
the prayer of the Atreidai
kings;
after accomplishing
first around [Troy]
they departed to this land,
but could not
until
you and Zeus
and Thyone's alluring [son].
Now
as in [olden times].
Holy and ...[virgin]
4
Some say an army of horsemen, others
say foot-soldiers, still others, a fleet,
is the fairest thing on the dark earth:
I say it is whatever one loves.
Everyone can understand this -
consider that Helen, far surpassing
the beauty of mortals, leaving behind
the best man of all,
sailed away to Troy. She had no
memory of her child or dear parents,
since she was led astray
[by Kypris]
lightly
reminding me now of Anaktoria
being gone,
I would rather see her lovely step
and the radiant sparkle of her face
than all the war-chariots in Lydia
and soldiers battling in shining bronze.
5
And you, Dika, put lovely garlands round your hair,
weaving together slips of anise with gentle hands:
since the blessed Graces look more to the flowerful,
but turn away from the ones without garlands.
6
A many-colored sandal
covered her feet,
fine Lydian work.
7
The stars around the fair moon
hide away their radiant form
whenever in fullness she lights
the earth ...
8
To me it seems
that man has the fortune of gods,
whoever sits beside you, and close,
who listens to you sweetly speaking
and laughing temptingly;
my heart flutters in my breast,
whenever I look quickly, for a moment
I say nothing, my tongue broken,
a delicate fire runs under my skin,
my eyes see nothing, my ears roar,
cold sweat rushes down me,
trembling seizes me,
I am greener than grass,
to myself I seem
needing but little to die.
But all must be endured, since
9
I urge you
taking
the lyre, while desire again
wings round you
beautiful one, since the dress
you saw excited you, and I rejoice
because the Kyprian herself
once blamed ...
so I pray
this ...
I want
10
of love
I look on you facing (me)
as Hermione
but to liken you to golden-haired Helen
mortal women, but know that these
by your
would
all my thoughts
[dewy] banks
to celebrate all night long.
11
May 1, goldencrowned Aphrodite,
cast this lot
12
I think no woman of such skill
will see the light of day ever again.
13
For you beautiful ones my mind
is unchangeable.
14
"I simply wish to die."
Weeping she left me
and said this too:
"We've suffered terribly,
Sappho, I leave you against my will
I answered, go happily
and remember me,
you know how we cared for you
if not, let me remind you
the lovely times we shared.
Many crowns of violets,
roses and crocuses
together you set before me
and many scented wreaths
made from blossoms
around your soft throat
with pure, sweet oil
you anointed me,
and on a soft, gentle bed
you quenched your desire
no holy site
we left uncovered,
no grove
dance
sound
15
Sardis
often holding her [thoughts] here
you, like a goddess undisguised,
but she rejoiced especially in your song.
Now she stands out among
Lydian women as after sunset the
rose-fingered moon
exceeds all stars; light
reaches equally over the brine sea
and thick-flowering fields,
a beautiful dew has poured down,
roses bloom, tender parsley
and blossoming honey clover.
Pacing far away, she remembers
gentle Atthis with desire,
perhaps
consumes her delicate soul;
to go there
this not
knowing
much
she sings
in the middle.
It is not easy for us to rival
the beautiful form of goddesses,
you might have
And
Aphrodite
poured nectar
from a golden
with her hands Persuasion
16
Once again that loosener of limbs, Love,
bittersweet and inescapable, crawling thing,
seizes me.
17
Gongyla
Surely a sign
especially
[Hermes] came into
I said: O Lord
By the blessed [goddess]
I take no pleasure on [earth]
but longing to die holds me,
to see the dewy lotus-
shaded banks of Acheron
18
Sweet mother, I cannot weave -
slender Aphrodite has overwhelmed
me with longing for a boy.
19
Love shook my senses,
like wind crashing on mountain oaks.
20
For me neither honey nor bee
21
I don't expect to touch heaven
22
[Eros] came from heaven wearing a purple cloak.
23
They say that once Leda found
an egg hidden in the hyacinth.
24
You came and did (well); I felt for you
and you cooled my spirit burning with desire.
25
May you sleep on the breast of a tender companion.
26
Black Dream, you come
and when steep
Sweet god, wonderfully from sorrow
to keep separate the power
and I hope I will not share
nothing of the blessed
for I would not be so
delights
and may I have
them all
27
The moon and Pleiades have set
half the night is gone
time passes
I sleep alone
28
But as my friend, take to a younger bed;
I won't endure living with you, since I'm the cider.
29
you
put success in the mouth
beautiful gifts, children
song - lover
from high, sweet lyres
old age already
all skin
and hairs [turned] from black to [white]
and knees do not bear
like fawns
but what should I do?
impossible to be
rosy-armed Dawn
taking (Tithonos) to the ends of earth
nevertheless (old age) seized (him)
wife
believes
might grant
But I love luxuriance, . . . this, and passion for the light
of life has granted me splendor and beauty~
30
Their souls became cold
and their wings fell slack.
31
beneath its wings
pours out a shrill song,
when flying over the blazing
[earth it trills aloud].
32
Superior, as a singer from Lesbos to those of other lands.
33
When you die you'll lie dead, no memory of you
no [desire] will survive since you've no part
of the Pierian roses. But once gone,
you'll flutter among the obscure,
invisible still in the house of Hades.
34
What country woman bewitches your mind
wrapped in country clothes
not knowing how to draw her skirts around her ankles?
35
I loved you Atthis once long ago
You seemed to me a small child and without charm.
36
Atthis, for you the thought of me has become hateful,
and you fly off to Andromeda.
37
Mika
but I will not allow you
you chose the friendship of Penthilian women
malignant, our
sweet song
soft voice
and high, clear-sounding
dewy
38
Kypris,
may she find you very bitter
and may Doricha not boast, saying
how she came the second time
to longed-for love.
39
When anger spreads in the breast,
guard against an idly barking tongue.
40
May winds and sorrows
carry him away who condemns
41
A handsome man is good to look at,
but a good man will be handsome as well.
42
I wish to say something to you, but shame
prevents me
43
But I am not someone of spiteful
temper-I have a gentle spirit.
44
Kypris and Nereids, let that brother
of mine come here unharmed
and all that his heart desires
be fulfilled,
may he release all past mistakes
and to his friends be a joy,
[a pain] to enemies--may no one again
[be trouble] for us,
may he desire to endow his sister
with honor, but in painful troubles
grieving before
*
hearing
a millet seed
of the citizens
and you, Kypris
putting aside, from evils
45
I have a beautiful child, her form
like golden flowers, beloved Kleis
whom I would not trade for all of Lydia
or lovely
46
My mother
in her youth it was a great
adornment if someone had her hair
wrapped round with a purple [braid,]
it really was.
But for the one with hair
more golden than a pine-torch
fitted with garlands
of blooming flowers.
Recently a hair-band of many hues
from Sardis
Cities
But for you, Kleis, I have no colorful
Hair-band - where will it come from?
but the Mytilenean
many-hued
these keepsakes of exile
Kleanax's sons
These have wasted away terribly
47
Evening Star who gathers everything
shining dawn scattered -
you bring the sheep and the goats,
you bring the child back to its mother.
48
The sweet apple reddens on a high branch
high upon highest, missed by the applepickers:
no, they didn't miss, so much as couldn't touch.
49
Herdsmen crush under their feet
a hyacinth in the mountains; on the ground
purple blooms
50
to goldenhaired Phoebos whom Leto bore
having mingled
with the mighty-named son of Kronos.
Artemis swore the god's great oath
(on her father's) head: "I will always be a virgin
on mountain peaks
nod in assent for my sake."
the father of the blessed gods assented.
the gods
the Deer-Shooting Huntress
a great title.
love never draws near.
shining
of the Muses
makes
and of the Graces
slender
not to forget anger
for mortals
51
the herald came
Idaios
swift messenger
"
and the rest of Asia
unceasing fame:
Hektor and his friends bring a sparkling-eyed girl
from holy Thebes and everflowing Plakia
delicate Andromache - in ships on the brine
sea; many gold bracelets, fragrant
purple robes, iridescent trinkets,
countless silver cups, and ivory."
So he spoke. Hektor's dear father leapt up;
the report reached friends through the wide city.
At once Trojan men harnessed mules
to the smooth-running carriages, a whole throng
of women and slender-ankled maidens stepped in;
apart from them, Priam's daughters
and the unwed men yoked horses
to the chariots
, far and wide
charioteers
like gods
sacred gathering
hastened
to Troy,
the sweet melody of reed-pipe and [kithara] mingled,
sound of castanets, the maidens
sang a holy song, a silvery divine echo
reached the sky, [laughter]
and everywhere through the streets
mixing-bowls and drinking-bowls
myrrh, cassia, and frankincense together.
The elder women all cried out "Eleleu,"
and all the men shouted high and clear
invoking Paion, the archer skilled in lyre,
and they praised Hektor and Andromache, godlike.
52
There a bowl of ambrosia
had been mixed and Hermes,
taking a wine flask, poured for the gods.
They all held drinking-cups
and made libations; they prayed
all together for the bridegroom's prosperity.
53
since yes you [were] once a child
come on, sing these
talk, and favor us
abundantly,
for we are going to a wedding. And you
this well, but as quick as possible
send away virgins, and may the gods
keep
the road to great Olympos
for humans
54
Happy bridegroom, the marriage that you prayed for
has been fulfilled-you have the girl you prayed for.
Your form is graceful, eyes
gentle, and love flows over your alluring face
Aphrodite has honored you above all.
55
There is no other girl, bridegroom, like this.
56
With what, dear bridegroom, can I fairly compare you?
With a slender sapling I shall best compare you.
57
Raise high the roof
- Hymen! -
you carpenter men.
- Hymen! -
The bridegroom approaches like Ares
- Hymen! -
much bigger than a big man.
- Hymen! -
58
The doorkeeper has feet seven fathoms long,
and sandals of five ox-hides
the labor of ten cobblers.
59
Bride: Virginity, virginity, where have you gone leaving me behind?
Virginity: Never again will I come to you, never again.
60
Do I still desire virginity?
61
Night
Virgins
celebrate all night
may sing of your love and
the violet-robed bride.
But once roused, go [call]
the unwed men your age
so we may see [less] sleep
than the clear-voiced [bird].
62
The full moon was rising,
and as women stood round the alter
63
Delicate Adonis is dying, Kytheria - what should we do?
Beat your breasts, daughters, and rend your dresses.
64
In the house of those who serve the Muses, a dirge
is not right
for us that wouldn't be proper.
65
I don't know what I should do
I'm of two minds.
66
1 will now sing this beautifully
to delight my companions.
67
Come, divine lyre, speak to me,
take voice!
68
I say someone in another time will remember us.
ANOTHER TRANSLATION OF SAPPHO"S SURVIVING FRAGMENTS
WINGED WORDS
Winged words
Words made of air
I begin
But words good to hear
THIS IS A PROMISE
I'll sing these songs
beautifully
today
to please you
my faithful coterie
WHEN I OPENED MY EYES
Hardly had Eos
goddess of dawn
in golden slippers
touched me
My lady Dawn
LAST NIGHT I SAID TO HIM
Oneirus, god of dreams,
son of the jet black night,
last lingerer as the morning light
lifts slumber from our eyes-you soothing god
who warns me of the tension and the strife
of keeping burning wish and act apart:
1 do not think that I shall spurn
the truth of what you've shown.
For with the Blessed Ones' support
1 shall by no means not
grasp the thing for which 1 groan.
When 1 was a little child
I never was so imbecile
as turn my back upon a bauble
my loving mother held towards me.
So let the Blessed Ones, I pray, and presently,
provide me with the chance
of what 1 crave:
seeing that I've honored them in poetry
and in my dance.
WE SIGH
O for Adonis!
BUT NOT EVERYBODY WANTS LOVE
Young Artemis swore a great oath:
"A virgin forever I shall be,
Pure on the peaks of the mountains.
Father, for my sake, agree."
And the Father of the Blessed Immortals
Nodded assent. On Olympus
She is known to the gods as Deer-shooter,
Goddess of wilderness: title
Great in renown. And the god
Who never comes near her is Love.
I AM LISTENING FOR
That telltale of the spring:
the melody-making nightingale
AND WAITING FOR EROS
The dearest scion
of Earth and Heaven
IN SPRING
Earth in many crowns
vests in her crowded brocade
BUT I WASTE MY TIME
It's useless
trying to bend
a stubborn heart
The ones I have helped
hurt me most
ONCE AGAIN APHRODITE
I have run to you fluttering
like a little girl to her mother
AND TO YOU SWEET PEITHO
Man-beguiler: daughter of Aphrodite
I SAID
Sappho
Why do you turn your back
on the exquisite blessings of Aphrodite?
VOW
I shall go-unleashed, unpegged
SO I CALLED TO APHRODITE
Undying Aphrodite on your caparisoned throne,
Daughter of Zeus and weaver of ruses-
Now I address you:
Queen, do not hurt my heart, do not harry it
But come as before when you heard and you hearkened
A long way away,
And leaving behind the house of your father,
Harnessed a golden chariot winged
By your beautiful swans,
Beating and whirring across the sky,
Bringing you down to the unbright earth -
So suddenly there:
Mistress, the smile on your undying features
Asking me what was it troubled me this time?
What made me call you
This time? What was my desperate heart wanting done?
And your: "Whom shall I this time bend to your love?
Who is it Sappho
That's doing you wrong? For if she's escaping
Soon she'll be chasing; if she's refusing
Your gifts, she shall give them.
And if she's not loving, soon shall she love you,
Like it or no." . . . Oh, come again now:
Let me go loose from this merciless craving.
Do what I long to have done: be my own
Helper in Battle.
COME WHEREVER YOU ARE
Whether at Cyprus and Paphos
Or at Panormus
PAIN
I famish
and I pine
PAIN TOO
Pain drips
EROS
You scorch me
SHE CAME RADIANT
In a spangled gown
of Lydian design
quite beautiful
reaching down
to her toes
THE MOMENT I SAW HER
Love
like a sudden breeze
tumbling on the oak-tree leaves
left my heart
trembling
THE GODS
And they laughed-the immortal gods
PAIN AGAIN
How did you wound so easily?
LUST
Sing us the praises
of the girl with the violet-sweet breasts
I MORE THAN ENVY HIM
He is a god in my eyes, that man,
Given to sit in front of you
And close to himself sweetly to hear
The sound of you speaking.
Your magical laughter-this I swear
Batters my heart-my breast astir
My voice when I see you suddenly near
Refuses to come.
My tongue breaks up and a delicate fire
Runs through my flesh; I see not a thing
With my eyes, and all that I hear
In my ears is a hum.
The sweat runs down, a shuddering takes
Me in every part and pale as the drying
Grasses, then, I think I am near
The moment of dying
I'M BAFFLED
I do not know
what to do
my mind's
in two
IT'S TOO HIGH
I do not aspire
with my two arms
to touch the sky
COME
And I shall set you to rest
on the softest of cushions:
Yes, you shall lie
on fresh new pillows
I WANT
Darling, to hug you
IN HOMAGE
Stars round the fair moon
veil their own shining
when she's full on the earth
with the light of her silver
MAY I SAY
I think no girl
that sees the sun
will ever equal you in skill
ARE YOU
Forgetting me?
TELL ME FRANKLY
Is there any man
anywhere among mankind
you love more than me?
FEAR
What will your eyes say?
AS VIE LOVE YOU
So
You
O Graces O
Irreproachable
Ones
With arms like roses!
Zeus's
Virgin daughters
Do
Approach us
I CANNOT WRITE
Heart, be still!
No jet of spellbound song,
no Adonis-hymn
streams out from you
beautifully, to please
the goddesses:
Desire the disconcerter,
Aphrodite the dictator
of hearts, has made you dumb;
and Peitho the enticer
from her flagon of gold
has flooded your thinking soul
with nectar.
TO BEAUTY
For us it is not easy
To rival goddesses
In sheer beauty,
But you ...
I AM TOO SUSCEPTIBLE
Yesterday, Children, I passed you Huddled beneath the great bay tree. The sight was a potion-I drained it; A spasm of happiness seized me. 'Me women I walked with imagined Me moody and silent and heedless. At times I hardly could hear them: All that I heard was my ears drum; My spirit, poor darling, had flown. These things it seems are of fate then. I made up my mind, gentle creatures, To see you, but then you had gone(Too quick by half in your tracks); Though I glimpsed at a vision that thrilled me: The clothes on your backs.
WE NEED YOUR HELP
Hurry to us here, you Muses:
Good-bye to your golden mansions
TO HERA
Form in a dream, my lady Hera,
Sweetest shape, O come before me:
Whom the Atreidae - kings of glory -
Prayed and conjured
When their sack of Troy was over.
On first launching out for home
From Scamander's swirling river,
They were thwarted
Till they begged you and the mighty
Zeus; Thyone's darling child too.
So I ask you, lady, also:
Bring back olden
Ways I shared both pure and lovely
With my Mytilenian maidens:
The song, the dancing, once I taught them
Round your feast days.
Even as the twins of Atreus
With your help and your divine ones
Sailed away from Troy - so help me
Home again, Hera
DON'T LET IT HAPPEN TO ME
At the height of the storm the terrified sailors throw
their cargoes out and ground their ship on the beach.
My God! I hope that I never have to go
Voyaging anywhere over the sea in the winter,
Or ever be forced to throw my goods and chattels
Into the brink: a shame! or I'd think so
If ever it happens to me that all my possessions
Fall to the swell of the sea and the Nereïds'
processionals ...
IN MY DREAM, APHRODITE
A crimson handkerchief hung down
your cheeks, the one
Timas sent to you from Phocaea:
full of her adoration
THE PLACE IS CALLING YOU, APHRODITE
Come to us here from Crete-to this holy Temple: place of your own most pleasing Apple groves and altars smoking Sweet with incense.
Here where the waters trickle coolly Through apple boughs, and ground is shady With roses, down from the leaves that shiver Sleep drops slowly.
Here is a meadow, horses feeding; Spring profuse with flowers, and breezes Gently seeping.
Here then Cyprian goddess bring your
Lovable person; into golden
Goblets stir your nectar, mingling
With our feasting
DREAM
1 talked in a dream
with Aphrodite
AND I SAID TO HER
Aphrodite, My Lady,
crowned in gold,
please
may that piece of luck be mine
AS A TOKEN
I shall offer you
the rich burnt fat
of a white goat,
Yes, I shall leave it behind for you.
AT LAST
You have come
and you did well to come
I pined for you.
And now you have put a torch to my heart
a flare of love -
O bless you and bless you and bless you:
you are back ... we were parted
OPEN YOUR ARMS
Pretty One, I'm yours again:
far too long apart
I AM AWED BY YOUR BEAUTY
For when I look upon you face-to-face
It seems Hermione even never was
One such as you:
more like pale-haired Helen
I must say you are than any maid that dies.
And your tender beauty-O I shall confess -
I'd give all my thoughts in holocaust to it
And every sense for you in homage
1 COULD NOT WAIT
Yesterday you
Came to my house
And sang to me.
Now I
Come to you.
Talk to me. Do.
Lavish on me
Your own beauty.
For we walk to a wedding,
As well you know.
Please send away
Your maids. 0 may
Heaven then present me
With all that heaven ever meant for me.
CONSOLE YOURSELF, ATTHIS
For even in Sardis, our dear Anactoria
Is sending her thoughts here:
Thoughts of the life we all led together when
You were to her a goddess descended
And yours were the songs she adored.
Now far above the ladies of Lydia,
Like a moon at sunset rising dewy-
Fingered among the stars and
Shedding her light on the salty sea
And over the flowery fields where the lovely
Dewdrops lie and the roses
Rear and the lacy chervil blooms
With the melilot--so she wanders remembering
Again and again her gentle
Atthis, till her tenuous heart is
Hung in her breast with a weight of longing;
Till she cries to us: "Come!" and we
Hear it, and light-petaled night with its ears
Catches it, whispers it over the sea
And all that's between
SO I SHALL NEVER SEE HER!
Really, I'd rather be dead...
With a great many tears she left me saying:
"What a terrible blow-what sadness!
Sappho, I swear 1 leave you
Absolutely against my will." And 1 said in reply: "Go, be happy, good-bye.
Remember me--for you know how 1 loved you.
"Or if you do not I'll tell you
So many things you forget
Which made our life together a gladness:
"All the chaplets of sweet
Violets and rosebuds braided
And placed by you on your hair at my side.
"All the garlands woven
Around your delicate neck,
Fashioned from a hundred flowers.
"All the fragrance of myrrh
Fit for a queen and rare
Worn on your fresh young skin beside me,
"While on the softest beds
From the quiet hands of maids
No Ionian was so feted. -
"There wasn't a single hill,
Holy purlieu, rill
From which we kept ourselves asunder.
"And never a wood in spring
Fretted with the crowded song
Of nightingales, where you and 1
Did not wander
TO A SOLDIER'S WIFE IN SARDIS: ANACTORIA
A cavalry corps, a column of men,
A flotilla in line, is the finest thing
In this rich world to see-for some ... but for me
It's the person you love.
There's nothing more easy than this to prove:
Helen whose beauty far outshone
The rest of man's chose to desert
The best of men:
Willingly sailed away to Troy;
Thought nothing of child and nothing of fond
Parents, but was herself led astray
By a love faraway;
(For woman is always easy to bend
The moment she's bent on her heart's desire.)
Now Anactoria's in my mind,
Far from us here.
The way she walks, her lovable style,
The vivid movement of her face -
I'd rather see than Lydian horse
And glitter of mail.
We cannot, alas, I know, have the best,
Yet to wish for a part of the past
Once shared is better for man at least
Than that we forget
IMAGES I REMEMBER
Once I saw a very gentle
very little
girl picking flowers
GOLDEN GENISTA
Grew along the shore
GIRLS
And the ripe marriageable girls wore garlands
MORE GIRLS
Girls with voices like honey
MORE GARLANDS
And the garlands were wild parsley
THEN AT NOON
The cricket
from under his wings
struck forth his rapier-sweet songs
as the god of the sun poured down
on the earth his stream of flame
IT GIVES ME JOY TO TMNK
I have a pretty little girl
lovely as a golden flower;
Cleïs, whom I so adore
I would not take all Lydia
Nor Lesbos (even lovelier)
in exchange for her
I BELIEVE I AM
More child-lover even than Gello
with her vampire thirst for children
MNASIDIKA
Mnasidica has a prettier figure
then gentle Gyrinno
TO MNASIDICA
You, Dicka, should weave wreaths with your delicate, fingers
Bind sprays of dill into your beautiful hair
Surely even the glance of the blessed Graces
Is more drawn to whatever is dressed with flowers
Than to the ungarlanded?
BUT, FRANKLY, DEAR
That was not right of you, Mika,
and I shall not let it pass:
your making overtures
to the house of Penthilos.
Oh, what was that sweet noise -
That unseen honey-sound?
A song-burst of nightingales:
Like drops of dew.
YOU MAY SMILE BUT
Leda, they say,
once found an egg
hidden under a hyacinth
WE ARE GOING TO DANCE
So come now
you delectable Graces
you Muses with the glorious tresses
YES
I taught her well
that Hero:
quick-sprinting girl
from Gyara
WHAT IS
Far sweeter-tuned
than a lyre
Golder than gold
Softer than velvet
Much whiter
than an egg?
APHRODIITE'S WORDS WERE
"Eros my slave
and of course you too
Sappho"
IN THE CAVE
So I am not the only woman
who haunts the Latmian Cave
The MUSES
1 tell you, they have been generous with me,
the violet-weaving Muses
And they made me famous
by the gift of their own work
THE EVENING STAR
Serenest of all stars
STAR OF EVENING
Hesperus
you bring
home everything
which light of day dispersed:
home the sheep herds
home the goat
home the mother's
darling
I SAID TO MY INSTRUMENT
Dumb tortoiseshell of mine
turn into a speaking thing divine
THE SLEEPY DOVES
Growing faint-headed
drop back their wings
and their hearts chill
THE SPRINGS
And Through the Night Air
I heard the faint trickle
of the nymphs of the springs
PLEASE
Come back to me, Gongyla, here tonight,
You, my rose, with your Lydian lyre.
There hovers forever around you delight:
A beauty desired.
Even your garment plunders my eyes.
I am enchanted: I who once
Complained to the Cyprus-born goddess,
Whom now I beseech
Never to let this lose me grace
But rather bring you back to me:
Amongst all mortal women the one
I most wish to see
YOU TOO, QUEEN
Auriferous Hecate
are lady-in-waiting to Aphrodite
THE HOMECOMING OF HECTOR AND ANDROMACHE
With power and speed in his legs came the herald,
Idaeus, announcing this wonderful news
(Tidings that all over Asia
Turned to a legend forever):
"Hector and all his companions are bringing
From sacred Thebe and the plains of Placia,
Over the salty sea by ship,
A delicate dark-eyed girl: Andromache.
Many the golden bracelets
And purple stuffs the winds are bringing
And trinkets bespangled;
Numberless too the silver cups and ivory chasings."
So uttered the herald, and Hector's dear father
Nimbly arose as the news
Sped to their friends through the ample city.
Then the people of Ilium
Harnessed their mules to the smoothly moving cars;
And all the women in one,
With the prettily ankled girls,
Ascended, the daughters of Priam apart.
The men had the horses yoked
To chariots; every youth
Was there: till a mighty people moved
Mightily along.
And the charioteers drove
Their jingling horses on.
Then when Hector and Andromache
Had mounted their car like gods,
The great cavalcade set off
And the city of people surged
Back into Ilium
The honey-toned flute and the lyre were mixed
With the click of the castanets.
O, and the treble of girls -
So holy and clear!
The dulcet echoes distilled to the sky
Making Olympians laugh:
And down all the streets there was mirth;
For the bowls and the cups were mixed, and from
every shrine
The cassia, myrrh, the frankincense curled.
The older women as well
Shouted their joy.
And the men in a glorious paean
Roared to Apollo-
That far-shooting god and lovely harper,
Singing aloud for the godlike pair:
Hector and Andromache
AS THE BRIDEGROOM SET OUT WE SANG
There
Stood
The mixing bowl mixed with ambrosia.
Hermes
Took
The ladle to pour out for the gods.
All
Then
Holding their goblets poured a libation:
So
Wished
The bridegroom the best of good luck
CUP
The cup was gold
with a twisted node
1 THOUGHT TO MYSELF
What are you like, gentle bridegroom, what?
Like a tender sapling, bridgegroom, that.
WE SANG THE COUPLE TO THEIR HOME
Raise up the rafters high,
Hurrah for the wedding!
Carpenters: higher and higher,
Hurrah for the wedding!
The bridegroom is equal to Ares,
Hurrah for the wedding!
Much taller than any tall man is,
Hurrah for the wedding!
As tall as the singer of Lesbos,
Hurrah for the wedding!
Towers over all singers of elsewhere,
Hurrah for the wedding!
WE PREPARED THE BRIDE
We swathed her in the softest cambric veil
O charming, O challenging lovely one!
Yours is to play with the rose-ankled Graces:
yours to play with gold Aphrodite
AND ANOTHER BRIDE
Fashioned so beautifully, Bride!
There's honey in your eyes!
Your fair and love-strewn face ...
Aphrodite, without doubt
has singled you out
LUCKY
Bridegroom
there never was
another girl like this
BRIDE"S FATHER
"We shall give," said the father.
THE PRIZE
BOYS'VOICES: Like the last red apple
sweet and high:
High as the topmost twigs,
which the apple - pickers missed -
O no, not missed
but found beyond their fingertips
THE PRICE
GIRLS'VOICES- Like the mountain hyacinth
which feet of shepherds trample
leaving the ground in bloom
with blood of purple
1 THINK
I shall be a maiden forever
VIRGINITY
Listen, my dear,
By the Goddess herself I swear
That I (like you)
Had only one
Virginity to spare
Yet did not fear
To go over the bridal line
When Hera bade me
And cast it from me;
So I cheer you on
and loudly declare:
"My own night was none
Too bad
And you my girl
Have nothing to fear,
Nothing at all."
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