Wow. Thank you, communicator. This was the first Sappho piece that I ever read (in the Mary Barnard translation, I think), and I love it. I've haven't seen anything like all of those translations - what a great collection.

And, while I find more of myself in the original opening, yours is a brilliant twist that works, I think, for a modern reader. And I very much like the rest of it. *Thank you* for that.

And thank you also for the reminder about National Poetry Day, which I'd managed to forget.

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Thanks Glitterboy. Reading through the translations, I thought that the Mary Barnard was one of the best. Are you going to post a poem today?

And where does the line fall between blogging and poetry?

That's why I'm sitting in my office
on a Saturday afternoon,
listening to the sound of the printer jamming

Set that to a Bob Marley tune and you've got a song right there :-)

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Yes, I'm glad that I met the poem through that particular translation - seeing it again amidst the others on that page reminded me of why it set me alight when I first read it.


Are you going to post a poem today?

I should have thought about it in advance, and perhaps come up with something out-of-the-way. But I didn't, so I'm just going to go with what comes into my head. Later - bit hectic here at the moment.


Set that to a Bob Marley tune and you've got a song right there :-)

*blushes* You wouldn't want to hear me sing it, though. :-)

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Thanks for yours. In return, I'll offer a short one which may or may not be Sappho. The translation was given to me by a college boyfriend. Apart from the addition of the sky to the first line, it's very close.

Deduke men a selanna,
kai pleiades, mesai de
nuktes, para d' erchet' ora,
ego de mona kateudo.

The moon is setting in the sky,
The Pleiades are dying,
'Tis midnight, and the time goes by,
And I alone am lying.

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Thanks, though it made me sad

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Try this one, then, from earlier in the night:

Asteres men amphi kalan selannan
aps apukruptoisi phaennon eidos,
oppota plethoisa malista lampei
gan epi paisan.

The stars about the lovely moon
No longer shine so bright,
For she is at her fullest, and
She fills the earth with light.

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That feels better

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I've always felt that the brevity of Sappho has much in common with Japanese haiku - at least in translation since I speak neither Greek nor Japanese!

Clouds -
a chance to dodge
moonviewing

(Basho - trans Lucien Stryk)

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It's frustrating that we have lost so much of Sappho's work. I've never heard that haiku you quoted before, but I think it's quite funny:

Winds tear down blossom
Great, I won't have to admire
The damn stuff any more

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