Sappho: Fragments, on Love and Desire

I

…You burn me…

II

Remembering those things

We did in our youth…

…Many beautiful things…

III

…Again and again…because those

I care for best, do me

Most harm…

IV

You came, and I was mad for you

And you cooled my mind that burned with longing…

V

Once long ago I loved you, Atthis,

A little graceless child you seemed to me

VI

Nightingale, herald of spring

With a voice of longing…

VII

Eros, again now, the loosener of limbs troubles me,

Bittersweet, sly, uncontrollable creature…

VIII

………but you have forgotten me…

IX

You and my servant Eros…

X

Like the sweet-apple reddening high on the branch,

High on the highest, the apple-pickers forgot,

Or not forgotten, but one they couldn’t reach…

XI

Neither for me the honey

Nor the honeybee…

XII

Come from heaven, wrapped in a purple cloak…

XIII

Of all the stars, the loveliest…

XIV

I spoke to you, Aphrodite, in a dream…

XV

Yet I am not one who takes joy in wounding,

Mine is a quiet mind…

XVI

Like the mountain hyacinth, the purple flower

That shepherds trample to the ground…

XVII

Dear mother, I cannot work the loom

Filled, by Aphrodite, with love for a slender boy…

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Translation copyright 2005 A.S. Kline. Included in Vox Populi on a noncommercial license.

Sappho  (c. 630 – c. 570 BC) was an Archaic Greek poet from Eresos or Mytilene on the island of Lesbos. Sappho is known for her lyric poetry, written to be sung while accompanied by music. In ancient times, Sappho was widely regarded as one of the greatest lyric poets and was given names such as the “Tenth Muse” and “The Poetess”. Most of Sappho’s poetry is now lost, and what is extant has mostly survived in fragmentary form; only the “Ode to Aphrodite” is certainly complete. As well as lyric poetry, ancient commentators claimed that Sappho wrote elegiac and iambic poetry. Three epigrams attributed to Sappho are extant, but these are actually Hellenistic imitations of Sappho’s style.

Little is known of Sappho’s life. She was from a wealthy family from Lesbos, though her parents’ names are uncertain. Ancient sources say that she had three brothers; Charaxos, Larichos and Eurygios. Two of them, Charaxos and Larichos, are also mentioned in the Brothers Poem discovered in 2014. She was exiled to Sicily around 600 BC, and may have continued to work until around 570 BC. According to legend, she killed herself by leaping from the Leucadian cliffs due to her love for the ferryman Phaon.

Sappho was a prolific poet, probably composing around 10,000 lines. Her poetry was well-known and greatly admired through much of antiquity, and she was among the canon of Nine Lyric Poets most highly esteemed by scholars of Hellenistic Alexandria. Sappho’s poetry is still considered extraordinary and her works continue to influence other writers. Beyond her poetry, she is well known as a symbol of love and desire between women, with the English word sapphic being derived from her own name and the English word lesbian derived from the name of her home island.