STANDING BY MY BED
In gold sandals
Dawn that very
moment awoke me
AT NOONTIME
When the earth is
bright with flaming
heat falling straight down
the cricket sets
up a high-pitched
singing in his wings
CYPRIAN, IN MY DREAM
The folds of a purple
kerchief shadowed
your cheeks — the one
Timas one time sent,
a timid gift, all
the way from Phocaea
AWED BY HER SPLENDOR
Stars near the lovely
moon cover their own
bright faces
when she
is roundest and lights
earth with her silver
I HAVE HAD NOT ONE WORD FROM HER
Frankly I wish I were dead.
When she left, she wept
a great deal; she said to
me, "This parting must be
endured, Sappho, I go unwillingly."
I said, "Go, and be happy
but remember (you know
well) whom you leave shackled by love
"If you forget me, think
of our gifts to Aphrodite
and all the loveliness that we shared
"all the violet tiaras,
braided rosebuds, dill and
crocus twined around your young neck
"myrrh poured on your head
and on soft mats girls with
all that they most wished for beside them
"while no voices chanted
choruses without ours,
no woodlot bloomed in spring without song. . ."
THANK YOU, M DEAR
You came, and you did
well to come: I needed
you. You have made
love blaze up in
my breast — bless you!
Bless you as often
as the hours have
been endless to me
while you were gone
YOU MAY FORGET BUT
Let me tell you
this: someone in
some future time
will think of us
PAIN PENETRATES
Me drop
by drop
I HEAR THAT ANDROMEDA —
That hayseed in her hay-
seed finery — has put
a torch to your heart
and she without even
the art of lifting her
skirt over her ankles
YOU REMIND ME
Of a very gentle
little girl I once
watched picking flowers
_________________
Sappho
a new translation by
Mary Barnard
Wesleyan 2019
