Sappho

Peace reigned in heaven

Ambrosia stood
already mixed
in the wine bowl

It was Hermes
who took up the
wine jug and poured
wine for the gods

When I saw Eros

On his way down
from heaven, he

wore a soldier's
cloak dyed purple

You are the herdsman of evening

Hesperus, you herd
homeward whatever
Dawn's light dispersed

You heard sheep--herd
goats--herd children
home to thier mothers

Code:

---

Sleep, darling

I have a small
daughter called
Cleis, who is

like a golden
flower
        I wouldn't
take all Croesus'
kingdom with love
thrown in, for her.

---

Althought clumsy

Mnasidicia has a more
shapely figure than
our gentle Gyrino

Tomorrow you had better

Use your soft hands,
Dica, to tear off
dill shoots, to cap
you lovely curls

She who wears flowers
attracts happy
Graces: they turn
back from bare head

Code:

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We put the urn aboard ship
with this inscription

This is the dust of little
Timas who unmarried
      led
into Persephone's dark
      bedroom

And she being far from
      home, girls
her age took new-edged
      blades

to cut, in mourning for her,
these curls of thier soft hair

---

Cyprian, in my dream

The folds of a purple
kercheif shadowed
your cheeks--the one

Timas one time sent,
a timid gift, all
the way from Phocaea

In the spring twilight

The full moon shining:
Girls take thier places
as through around an altar

And their feet move

Rhythmically, as tender
feet of Creten girls
danced once around an

altar of love, crushing
a circle of soft
smooth flowering grass

Code:

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Awed by her splendor

Stars near lovely
moon cover thier own
bright faces
                when she
is roundest and lights
earth with her silver

---

Now, while we dance

Come here to us
gentle Gaiety,
Revelry, Radiance

and you Muses
with lovely hair

The evening star

Is the most
beautiful
of all stars

It is time now

First voice:...................For you who are so
..................................pretty and charming

..................................to shae in games
..................................that the pink-ankled
..................................Graces play, and

..................................gold Aphrodite

..................................O never!

Second voice: ...............I shall be
..................................a virgin always

For her sake

We ask you
to come now

O Graces O
rosy-armed
perfection:

God's daughters