Which translation are these beautiful exstracts from please?
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Which translation are these beautiful exstracts from please?
The ones that I post are from Mary Barnard
Without warning
As a whirlwind
swoops on an oak
Love shakes my heart
I love Sappho! I could cry when I think of her lost work. I read that sometime in the late 1800's a series of excavations took place somewhere in Egypt and that they found a great deal of her work, in strips and pieces lining coffins and in carcasses of stuffed sacred animals. But I believe that even that was second-hand. No doubt the Christian religious zealots had a hand in eliminating her work. Wasn't a great deal of Botticelli's work also burned in some anti-pagan hysteria? Anyway, I love this poem about growing old -- translated by Paul Roche. Mostly though, I love the images her words conjure up in my mind. They are timeless and haunting.
No, children, do not delude me.
You mock the good gifts of the Muses
When you say: “Dear Sappho we’ll crown you,
Resonant player,
First on the clear sweet lyre . . . “
Do you not see how I alter:
My skin with it’s aging,
My black hair gone white,
My legs scarcely carrying
Me, who went dancing
More neatly than fawns once
(Neatest of creatures)?
No, no one can cure it; keep beauty from going,
And I cannot help it.
God himself cannot do what cannot be done.
So age follows after and catches
Everything living
Even rosy-armed Eos, the Dawn,
Who ushers in morning to the ends of the earth,
Could not save from the grasp of old age
Her lover immortal Tithonus.
And I too I know, must waste away.
Yet for me—listen well—
My delight is the exquisite.
Yes, for me,
Glitter and sunlight and love
Are one society.
So I shall not go creeping away
To die in the dark:
I shall go on living with you,
Love and loved.
I think I may have that one in my book, it looks familair, but I really enjoyed that translation of it. It is a lovely poem.
By the way really like your user name
Thank you! I like your name as well! A couple of summers ago I sat around the pool reading Sappho -- I wanted to read it in her environment -- hot and close to the water. I had to settle for my pool, since a Greek island was not an option! Anyway, I still have this link to a great deal of Sappho sites. There's information and even some readings. Some good, some terrible. Hopefully you'll find something of interest.
http://www.classicpersuasion.org/pw/...index.htm#gade
I am not sure where, but somewhere I just happend to see a little pocket sized book of a collection of her works, at first I had not really heard of it, but I have a general interest in poetry so I picked it up, and I just fell in love with her work. I will have to check out that link.
If you will come
I shall put out
new pillows for
you to rest on
Thank you, my dear
You came, and you did
well to come: I needed
you. You have made
love blave up in
my breast--bless you!
Bless you as often
as the hours have
been endless to me
while you were gone.
I was so happy
Believe me, I
prayed that that
night might be
doubled for us.
Now I know why Eros,
Of all the progeny of
Earth and Heaven, has
been most dearly loved
She was dressed well:
Her feet were hidden
under embroidered
sandal straps--fine
handwork from Asia
I think I'm going to steal these for some song lyrics. :)Quote:
Originally Posted by Dark Muse
____________
Maybe all one can do is hope to end up with the right regrets. - Arthur Miller
rc car parts small dog beds patio table sets
Dead shalt thou lie; and nought
Be told of thee or thought,
For thou hast plucked not of the muses' tree:
And even in Hades' halls
Amidst thy fellow-thralls
No friendly shade thy shade shall company!
Translated by Thomas Hardy.
But you, monkey face
Atthis, I loved you
long ago while you
still seemed to me a
small ungracious child
I was proud of you, too
In skill I think
you need never
bow to any girl
not one who may
see the sunlight
in time to come
After all this
Atthis, you hate
even the thought
of me. You dart
off to Andromeda
I just love this one!
With his venom
Irresistible
and bittersweet
that loosner
of limbs, Love
reptile-like
srikes me down.
Afraid of losing you
I ran fluttering
like a little girl
after her mother
On what is best
Some celebrate the beauty
of knights, or infantry,
or billowing flotillas
at battle on the sea.
Warfare has its glory,
but I place far above
these military splendors
the one thing that you love.
For proof of this contention
examine history:
we all remember Helen,
who left her family,
her child, and royal husband,
to take a stranger's hand:
her beauty had no equal,
but bowed to love's command.
As love then is the power
that none can disobey,
so too my thoughts must follow
my darling far away:
the sparkle of her laughter
would give me greater joy
than all the bronze-clad heroes
- translated by Jon Corelis
Is ON WHAT IS BEST supposed to be a poem of Sappho's?
I question that it is because of certain words used in the poem. For example the word knights. Sappho lived circa 620 b.c. to 565 b.c. Knights did not exist in Sappho's time, either literally or physically. There was no conception of knights in her time. Knights is a medieval term. Another word that is used in the poem is the word history. There was no conception of history per se in Sappho's time, much less the use of the word. Herodotus who lived circa 484 b.c. to 425 b.c. and who wrote The Histories is credited with not only creating the first historical work but with conceiving the idea of history.
Perhaps it's the fault of the translator--John Corelis; maybe he translated certain terms or words Sappho used into more modern terms. Anyway, the poem On What Is Best both appears and sounds to me too modern to have been composed by Sappho.
Perhaps it was an interpretation of the translator or a mistake by him, or the poem was wrongly attributed to Sappho, I will do further research into it.
Here is another translation of the poem that I was able to find:
Some an army of horsemen, some an army on foot
and some say a fleet of ships is the loveliest sight
on this dark earth; but I say it is what-
ever you desire:
and it is possible to make this perfectly clear
to all; for the woman who far surpassed all others
in her beauty, Helen, left her husband-
the best of all men -
behind and sailed far away to Troy; she did not spare
a single thought for her child nor for her dear parents
but the goddess of love led her astray
which
reminds me now of Anactoria
although far away.
translation by Josephine Balmer
Interesting observations. I think it is clear that the translator was not using the words 'knights' and 'history' in a rigorously technical way.Quote:
Originally Posted by Jermac
While they (probably) did not belong to orders or subscribe to the code of chivalry, there were cavalrymen in Sappho's time. Ancient Greek cavalrymen were similar in some respects to medieval knights (for example, they were wealthy aristocrats), and it is not uncommon to translate the Greek word for horseman as 'knight' (one of Aristophanes' plays, for example, is often referred to as Knights). The translator in this case probably consciously chose to use the word 'knights' to evoke the romance surrounding medieval knights to reinforce the feeling of those who would say that cavalry is the most beautiful thing in the world.
As for the word 'history', it's pretty common to use it to simply refer to events that took place in the past, without thought of the scholarly value of the sources. Actually, the translator inserted the word into the poem; there is no word in the poem that the translator is trying to render with the word 'history'. I agree that it draws undue attention to the problem of the nature of myths like the story of Helen.
For those who are curious, here are some more translations of the same poem: there are four different translations of this poem here and this translation was posted earlier in this thread.
It is clear now:
Neither honey nor
the honey bee is
to be mind again.
Day in, day out
I hunger and
I struggle
You will say
See, I have come
back to the soft
arms I turned from
in the old days.
Tell me
Out of all
mankind, whom
do you love
Better than
you love me?
About 3 years ago I read a fragment which was described as a newly discovered fragment of a poem by Sappho. I was very moved by it and tried to do a rendering myself. I think it is the same fragment that Medusa_Woman quoted. But hers seems longer. For what it's worth here's my poor effort.
Dear girls, you are young,
Take all the gifts the fragrant Muses bring you.
Pluck the clear melodious lyre with zeal, and dance with joy.
Old age has seized my once tender body
My hair’s turned white instead of dark
My heart’s grown heavy; my knees will not support me now,
Which once on a time were as fleet for the dance,
As young fawns are for the chase.
This state I oft bemoan but what’s to do?
Not to grow old? I’m mortal. It must be.
Remember the old story of Dawn, the rose- armed Goddess,
Smitten by love for Tithonus?
She carried him off to the world’s end.
He was handsome and young then.
Yet in time, grey age o’ertook him.
Sad mortal husband of immortal wife.
Sappho is a gentle lover. She's great. I don't know where my mom found it at some garage sale for like 50 cents and gave it to me. one of my favorites. Such fragmented beauty.
Without warning
as a whirlwind
swoops on an oak
Love shakes my heart
For those interested in learning more about Sappho's poetry I recommend Anne Carson's Eros the Bittersweet. A beautiful and painful little book.
I said, Sappho
Enough! Why
try to move
a hard heart?
What translation are you using Dark Muse?
Mary Barnard