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Sappho
These hundred poems and fragments constitute virtually all of Sappho that survives and effectively bring to life the woman whom the Greeks consider to be their greatest lyric poet. Mary Barnard's translations are lean, incisive, direct—the best ever published. She has rendered the beloved poet's verses, long the bane of translators, more authentically than anyone else in English.
114 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 601
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Sappho
309books1,867followersWork of Greek lyric poet Sappho, noted for its passionate and erotic celebration of the beauty of young women and men, after flourit circa 600 BC and survives only in fragments.
Ancient history poetry texts associate Sappho (Σαπφώ or Ψάπφω) sometimes with the city of Mytilene or suppose her birth in Eresos, another city, sometime between 630 BC and 612 BC. She died around 570 BC. People throughout antiquity well knew and greatly admired the bulk, now lost, but her immense reputation endured.
Ancient history poetry texts associate Sappho (Σαπφώ or Ψάπφω) sometimes with the city of Mytilene or suppose her birth in Eresos, another city, sometime between 630 BC and 612 BC. She died around 570 BC. People throughout antiquity well knew and greatly admired the bulk, now lost, but her immense reputation endured.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 613 reviews
March 6, 2018
i like how simple & clear this translation is but what i don't understand is why mary felt the need to make up titles for each fragment to "make the context clearer" like relax im gay i get the context
October 24, 2013
A little over a decade ago, I arrived at college. I was crazy about poetry, in the way that many teenage girls are crazy about poetry. My sentiments toward poetry were similar to the sentiments Horace expresses toward the sea god Poseidon in his "Ode to Pyrrha": I felt that poetry had, in a very personal and somewhat obscure way, saved my life, saved my sanity. To me, poetry was a sort of magnanimous taciturn Greek god who had ripped me out of the teeth of a hurricane and carried me to safety, and my natural duty was to be henceforth devoted to its practice. I considered myself a kind of devotee, a kind of temple vestal, charged with reading and writing and proselytizing about poetry.
Looking back, I was also woefully illiterate. Sure, I had done well in my high-school English classes, and I had read a slew of classic novels for pleasure during my childhood and teen years. But what did I really know in those days about poetry, the field that I claimed to be devoted to? The sparse morsels I had gathered from Louis Untermeyer's Treasury of Favorite Poems, bought from the "Bargain Books" section of my local suburban Barnes and Noble store. Scraps of Pablo Neruda's work, which had been recommended to me by a free-spirited boyfriend. Bits and pieces of Arthur Rimbaud and Guillaume Apollinaire, scavenged from paperback anthologies. Contemporary poetry was a cipher to me. The poetry of ancient Greece and Rome was a mystery to me.
The freshman-year roommate that my university had assigned to me was named Sara. "Oh, do you love poetry? I love poetry, too!" she effused. I noticed that she spoke the word "love" without hesitation or shyness: she was a gregarious girl of Italian ethnicity who overflowed with personality. Having been raised by a Vietnamese-American family in Minnesota who valued modesty and propriety above all, I rarely used such personal words as "love" in my natural speech: it would have felt like standing in front of a crowd and bleeding all over them.
"Yes, I love poetry, too," I replied cautiously.
Sara proudly pointed to a handmade sign that she posted on her bedroom door. In magic marker, she had copied out a quote from a poem: "Someone, in another time, will remember us. Sappho."
I read the quote, politely, at Sara's direction. Then I read it again. It seemed cocky and overly bold to me, the timid girl from Minnesota who was afraid to use the word "love" in front of strangers. Who was this unfamiliar poetess Sappho who dared to speak out so confidently, like a prophetess, like the mouthpiece of a god?
"You've never read Sappho before?" Sara cried incredulously. She stood up from the couch, darted into her bedroom, and re-emerged a few moments later, carrying a slim paperback book. "Here, you must read this. You'll love it. I'm obsessed with it."
What this paperback book contained was, of course, Mary Barnard's lovely free-verse translations of the oeuvre of 6th-century-B.C. Greek poet Sappho. It introduced me to a voice so naked and essential that it now seems strange to me that I had never encountered it before. It taught me that one's personal longings are not to be hidden under the bed like dirty underwear, but have a kind of god-sanctioned dignity all their own.
Sappho's words have a deceptive simplicity. They seem innocuous, but, on further thought, are actually rigged with explosives. They are heart-stoppingly daring in their blasphemies. Sappho dares to proclaim that she is certain she will achieve poetic immortality. She dares to proclaim that she knows for a fact that an enemy of hers is destined to be forgotten after death. She dares to proclaim that romantic love is no less historically important than warfare. Without shyness, Sappho lets us, her audience, eavesdrop as she prays aloud to the goddess Aphrodite, addressing the deity with breathtaking directness and sacrilegiously imagining the words that the deity will say to her in reply. In our presence, Sappho recites the symptoms of her sexual desire, as if speaking to a physician, and it is a litany of such intimacy and potency that it hushes our heartbeats.
I didn't know what poetry was before I read this book. I know now.
Looking back, I was also woefully illiterate. Sure, I had done well in my high-school English classes, and I had read a slew of classic novels for pleasure during my childhood and teen years. But what did I really know in those days about poetry, the field that I claimed to be devoted to? The sparse morsels I had gathered from Louis Untermeyer's Treasury of Favorite Poems, bought from the "Bargain Books" section of my local suburban Barnes and Noble store. Scraps of Pablo Neruda's work, which had been recommended to me by a free-spirited boyfriend. Bits and pieces of Arthur Rimbaud and Guillaume Apollinaire, scavenged from paperback anthologies. Contemporary poetry was a cipher to me. The poetry of ancient Greece and Rome was a mystery to me.
The freshman-year roommate that my university had assigned to me was named Sara. "Oh, do you love poetry? I love poetry, too!" she effused. I noticed that she spoke the word "love" without hesitation or shyness: she was a gregarious girl of Italian ethnicity who overflowed with personality. Having been raised by a Vietnamese-American family in Minnesota who valued modesty and propriety above all, I rarely used such personal words as "love" in my natural speech: it would have felt like standing in front of a crowd and bleeding all over them.
"Yes, I love poetry, too," I replied cautiously.
Sara proudly pointed to a handmade sign that she posted on her bedroom door. In magic marker, she had copied out a quote from a poem: "Someone, in another time, will remember us. Sappho."
I read the quote, politely, at Sara's direction. Then I read it again. It seemed cocky and overly bold to me, the timid girl from Minnesota who was afraid to use the word "love" in front of strangers. Who was this unfamiliar poetess Sappho who dared to speak out so confidently, like a prophetess, like the mouthpiece of a god?
"You've never read Sappho before?" Sara cried incredulously. She stood up from the couch, darted into her bedroom, and re-emerged a few moments later, carrying a slim paperback book. "Here, you must read this. You'll love it. I'm obsessed with it."
What this paperback book contained was, of course, Mary Barnard's lovely free-verse translations of the oeuvre of 6th-century-B.C. Greek poet Sappho. It introduced me to a voice so naked and essential that it now seems strange to me that I had never encountered it before. It taught me that one's personal longings are not to be hidden under the bed like dirty underwear, but have a kind of god-sanctioned dignity all their own.
Sappho's words have a deceptive simplicity. They seem innocuous, but, on further thought, are actually rigged with explosives. They are heart-stoppingly daring in their blasphemies. Sappho dares to proclaim that she is certain she will achieve poetic immortality. She dares to proclaim that she knows for a fact that an enemy of hers is destined to be forgotten after death. She dares to proclaim that romantic love is no less historically important than warfare. Without shyness, Sappho lets us, her audience, eavesdrop as she prays aloud to the goddess Aphrodite, addressing the deity with breathtaking directness and sacrilegiously imagining the words that the deity will say to her in reply. In our presence, Sappho recites the symptoms of her sexual desire, as if speaking to a physician, and it is a litany of such intimacy and potency that it hushes our heartbeats.
I didn't know what poetry was before I read this book. I know now.
September 7, 2016
Intimate, sensual and lovely. Loved it.
July 26, 2023
she did what the instagram poets couldn’t�..
June 10, 2019
Jij bent gekomen toen ik hunkerde naar jou,
jij koelde mijn hart dat verkoolde van verlangen
***
De maan is ondergegaan,
met de Plejaden: midder-
nacht, de tijd verstrijkt,
ik slaap alleen.
***
Mooi is maar mooi
voor een ogenblik,
goed is vandaag
zo mooi als morgen...
Dood zal je zijn en begraven
en geen herinnering, geen heimwee
rijst er later nog naar jou,
want jij plukte geen rozen van Piëria,
ongezien zelfs in de hel
zul je van ons weggefladderd
dolen onder duistere doden.
jij koelde mijn hart dat verkoolde van verlangen
***
De maan is ondergegaan,
met de Plejaden: midder-
nacht, de tijd verstrijkt,
ik slaap alleen.
***
Mooi is maar mooi
voor een ogenblik,
goed is vandaag
zo mooi als morgen...
Dood zal je zijn en begraven
en geen herinnering, geen heimwee
rijst er later nog naar jou,
want jij plukte geen rozen van Piëria,
ongezien zelfs in de hel
zul je van ons weggefladderd
dolen onder duistere doden.
August 16, 2019
Sappho walked so u-haul lesbians could run
Read
February 26, 2024queer longing hasn’t changed a bit
February 10, 2016
Sappho’s lyrical poems are interesting since they often make clear allusions to events in Homer’s version of the Trojan cycle of myth, but the focus is shifted away from the traditional thematic concerns like honour and duty. Sappho places the importance of eros over kleos. In addition, physical pleasure is not derived from domination of her supposed lovers but is instead –at times- a result of their mere presence. And finally, her relationships with other women do not always seem to have definitive “active/passive� roles.
the 9th muse!
the 9th muse!
September 20, 2021
سافو شاعرة الغناء الإغريقية
تتغنى بأفروديت وصديقات مجلسها الغنائي وبالأعراس تتغنى بالحب واحزان القلوب..
بسبب الترجمة افقدت النص جماله وكون الأشعار قديمة أعطيته النجمتين فقط.
"لربما تنسين لكن
دعيني اقل لك هذا :
في مستقبل ما سيفكر بنا احد"
"من الغريب القول ان أولئك اللذين أحسنت
معاملتهم هم انفسهم الذين
يلحقون بي الآن أكثر الأذى "
*الكتاب قصة لقائي به جميلة فأخذته من مكتبة زوج خالتي رحمه الله كان شاعرا والكتاب اهداء من رجل سوري إسمه حمزة الحلبي وكتب في الإهداء
《م� الكتب التي هربت معي من جحيم نظام دمشق ٢٠١٢ 》كا� الله مع الأخوة السوريين
و يا لها من مصادفة جميلة �
تتغنى بأفروديت وصديقات مجلسها الغنائي وبالأعراس تتغنى بالحب واحزان القلوب..
بسبب الترجمة افقدت النص جماله وكون الأشعار قديمة أعطيته النجمتين فقط.
"لربما تنسين لكن
دعيني اقل لك هذا :
في مستقبل ما سيفكر بنا احد"
"من الغريب القول ان أولئك اللذين أحسنت
معاملتهم هم انفسهم الذين
يلحقون بي الآن أكثر الأذى "
*الكتاب قصة لقائي به جميلة فأخذته من مكتبة زوج خالتي رحمه الله كان شاعرا والكتاب اهداء من رجل سوري إسمه حمزة الحلبي وكتب في الإهداء
《م� الكتب التي هربت معي من جحيم نظام دمشق ٢٠١٢ 》كا� الله مع الأخوة السوريين
و يا لها من مصادفة جميلة �
December 8, 2020
“The nightingale’s
The soft-spoken
announcer of
Spring’s presence�
....................................
“Awed by her splendor
Stars near the lovely
moon cover their own
bright faces
when she
is roundest and lights
earth with her silver�
....................................
Despite the incomplete fragments, Sappho’s poems are still brimming with emotion. Her words are beautiful, evocative, and intimate and she did not shy away from baring her mind and soul in her writing, instead, offering her prayers to Aphrodite and sharing her innermost desires with the utmost sincerity. This collection has reminded me why I love reading poetry so much.
The soft-spoken
announcer of
Spring’s presence�
....................................
“Awed by her splendor
Stars near the lovely
moon cover their own
bright faces
when she
is roundest and lights
earth with her silver�
....................................
Despite the incomplete fragments, Sappho’s poems are still brimming with emotion. Her words are beautiful, evocative, and intimate and she did not shy away from baring her mind and soul in her writing, instead, offering her prayers to Aphrodite and sharing her innermost desires with the utmost sincerity. This collection has reminded me why I love reading poetry so much.
July 30, 2019
İlk kadın edebiyatçı olarak nitelendirilen Sappho'nun günümüze eksiksiz olarak maalesef tek bir şiiri ulaşmış. Bu kitapta Sappho'nun günümüze ulaşabilen şiir parçalarına yer verilmiş; fakat ne yazık ki çoğu şiirin neredeyse tek mısrasını okuyabiliyoruz. Keşke daha fazlasını okuyabilme imkânımız olsaymış...
October 13, 2016
61. Sappho : A New Translation by Mary Barnard
with an introduction and notes by Dudley Fitts
composition: c ~612-570 bce,
translation 1958
format: 115 page paperback, University of California press, 2012
acquired: library
read: Oct 9
rating: 5
I had three hours to kill in a coffee shop - and , 3/4 done, was NOT calling. I picked this up instead to glance through and was first struck by fragment 6:
I'm not going to try to review Sappho's fragments. What you should know is that there isn't much left. In classic times there were nine book of poetry by Sappho, and they were so readily available that authors didn't bother quoting all the time. But that's all gone. What we have now are the various quotations that have been preserved through the ages, and a few gems found on the cloth of burial wraps in Egypt. I think only two complete poems have made it down to us via copies of copies of copies and they have surely been butchered. The quotes are extensive and promising but that is all. And that is mostly what we read - tantalizing fragments that leave us wondering.
This little book was a terrific experience for me. Reading enthusiasm just isn't there and it's hard to make a work what it should be. But this came at the right time and place and at the right length, all contained within those two hours. I have several other translations in the house at the moment, care of my library. I hope to read more of them.
with an introduction and notes by Dudley Fitts
composition: c ~612-570 bce,
translation 1958
format: 115 page paperback, University of California press, 2012
acquired: library
read: Oct 9
rating: 5
I had three hours to kill in a coffee shop - and , 3/4 done, was NOT calling. I picked this up instead to glance through and was first struck by fragment 6:
"I love thatThat's all it took to get my attention. I thought about it constantly as I read the remainder of the collection over the next two hours. Why? If I tried to tell you, I guess I'd probably ruin it.
which caresses
me. I believe
Love has his
share in the
Sun's brilliance
and virtue"
I'm not going to try to review Sappho's fragments. What you should know is that there isn't much left. In classic times there were nine book of poetry by Sappho, and they were so readily available that authors didn't bother quoting all the time. But that's all gone. What we have now are the various quotations that have been preserved through the ages, and a few gems found on the cloth of burial wraps in Egypt. I think only two complete poems have made it down to us via copies of copies of copies and they have surely been butchered. The quotes are extensive and promising but that is all. And that is mostly what we read - tantalizing fragments that leave us wondering.
This little book was a terrific experience for me. Reading enthusiasm just isn't there and it's hard to make a work what it should be. But this came at the right time and place and at the right length, all contained within those two hours. I have several other translations in the house at the moment, care of my library. I hope to read more of them.
February 8, 2012
With his venom
irresistible
and bittersweet
that loosener
of limbs, Love
reptile-like
strikes me down
Sappho. Her style was a sensual melody of love and yearning.
Sad to say, with the exception of a single poem available in its entirety, today we're left with only fragments of her original work. Even sadder to say, this is -at least in part- down to the censorship ofdick-headed close-minded scholars and church leaders. (In her poetry, the target of Sappho's affections was female more often than not. Why that constitutes a good book-burning I'll never know.)
I have to say, I very much prefer this approach to translating Sappho's surviving work, eschewing the old rhyming stanzas. Mary Barnard you are a genius.
I leave you with this:
-To Eros
You burn me.
Simple. Brilliant.
irresistible
and bittersweet
that loosener
of limbs, Love
reptile-like
strikes me down
Sappho. Her style was a sensual melody of love and yearning.
Sad to say, with the exception of a single poem available in its entirety, today we're left with only fragments of her original work. Even sadder to say, this is -at least in part- down to the censorship of
I have to say, I very much prefer this approach to translating Sappho's surviving work, eschewing the old rhyming stanzas. Mary Barnard you are a genius.
I leave you with this:
-To Eros
You burn me.
Simple. Brilliant.
December 7, 2019
"Day in, day out
I hunger and
I struggle"
I hunger and
I struggle"
October 10, 2024
damn she really was the original sad girl huh
June 12, 2023
(5) i love reading gay poetry
Read
January 28, 2024the origin of gay longing. hits deep.
November 22, 2016
We know relatively little about Sappho from the island of Lesbos in Greece. Her poetry is not explicitly homosexual despite her name being intimately associated with female homosexuality. That being said there is a delicious sensuality to her writing that transcends time and still can speak to use today. It is full of desire and love and beauty. What I like is how it brings alive the life in ancient Greece. Take for example the fabled Grecian urn which of course Keats wrote about in 1819. Here is Sappho:
How utterly evocative and melancholic and still unspeakably beautiful. Give Sappho a read and you will not regret it.
We put the urn aboard ship
with this inscription:
This is the dust of little
Timas who unmarried was 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 their soft hair
How utterly evocative and melancholic and still unspeakably beautiful. Give Sappho a read and you will not regret it.
August 16, 2017
There is a statue of Sappho located in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York that I think expressed what Sappho is about perfect:
She's portrayed as the sort of artist or musician who is both brought to life by beauty and totally consumed by it, which is constantly evident in her poetry. she talks of love and sexuality as a powerful reason to be, but also a thing that annihilates the self completely and renders a person obsolete, useless.
'With his venom/ Irresistible and bittersweet/ That loosener of limbs, Love/ reptile- like/ strikes me down'
she talks of love as if its a sort of monstrous thing she is trying to escape because it makes her lose all agency. And I think this is what I love most about Sappho, she values her strength and her independence, she loaths loose limbs, but she understands that to love and be loved is a sort of pleasure that comes at a high price.
She's portrayed as the sort of artist or musician who is both brought to life by beauty and totally consumed by it, which is constantly evident in her poetry. she talks of love and sexuality as a powerful reason to be, but also a thing that annihilates the self completely and renders a person obsolete, useless.
'With his venom/ Irresistible and bittersweet/ That loosener of limbs, Love/ reptile- like/ strikes me down'
she talks of love as if its a sort of monstrous thing she is trying to escape because it makes her lose all agency. And I think this is what I love most about Sappho, she values her strength and her independence, she loaths loose limbs, but she understands that to love and be loved is a sort of pleasure that comes at a high price.
November 29, 2024
Some say Muses are nine: how careless! Look, there's Sappho too, from lesbos, the tenth.
_Plato
_____
sounding much sweeter than a lyre, more golden than gold.
____
It's no use
Mother dear, I
Can't finish my
Weaving
You may blame Aphrodite
Soft as she is
She has almost
Killed me with
Love for that girl
______
“How much we have suffered, Sappho.
Truly, I do not want to leave you.�
And I answered her: “Farewell. Go, and remember me.
You know how we care for you.
And if you should not, I want to remind you
our moments of grace
_Plato
_____
sounding much sweeter than a lyre, more golden than gold.
____
It's no use
Mother dear, I
Can't finish my
Weaving
You may blame Aphrodite
Soft as she is
She has almost
Killed me with
Love for that girl
______
“How much we have suffered, Sappho.
Truly, I do not want to leave you.�
And I answered her: “Farewell. Go, and remember me.
You know how we care for you.
And if you should not, I want to remind you
our moments of grace
July 5, 2020
At noontime
When the earth is
bright with flaming
heat falling straight down
the cricket sets
up a high-pitched
singing in his wings
I read most of this early today while on a hike. I was disappointed by the scenery, the views of the Ohio weren't much different than I can mange on a ten minute walk from our front door. It was a hot summer morning, the insects appeared both bored and determined and somehow despite these circumstances this ancient voice reached me, though a clinging film of 2600 years.
When the earth is
bright with flaming
heat falling straight down
the cricket sets
up a high-pitched
singing in his wings
I read most of this early today while on a hike. I was disappointed by the scenery, the views of the Ohio weren't much different than I can mange on a ten minute walk from our front door. It was a hot summer morning, the insects appeared both bored and determined and somehow despite these circumstances this ancient voice reached me, though a clinging film of 2600 years.
September 28, 2017
You may forget but
Let me tell you
this: someone in
some future time
will think of us
Beautiful, painful, evocative, sensual and lush are a few ways to describe Sappho's poetry. Even if we only have incomplete and broken fragments of her poetry, there is no absence of emotion.
August 10, 2024
"now i know why eros, of all progeny of earth and heaven, has been most early loved"
as a bisexual woman when i started to read poetry this year, i knew i had to somewhen finally read sappho. and i'm glad i've read her; it was a gorgeous, tender collection of queer longing and eventual heartbreak (comphet and heteronormativity have been ruining secretyl queer lives since the dawn of time). the translator, mary barnard, seems to have delivered a crystal-clear masterful translation from ancient greek to english (ancient greek is hard asf, i tried and failed), it flowed incredibly well. some poems really hit me personally but i do have to admit that i didn't care of some of them. those i didn't care about were just pretty word to me. for those i did, i found them beautiful, sensual almost erotic for ancient greek standards and it was just lovely. but bcs i'm midway about some poems versus others, i'll give it a conservative 3.5 :)
"the gods bless you, may you sleep then on some tender girl friend's breast"
as a bisexual woman when i started to read poetry this year, i knew i had to somewhen finally read sappho. and i'm glad i've read her; it was a gorgeous, tender collection of queer longing and eventual heartbreak (comphet and heteronormativity have been ruining secretyl queer lives since the dawn of time). the translator, mary barnard, seems to have delivered a crystal-clear masterful translation from ancient greek to english (ancient greek is hard asf, i tried and failed), it flowed incredibly well. some poems really hit me personally but i do have to admit that i didn't care of some of them. those i didn't care about were just pretty word to me. for those i did, i found them beautiful, sensual almost erotic for ancient greek standards and it was just lovely. but bcs i'm midway about some poems versus others, i'll give it a conservative 3.5 :)
"the gods bless you, may you sleep then on some tender girl friend's breast"
January 15, 2021
(note: this is more of a review of the translation than Sappho's work itself)
Mary Barnard's translation of Sappho's poetry is quintessential for reader's of classics; it was the first publication of Sappho to be translated by a woman, allowing her to retain the original feminine voice and views, unlike masculine translations which, consciously or subconsciously, take on a male perspective. She also writes true to the original voice of Sappho, taking away any of the previous embellishments of Edmonds' or Wharton's versions.
Barnard also orders the fragments in such a way as to almost create a narrative story; beginning with poems from Sappho's youth, when her narrative voice is young, naïve and passionate, the poems progress to the point of her being older, wiser, reflecting on her life and being on the verge of dying.
Yet these translations are originally from 1958, so it's important to keep that in mind when reading; if you are looking to read Sappho for the iconic lesbian themes, (while they are in some cases unavoidable), I would recommend reading a more recent translation, as Barnard chooses to use gendered terms like "boy" while in the original Greek of some poems the subject is gender-neutral/ambiguous, showing the heteronormativity at the time when Barnard was translating.
All in all, it's an amazing translation, and I adore Sappho and the themes she explores within her poetry; her work reveals so much about life in Ancient Greece and beliefs at the time, as well as revealing the links between the ancient world and modern society, both in gender, sexuality, emotions, and the human struggle.
If you're interested! Here's some further reading I would recommend:
Sappho's Sexuality and the gendered terms used in translations (short article) -
Fighting Lesbian Erasure in Historiography (a short article) -
Paideuma: Modern and Contemporary Poetry and Poetics (commentary on this specific translation) -
Mary Barnard's translation of Sappho's poetry is quintessential for reader's of classics; it was the first publication of Sappho to be translated by a woman, allowing her to retain the original feminine voice and views, unlike masculine translations which, consciously or subconsciously, take on a male perspective. She also writes true to the original voice of Sappho, taking away any of the previous embellishments of Edmonds' or Wharton's versions.
Barnard also orders the fragments in such a way as to almost create a narrative story; beginning with poems from Sappho's youth, when her narrative voice is young, naïve and passionate, the poems progress to the point of her being older, wiser, reflecting on her life and being on the verge of dying.
Yet these translations are originally from 1958, so it's important to keep that in mind when reading; if you are looking to read Sappho for the iconic lesbian themes, (while they are in some cases unavoidable), I would recommend reading a more recent translation, as Barnard chooses to use gendered terms like "boy" while in the original Greek of some poems the subject is gender-neutral/ambiguous, showing the heteronormativity at the time when Barnard was translating.
All in all, it's an amazing translation, and I adore Sappho and the themes she explores within her poetry; her work reveals so much about life in Ancient Greece and beliefs at the time, as well as revealing the links between the ancient world and modern society, both in gender, sexuality, emotions, and the human struggle.
If you're interested! Here's some further reading I would recommend:
Sappho's Sexuality and the gendered terms used in translations (short article) -
Fighting Lesbian Erasure in Historiography (a short article) -
Paideuma: Modern and Contemporary Poetry and Poetics (commentary on this specific translation) -
June 15, 2010
I confess that upon first encountering this volume I only thought the smaller fragments little nothings:
82
Rich as you are
Death will finish
you: afterwards no
one will remember
or want you: you
had no share in
the Pierian roses
You will flitter
invisible among
the indistinct dead
in Hell’s palace
darting fitfully
(Barnard’s note reads: “Stobaeus, anthologist. E(dmonds) 71. Plutarch tells us that this fragment was written to a “wealthy woman� of “no refinement or learning.� My text, from Quasimodo, 58.�)
A.S. Kline translates the same fragment:
And when you are gone there will be no memory
Of you and no regret. For you do not share
The Pierian roses, but unseen in the house of Hades
You will stray, breathed out, among the ghostly dead.
Thomas Wentworth Higginson (the muse of sorts to Emily Dickinson) gives this:
Dying she reposes;
Oblivion grasps her now;
Since never Pierian roses
Were wreathed round her empty brow;
She goeth unwept and lonely
To Hades' dusky homes,
And bodiless shadows only
Bid her welcome as she comes.
Still so the shade flickers.
August 14, 2023
Getting a lot of Sapphic vibes from these poems
June 26, 2011
I’d be lying if I said that love isn’t one of my favorite subjects.
It’s obvious that Sappho is a wonderfully gifted poet. I wish that I could read the poems in their entirety, but sometimes the mystery of what is lost adds to their beauty. Who cannot wonder of what she speaks of in this fragment?:
“That was different.
My girlhood then
was in full bloom
and you—�
This is all we have, but it already speaks bounds of what it means to be young and in love.
Reading Barnard’s footnote, I may disagree with some of her methods of translation; compressing the poems where words were missing, for instance. But overall it is a nice little collection, one that I would gladly read again. However, I am super paranoid about reading translations, afraid that I might be reading a poorly translated version of what I should be reading. Barnard’s translation is a good one, but I will probably take a look at Anne Carson’s translation next.
It’s obvious that Sappho is a wonderfully gifted poet. I wish that I could read the poems in their entirety, but sometimes the mystery of what is lost adds to their beauty. Who cannot wonder of what she speaks of in this fragment?:
“That was different.
My girlhood then
was in full bloom
and you—�
This is all we have, but it already speaks bounds of what it means to be young and in love.
Reading Barnard’s footnote, I may disagree with some of her methods of translation; compressing the poems where words were missing, for instance. But overall it is a nice little collection, one that I would gladly read again. However, I am super paranoid about reading translations, afraid that I might be reading a poorly translated version of what I should be reading. Barnard’s translation is a good one, but I will probably take a look at Anne Carson’s translation next.
October 25, 2022
as always, i don’t know the proper way to review poetry. but i do know that sappho’s poetry evokes a feeling of melancholy and longing that lingers in my chest.
Tonight I've watched
the moon and then
the Pleiades
go down
The night is now
half gone; youth
goes; I am
in bed alone
Tonight I've watched
the moon and then
the Pleiades
go down
The night is now
half gone; youth
goes; I am
in bed alone
April 15, 2022
my girl was raging of love and lesbianism and i loved every second of it.
July 14, 2023
"Мисля, че никога не ще има някоя
девойка, видяла слънчевата светлина,
която с твоите умения да бъде"
девойка, видяла слънчевата светлина,
която с твоите умения да бъде"
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
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