After Sappho

[poliphilo]

You may have heard how they've found a "new" poem by Sappho. This one turned up in the papier-mache casing of an Egyptian mummy. It's only the fourth near-complete text we have from the woman whom the ancients considered to be the greatest of all lyric poets.

I don't read Greek, but I've seen a literal English translation. Here's my (very free) version of it....

After Sappho

Enjoy it girls, enjoy the music,
Sweet as night scented stocks,

And don’t mind me. I’m old and out of sorts.
Don’t ask me to dance.

There was a time, before these knees packed up,
I leaped around like a deer.

But such is life. It could be so much worse.
You’ve heard them speak of Tithonus-

How Goddess Aurora loved him,
Carried him off to live in the sunrise,

And gave him immortality.
Soon he grew frail and ill- and couldn’t die.

Comments

[besideserato.livejournal.com]

A welcome version, though I have not seen the original and would hesitate, quite frankly, to go anywhere near it. Thank you for sharing this and giving me something to think about.

Were I not so deep in Catherinne Millet, I would most certainly dig out my little book of little Sapphic fragments. Perhaps this afternoon, at sunset...?

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

"At sunset"- the most appropriate time.

I entertain the hope that sometime soon, perhaps in the ruins of Herculaneum or Pompeii, someone will unearth the complete works of Sappho

[besideserato.livejournal.com]

That is a worthy hope, my friend.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

And not an unrealistic one. We know that there are libraries buried under the tufa.

[besideserato.livejournal.com]

Wouldn't that be great?! Preserved after all this time?

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Things keep turning up.

They've already found a lot of scrolls in Herculaneum. Unfortunately they didn't contain lost plays by Euripides, but the works of an obscure Roman philosopher.

[besideserato.livejournal.com]

Oh! I didn't know about this. Have you any site regarding this? How long ago did this happen?

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

The scrolls have been known about for centuries. What's new is that we now have the technology to read them. There's a useful article here- http://magazine.byu.edu/article.tpl?num=44-Spr01

[besideserato.livejournal.com]

AMAZING! Thank you for sharing this with me, poliphilo! You have no idea how much I love this. I had NO idea. Looks like I need to step out of my bubble and take a look around. I am neglecting the things that really excite my imagination and intellect.

They bring up a very good point in the article that my professor had pointed out to me in my art class last semester: would we have all these things if Vesuvius had not erupted? It is hard to imagine that such a tragedy would ever be thought of as good, but then... how curious how the implications of events change over the course of history!

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Well, the answer's clear- no Vesuvius, no scrolls.

No pornographic wall paintings either.

I've never been to Pompeii, but the place has always fascinated me.

[besideserato.livejournal.com]

Oh, me too. And, interestingly, it has nothing to do witht he pornographic wall paintings!

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

When I was a kid we were told that there were rooms in Pompeii that were barred to women and children. Well, how could I rest until I'd found out what was in them?

[besideserato.livejournal.com]

One can only wonder...

[besideserato.livejournal.com]

I KNOW, RIGHT?!