After Sappho
Jun. 25th, 2005 02:28 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
poliphiloYou 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.
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.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2005-06-25 07:04 am (UTC)I didn't see the original, but I suspect yours is much better.
"...carried him off to live in the sunrise" is brilliant. Sounds like you.
no subject
Date: 2005-06-25 07:11 am (UTC)I've kept the sense of the original, but the words are my own.
no subject
Date: 2005-06-25 07:41 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-06-25 08:58 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-06-25 11:48 am (UTC)I'm really excited about this new poem of hers.
no subject
Date: 2005-06-25 11:50 am (UTC)I haven't seen the original Greek, and I wouldn't be up to handling it if i did (alas)
I once learned enough Koine Greek to be able to read the New Testament- but that's a long, long time ago.
no subject
Date: 2005-06-25 11:52 am (UTC)And as we continue to excavate Pompeii and Herculaneum we'll maybe find some more.
no subject
Date: 2005-06-25 05:49 pm (UTC)And don’t mind me. I’m old and out of sorts.
Not that I know what that's like.
no subject
Date: 2005-06-25 10:55 pm (UTC)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...?
no subject
Date: 2005-06-26 01:22 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-06-26 01:24 am (UTC)I entertain the hope that sometime soon, perhaps in the ruins of Herculaneum or Pompeii, someone will unearth the complete works of Sappho
no subject
Date: 2005-06-26 01:32 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-06-26 01:52 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-06-26 03:04 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-06-26 03:21 am (UTC)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.
no subject
Date: 2005-06-26 10:57 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-06-26 12:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-06-26 12:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-06-26 12:24 pm (UTC)I will try and think of an answer when I am not semi dyslexic with weariness.
no subject
Date: 2005-06-26 02:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-06-26 07:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-06-27 01:10 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-06-27 02:31 am (UTC)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!
no subject
Date: 2005-06-27 02:49 am (UTC)No pornographic wall paintings either.
I've never been to Pompeii, but the place has always fascinated me.
no subject
Date: 2005-06-27 07:46 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-06-28 01:50 am (UTC)I'm honoured you think my version worth quoting.
West is unbelievable; "o'ertook"- forsooth!
no subject
Date: 2005-06-28 01:54 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-06-28 03:16 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-06-28 03:16 am (UTC)no subject
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