Modern English Translations of Sappho

By Michael R. Burch

Featured in Issue One of New Lyre Magazine

Preface 

Some thoughtlessly proclaim the Muses nine; 
A tenth is Lesbian Sappho, maid divine. 

—Plato, translated by Lord Neaves 

Was Sappho the first great Romantic poet, more than two thousand years before Blake, Burns, Byron, Coleridge, Wordsworth, Shelley and Keats? Was she the first modern poet as well? Perhaps, because according to J. B. Hare, "Sappho had the audacity to use the first person in poetry and to discuss deep human emotions, particularly the erotic, in ways that had never been approached by anyone before her."  

Sappho has been called the Tenth Muse, the Pride of Hellas, the Flower of the Graces and the Companion of Apollo (the god of Poetry). She was also called simply The Poetess, just as William Shakespeare is call The Bard (i.e., as if they have no competition). Prior to Sappho, poetry was primarily used for ceremonial, religious and storytelling purposes. But Sappho used poetry to explore herself and her relationships with others. She laid herself bare in ways that other poets would also do―given two millennia to catch up! Margaret Reynolds opined: "Certainly Sappho seems to have been an original inventor of the language of sexual desire." Thus, when we read Sappho we are reading the most unique and original of love poets. Today, when we hear songwriters like Bob Dylan, Prince, Adele and Taylor Swift revealing their inner selves to the world, we are surely hearing echoes of the first great lyric poet, Sappho of Lesbos. 

Sappho was born around 630 B.C. on the island of Lesbos and lived there in the port city of Mytilene. It is believed she came from a wealthy family and had three brothers, two of whom are named in her poems. It is also believed she was married and had a daughter named Cleïs. Sappho was apparently exiled to Sicily around 600 B.C. and may have continued to live there until her death around 570 B.C. Not much else is known about her, other than what can be gleaned from her poems and from what other classical authors wrote about her. However, Sappho's poems are mostly fragments and much of what was written about her came long after her own day and may not be accurate. For instance, her father was given ten different names! We do know, however, that Sappho and her poetry were highly esteemed. 

Her specialty was lyric poetry, so-called because it was either recited or sung to the accompaniment of the lyre (a harp-like instrument). "She is a mortal marvel" wrote Antipater of Sidon, before proceeding to catalog the seven wonders of the world. Plato numbered her among the wise. Plutarch said the grace of her poems acted on audiences like an enchantment, so that when he read her poems he set aside his drinking cup in shame. Strabo called her "something wonderful," saying he knew of "no woman who in any, even the least degree, could be compared to her for poetry." Solon so loved one of her songs that he remarked, "I just want to learn it and die." Sappho was so highly regarded that her face graced six different ancient coins. But perhaps the greatest testimony to her talent and enduring fame is the long line of poets who have paid homage to her over the centuries, including such luminaries as Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Lord Byron, Catullus, Thomas Hardy, A. E. Housman, Walter Savage Landor, Robert Lowell, Plato, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Sir Philip Sidney, Charles Algernon Swinburne, Sarah Teasdale and Alfred Tennyson.  

Before we dive into the poems, let me point out that I call my translations "loose translations" and "interpretations" because I am not translating every word literally. In my opinion, ultra-literal, word-for-word translations will seldom if ever result in poetry in the second language. I side with the great Rabindranath Tagore, who said that he needed leeway when translating his own Bengali poems into English, if he wanted to create poetry. And in Sappho's case, due to the fragmentary state of most of her poems, word-for-word translations are usually not possible. I do not claim that my interpretations are the "correct ones" but I think they open windows, so to speak, for readers to see a great poet as I see her. When I translate, I first try to "grok" (understand as intimately, deeply and profoundly as possible) both the poet and the poem in question. I then try to create "impressionistic" poetry in the language I know and love, English. 

Should we be attempting new translations, when we know translations can never match the originals perfectly? Please consider the alternative. Without her translators, Sappho would be lost to most of the world. With the better translations, she remains perpetually alive. If you don't like my translations, I hope you will seek out others, but I do hope you like them ... 

Sappho, fragment 2 (Lobel-Page 2 / Voigt 2 / Diehl 5, 6 / Bergk 4, 5) 

Come, Cypris, from Crete 
to meet me at this holy temple 
where a lovely grove of apple awaits our presence 
bowering altars 
                         fuming with frankincense. 
Here brisk waters babble beneath apple branches, 
the grounds are overshadowed by roses, 
and through the flickering leaves 
                                                     enchantments shimmer. 
Here the horses will nibble flowers 
as we gorge on apples 
and the breezes blow 
                                  honey-sweet with nectar ... 
Here, Cypris, we will gather up garlands, 
pour the nectar gracefully into golden cups 
and with gladness 
                             commence our festivities. 

Sappho, fragment 16 (Lobel-Page 16 / Diehl 27a, 27b / Cox 3 / Voigt 16 ) 

Warriors on rearing chargers, 
columns of infantry, 
fleets of warships: 
some say these are the dark earth's redeeming visions. 
But I say— 
the one I desire. 

And this makes sense 
because she who so vastly surpassed all mortals in beauty 
—Helen— 
seduced by Aphrodite, led astray by desire, 
set sail for distant Troy, 
abandoning her celebrated husband, 
leaving behind her parents and child! 

Her story reminds me of Anactoria, 
who has also departed, 
and whose lively dancing and lovely face 
I would rather see than all the horsemen and war-chariots of the Lydians, 
or all their infantry parading in flashing armor. 

Sappho, fragment 147 (Lobel-Page 147 / Cox 30) 

Someone, somewhere 
will remember us, 
I swear! 

"From Dio Chrysostom, who, writing about A.D. 100, remarks that this is said 'with perfect beauty.'"―Edwin Marion Cox 

Sappho, unnumbered fragment 

What cannot be swept 
                                   aside 
must be wept. 

Sappho, fragment 34 (Lobel-Page 34, Cox 4) 

Awed by the Moon's splendor, 
the stars covered their undistinguished faces. 
Even so, we. 

"Quoted by Eustathius of Thessalonica in the twelfth century."―Edwin Marion Cox 

Sappho, fragment 39 

We're merely mortal women, 
it's true; 
the Goddesses have no rivals 
but You. 

Sappho, fragment 5 

We're eclipsed here by your presence— 
you outshine all the ladies of Lydia 
as the bright-haloed moon outsplendors the stars. 

Sappho, fragment 52 (Lobel-Page 52 / 47D / Cox 35) 

With my two small arms, how can I 
think to encircle the sky? 

Quoted by Herodian, according to Edwin Marion Cox.