Pain Drains Me: Sappho Translation

Sappho, fragment 58 loose translation by Michael R. Burch Pain drains me to the last drop . Sappho, fragment 130 (Lobel-Page 130 / Voigt 130) loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch Eros, the limb-shatterer, rattles me, an irresistible constrictor. Sappho, unnumbered fragment loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch What cannot be swept aside must be wept. Sappho, fragment 138 (Lobel-Page 138) loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch 1. Darling, let me see your face; unleash your eyes' grace. 2. Turn to me, favor me with your eyes' indulgence. 3. Look me in the face, smile, reveal your eyes' grace... 4. Turn to me, favor me with your eyes' acceptance. 5. Darling, let me see your smiling face; favor me again with your eyes' grace. Sappho, fragment 38 (Incertum 25, Cox 36) loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch I flutter after you like a chick after its mother... From the 'Etymologicum Magnum' according to Edwin Marion Cox. In the following poem Sappho asks Aphrodite to "persuade" someone to fall in love with her. The poem strikes me as a sort of love charm or enchantment… Hymn to Aphrodite (Lobel-Page 1) by Sappho loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch Immortal Aphrodite, throned in splendor! Wile-weaving daughter of Zeus, enchantress and beguiler! I implore you, dread mistress, discipline me no longer with such vigor! But come to me once again in kindness, heeding my prayers, as you did so graciously before; O, come Divine One, descend once more from heaven's golden dominions! Then with your chariot yoked to love's white consecrated doves, their multitudinous pinions aflutter, you came gliding from heaven's shining heights, to this dark gutter. Swiftly they came and vanished, leaving you, O my Goddess, smiling, your face eternally beautiful, asking me what unfathomable longing compelled me to cry out. Asking me what I sought in my bewildered desire. Asking, 'Who has harmed you, why are you so alarmed, my poor Sappho? Whom should Persuasion summon here? ' 'Although today she flees love, soon she will pursue you; spurning love's gifts, soon she shall give them; tomorrow she will woo you, however unwillingly! ' Come to me now, O most Holy Aphrodite! Free me now from my heavy heartache and anguish! Graciously grant me all I request! Be once again my ally and protector! 'Hymn to Aphrodite' is the only poem by Sappho of Lesbos to survive in its entirety.