Notes About The Poem
Image source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:John_William_Godward_-_Reverie_(In_the_Days_of_Sappho)_-_c_1904_-The_Getty_LA.jpg
A poem is self expression, but the self a successful poem expresses is that of the reader, not that of the writer.
Sappho: to Aphrodite
Aphrodite, immortal, enthroned in wonder,
Sky-daughter, webstress of love schemes, I entreat you
not to break my spirit with pangs of anguish,
Queen, Lady, Mother,
but now come to me, if in the past you ever
also heeded me when I cried from afar, and,
leaving behind the golden house of your father
Zeus, you descended
borne in a chariot yoked to a flock of lovely
sparrows flying fast over earth’s black richness,
thickly fluttering wings leading you a passage
through bright mid-heaven,
soon arriving, and you, O supreme in blessing,
eternity’s smile gleaming from your expression,
asked me now this time what again I suffered,
what did I pray for,
what beyond all else I would want to happen
with all my love-maddened heart: “Who now needs persuasion
to be led back to your affection? Who is it,
Sappho, who hurts you?
Though she now may run, she will soon pursue you;
now she may spurn gifts, but she soon will give them;
now she feels no love, but she soon will feel it,
even unwilling.”
Come to me this time again: act as my deliveress
from this mastering pain, and, as the fulfiller
of everything that my passion hopes for, take your
stand as my ally.
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— translated from the Greek by Jon Corelis
The YouTube video is my musical setting of this poem performed by Beth Ratay.
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