A POEM SIX THOUSAND YEARS OLD
...When Attis, in guise of maiden fair, did sing
Unto her comrades, lo, the thiasus stirred!
A cacophony of voices quivering,
The delicate tambourine, it did swell
With resonance, and hollow cymba...
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Categories:
attis, poetry,
Form: Free verse
Immortal Sappho
...These are my modern English translations/interpretations of ancient Greek poems by the immortal Sappho of Lesbos…
With my two small arms, how can I
think to encircle the sky?
—Sappho, fragment 3...
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Categories:
attis, daughter, desire, flower, for
Form: Epigram
Sappho Translations I
...Sappho Translations I
Sappho, fragment 132 (Lobel-Page 132)
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch
1.
I have a delightful daughter
fairer than the fairest flowers, Cleis,
whom...
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Categories:
attis, desire, love, love hurts,
Form: Free verse
Attis
...All shall sing of Attis
As the moon of Rhea
And not with bells’ thunder
And not with a wind flute
All shall sing, all shall sing
As shepherd of the stars
As heaven’s crescent moon
Date: ...
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Categories:
attis, literature, moon, mythology, song,
Form: Pleiades
Sappho Fragment 2: How Can I Compete With That Damned Man
...Sappho fragment #2
translation by Michael R. Burch
How can I compete with that damned man
who fancies himself one of the gods,
impressing you with his "eloquence" ...
when just the thought of ...
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Categories:
attis, girl, girlfriend, love, lust,
Form: Sapphic stanza
Sappho's Rose
...Our English Rose
by Michael R. Burch
for Christine Ena Burch
The rose is—
the ornament of the earth,
the glory of nature,
the archetype of the flowers,
the blush of the meadows,
a lightni...
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Categories:
attis, beautiful, beauty, earth, flower,
Form: Epigram
Sing, Lyre: Sappho Translation
...Sappho, fragment 118
loose translation by Michael R. Burch
Sing, my sacred tortoiseshell lyre;
come, let my words
accompany your voice.
"Quoted by Hermogenes and Eustathius. Sappho is appare...
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Categories:
attis, Lullaby, muse, music, song,
Form: Epigram
The Most Famous Man Who Ever Lived
...“the most famous man who ever lived”
hollow is the story of “jesus”---
hollow
like the stamp with which it was printed,
hollow as these other mythical hero
archetypes,
which all bear a supernatura...
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Categories:
attis, life, , cute,
Form: Free verse