Sappho Quotes

You are, I think, an evening star,
the fairest of all the stars.

There is a boy, and lust
Has crushed my spirit - just
As gentle Aphrodite planned.
Since I have cast my lot, please, golden-crowned
Aphrodite, let me win this round!

Eros seizes and shakes my very soul like the wind on the mountain
shaking ancient oaks.

I can reveal to you that I wished to die -
For with much weeping she left me
Saying: "Sappho - what suffering is ours!
For it is against my will that I leave you."
In answer, I said: "Go, happily remembering me
For you know what we shared and pursued -
If not, I wish you to see again our [ former joys ] ...
The many braids of rose and violet you [ wreathed ]
Around yourself at my side
And the many garlands of flowers
With which you adorned your soft neck:
With royal oils from [ fresh flowers ]
You anointed [ yourself ]
And on soft beds fulfilled your longing
[ For me ] ...

The dice of love are shouting and madness.

Beauty endures only for as long as it can be seen; goodness, beautiful today, will remain so tomorrow.

Love is a cunning weaver of fantasies and fables.

Someone will remember us
I say
even in another time

Hesperus, you are
The most fetching star.
What Dawn flings afield
You bring back together -
Sheep to the fold, goats to the pen,
And the child to his mother again.

Nightingale,
All you sing
Is desire;
You are the crier
Of coming spring

When I look on you a moment, then I can speak no more, but my tongue falls silent, and at once a delicate flame courses beneath my skin, and with my eyes I see nothing, and my ears hum, and a wet sweat bathes me and a trembling seizes me all over.

Honestly, I wish I were dead.
Weeping many tears, she left me and said,
"Alas, how terribly we suffer, Sappho.
I really leave you against my will."
And I answered: "Farewell, go and remember me.
You know how we cared for you.
If not, I would remind you
... of our wonderful times.
For by my side you put on
many wreaths of roses
and garlands of flowers
around your soft neck.
And with precious and royal perfume
you anointed yourself.
On soft beds you satisfied your passion.
And there was no dance,
no holy place
from which we were absent.

For me, neither the honey nor the bee

You came and I was longing for you.
You cooled a heart that burned with desire.

Girls, be good to these spirits of music and poetry
that breast your threshold with their scented gifts.
Lift the lyre, clear and sweet, they leave with you.
As for me, this body is now so arthritic
I cannot play, hardly even hold the instrument.
Can you believe my white hair was once black?
And oh, the soul grows heavy with the body.
Complaining knee-joints creak at every move.
To think I danced as delicate as a deer!
Some gloomy poems came from these thoughts:
useless: we are all born to lose life,
and what is worse, girls, to lose youth.
The legend of the goddess of the dawn
I'm sure you know: how rosy Eos
madly in love with gorgeous young Tithonus
swept him like booty to her hiding-place
but then forgot he would grow old and grey
while she in despair pursued her immortal way.

Because I prayed
this word:
I want

And with precious and royal perfume you anointed yourself.

May I write words more naked than flesh,
stronger than bone, more resilient than
sinew, sensitive than nerve.

At noontime

When the earth is
bright with flaming
heat falling straight down

the cricket sets
up a high-pitched
singing in his wings

You will have memories
Because of what we did back then
When we were new at this,
Yes, we did many things, then - all
Beautiful ...

I am weary of all your words and soft, strange ways.

I don't know what to do
two states of mind in me

Whoever he is who opposite you
sits and listens close
to your sweet speaking
and lovely laughing – oh it
puts the heart in my chest on wings
for when I look at you, even a moment, no speaking
is left in me
no: tongue breaks and thin
fire is racing under skin
and in eyes no sight and drumming
fills ears
and cold sweat holds me and shaking
grips me all, greener than grass

The gorgeous man presents a gorgeous view;
The good man will in time be gorgeous, too.

The moon has set In a bank of jet That fringes the Western sky, The pleiads seven Have sunk from heaven And the midnight hurries by; My hopes are flown And, alas! alone On my weary couch I lie.

frequently
for those
I treat well are the ones who most of all
harm me

My heart
flutters in my breast whenever
I quickly glance at you-
I can say nothing,

my tongue is broken. A delicate fire
runs under my skin, my eyes
see nothing, my ears roar,
cold sweat

rushes down me, trembling seizes me,
I am greener than grass.
To myself I seem
needing but little to die

I said: 'Go with my blessing if you go
Always remembering what we did. To me
You have meant everything, as you well know.

Stand to face me beloved
And open out the grace of your eyes

Eros the melter of limbs (now again) stirs me -
sweetbitter unmanageable creature who steals in

The moon is setand the Pleiades; Middle ofthe night, time passes by,I lie alone.

I will let my body flow like water over the gentle cushions.

Dancing up the full moon
Round some fair new altar
Trample the soft blossoms of fine grass.

What cannot be said will be wept.

Now the Earth with many flowers puts on her spring embroidery

Dawn with arms of roses

Eros, again now, the loosener of limbs troubles me,
Bittersweet, sly, uncontrollable creature ... .

The gleaming stars all about the shining moon
Hide their bright faces, when full-orbed and splendid
In the sky she floats, flooding the shadowed earth
with clear silver light.

Yet if you had a desire for good or beautiful things
and your tongue were not concocting some evil to say
shame would not hold down your eyes
but rather you would speak about what is just

Death must be an evil and the gods agree; for why else would they live for ever?

LXVII

INDOORS the fire is kindled;
Beechwood is piled on the hearthstone;
Cold are the chattering oak-leaves;
And the ponds frost-bitten.

Softer than rainfall at twilight,
Bringing the fields benediction
And the hills quiet and greyness,
Are my long thoughts of thee.

How should thy friend fear the seasons?
They only perish of winter
Whom Love, audacious and tender,
Never hath visited.

Reminded me of Anaktoria, who is gone. I would rather see her lovely step and the motion of light on her face than chariots of Lydians or ranks of footsoldiers in arms.

Mere air, these words, but delicious to hear.

From all the offspring of the earth and heaven love is the most precious.

]
]you will remember
]for we in our youth
did these things

yes many and beautiful things
]
]
]

Some say thronging cavalry, some say foot soldiers, others call a fleet the most beautiful of sights the dark earth offers, but I say it's what- ever you love best.

. . . .

But that reminds me:

now my Anactória is gone,
and I'd rather see her lovely step, her sparkling glance and her face than gaze on all the troops in Lydia in their chariots and glittering armor.

When anger spreads through the breath, guard thy tongue from barking idly.

Peer of gods he seemeth to me, the blissful
Man who sits and gazes at thee before him,
Close beside thee sits, and in silence hears thee
Silverly speaking,
Laughing love's low laughter. Oh this, this only
Stirs the troubled heart in my breast to tremble!
For should I but see thee a little moment,
Straight is my voice hushed;
Yea, my tongue is broken, and through and through me
'Neath the flesh impalpable fire runs tingling;
Nothing see mine eyes, and a noise of roaring
Waves in my ears sounds;
Sweat runs down in rivers, a tremor seizes
All my limbs, and paler than grass in autumn,
Caught by pains of menacing death, I falter,
Lost in the love trance.

Eros harrows my heart: wild gales sweeping desolate mountains, uprooting oaks.

Some say an army of horsemen, or infantry,
A fleet of ships is the fairest thing
On the face of the black earth, but I say
It's what one loves.

And a sweet expression spreads over her fair face.

Without warning as a whirlwind swoops on an oak Love shakes my heart

For the man who is beautiful is beautiful to see but the good man will at once also beautiful be

I have not had one word from her
Frankly I wish I were dead
When she left, she wept
a great deal; she said to me, "This parting must be
endured, Sappho. I go unwillingly."
I said, "Go, and be happy
but remember (you know
well) whom you leave shackled by love
"If you forget me, think
of our gifts to Aphrodite
and all the loveliness that we shared
"all the violet tiaras,
braided rosebuds, dill and
crocus twined around your young neck
"myrrh poured on your head
and on soft mats girls with
all that they most wished for beside them
"while no voices chanted
choruses without ours,
no woodlot bloomed in spring without song ...

Some call ships, infantry or horsemen
The greatest beauty earth can offer;
I say it is whatever a person
Most lusts after.

In Ancient Greek literature male poets tend not simply to portray women as lecherous but to attribute to them a species of lust different from that of males: a subhuman and automatic reflex, an animalistic urge. Sappho is important because she gives a fulle human voice to female desire for the first time in Western history. Since she defiantly chooses the quintessential love-object Helen of Troy as her freethinking agent, she seems fully conscious of the revolutionary claim she is making.

but me you have forgotten
or you love some man more than me

Like a gale smiting an oak
On mountainous terrain,
Eros, with a stroke,
Shattered my brain.

I simply want to be dead.
Weeping she left me

with many tears and said this:
Oh how badly things have turned out for us.
Sappho, I swear, against my will I leave you.

And I answered her:
Rejoice, go and
remember me. For you know how we cherished you.

In fact she herself once blamed me
Kyprogeneia
because I prayed
this word:
I want.

Wealth without virtue is no harmless neighbor.

The moon has set
And the Pleiades.
Midnight.
I lie in bed alone.

Would Jove appoint some flower to reign, in matchless beauty on the plain, the Rose (mankind will all agree). The Rose the queen of flowers should be.

for you beautiful ones my thought
is not changeable

I would not think to touch the sky with two arms

not one girl I think
who looks on the light of the sun
will ever
have wisdom
like this

Once again love drives me on, that loosener of limbs, bittersweet creature against which nothing can be done.

but if you love us
choose a younger bed
for I cannot bear
to live with you when I am the older one

What is beautiful is good, and who is good will soon be beautiful.

I declare
That later on,
Even in an age unlike our own,
Someone will remember who we are.

May you sleep on the breast of your delicate friend

Some men say an army of horse and some men say an arm on foot / and some men say an army of ships is the most beautiful thing / on the black earth. But I say it is / what you love.

Some say an army of horsemen,
some of footsoldiers, some of ships,
is the fairest thing on the black earth,
but I say it is what one loves.

It's very easy to make this clear
to everyone, for Helen,
by far surpassing mortals in beauty,
left the best of all husbands

and sailed to Troy,
mindful of neither her child
nor her dear parents, but
with one glimpse she was seduced by

Aphrodite. For easily bent...
and nimbly...[missing text]...
has reminded me now
of Anactoria who is not here;

I would much prefer to see the lovely
way she walks and the radiant glance of her face
than the war-chariots of the Lydians or
their footsoldiers in arms.

The evening star Is the most beautiful of all stars

Death is an evil; the gods have so judged; had it been good, they would die.

neither for me honey nor the honey bee

Raise high the roof beam, carpenters. Like Ares comes the bridegroom, taller far than a tall man.

Stand and face me, my love,
and scatter the grace in your eyes.

Come to me once more, and abate my torment;
Take the bitter care from my mind, and give me
All I long for; Lady, in all my battles
Fight as my comrade.

I use to weave crowns

The moon has set, and the Pleiades; it is midnight, and time passes, and I sleep alone.

Evening you gather back
all that dazzling dawn has put asunder:
you gather a lamb, gather a kid,
gather a child to its mother.

Then you my goddess with your immortal lips smiling
Would ask what now afflicts me, why again
I am calling and what now I with my restive heart
Desired:
Whom now shall I beguile
To bring you to her love?
Who now injures you, Sappho?
For if she flees, soon shall she chase
And, rejecting gifts, soon shall she give.
If she does not love you, she shall do so soon
Whatsoever is her will.
Come to me now to end this consuming pain
Bringing what my heart desires to be brought:
Be yourself my ally in this fight.

Builders, raise the ceiling high, Raise the dome into the sky, Hear the wedding song! For the happy groom is near, Tall as Mars, and statelier, Hear the wedding song!

But thou shalt ever lie dead nor shall there be any remembrance of thee then or ever, for thou hast none of the roses of Pieria; but thou shalt wander unnoticed, even in the houses of Hades, flitting among the shadowy dead.

Forever shalt thou lie dead, nor shall there be any remembrance of thee now or hereafter, for never has thou had any of the roses of Pieria; but thou shalt wander, eternally unregarded in the houses of Hades, flitting among the insubstantial shades.

In gold sandals / dawn like a thief / fell upon me.

In the crooks of your body, I find my religon.

Gracious your form and your eyes as honey : desire is poured upon your lovely face Aphrodite has honored you exceedingly ...

]Sardis
often turning her thoughts here
]
you like a goddess
and in your song most of all she rejoiced.
But now she is conspicuous among Lydian women
as sometimes at sunset
the rosyfingered moon
surpasses all the stars. And her light
stretches over salt sea
equally and flowerdeep fields.
And the beautiful dew is poured out
and roses bloom and frail
chervil and flowering sweetclover.
But she goes back and forth remembering
gentle Atthis and in longing
she bites her tender mind

Death is an ill; 'tis thus the Gods decide: / For had death been a boon, the Gods had died.

Hesperus bringing together All that the morning star scattered.

Although only breath, words which I speak are immortal.

Eros once again limb-loosener whirls me sweetbitter, impossible to fight off, creature stealing up ... I don't know what I should do: two states of mind in me ...

Experience shows us Wealth unchaperoned by Virtue is never an innocuous neighbor.

He who is fair to look upon is good, and he who is good will soon be fair also.

If you are squeamish
Don't prod the
beach rubble.

There is no place for grief in a house which serves the Muse.

Tonight I've watched
the moon and then
the Pleiades
go down

The night is now
half gone; youth
goes; I am

in bed alone

No holy place existed without us then,
no woodland, no dance, no sound.
Beyond all hope, I prayed those timeless
days we spent might be made twice as long.
I prayed one word: I want.
Someone, I tell you, will remember us,
even in another time.

Whatever one loves most is beautiful.

What creature is it that is
female in nature and hides
in its womb unborn children
who, although they are voiceless,
speak to people far away?
The female creature is a letter.
The unborn children are the letters
(of the alphabet) it carries. And the
letters, although they have no voices,
speak to people far away.