A
New Sappho Poem
[You
for] the fragrant-bosomed [Muses'] lovely gifts
[be
zealous] girls, [and the] clear melodious lyre:
[but
my once tender] body old age now
[has
seized;] my hair's turned [white] instead of dark;
my
heart's grown heavy, my knees will not support me,
that
once on a time were fleet for the dance as fawns.
This
state I oft bemoan; but what's to do?
Not
to grow old, being human, there's no way.
Tithonus
once, the tale was, rose-armed Dawn,
love-smitten,
carried off to the world's end,
handsome
and young then, yet in time grey age
o'er
took him, husband of immortal wife.
Trans.
Martin West (2005)
Sappho
to Her Pupils
Live
for the gifts the fragrant-breasted Muses
send,
for the clear, the singing, lyre, my children.
Old
age freezes my body, once so lithe,
rinses
the darkness from my hair, now white.
My
heart's heavy, my knees no longer keep me
up
through the dance they used to prance like fawns in.
Oh,
I grumble about it, but for what?
Nothing
can stop a person's growing old.
They
say that Tithonus was swept away
in
Dawn's passionate rose-flushed arms to live
forever,
but he lost his looks, his youth,
failing
husband of an immortal bride.
Trans.
Lachlan Mackinnon (2005)
Sappho
and the Weight of Years
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.
Trans.
Edwin Morgan (2005)
