Sappho a Garland the Poems & Fragments (original 2002; edição 1993)

NA

There were definitely some excellent fragments in this book, but when all’s said in done, it’s still very… fragmentary. Most of the pages contain snippets only a line or two long, often cut off mid-sentence. I liked what I could read, but much of it was simply… too little.

Jim Powell does an excellent job translating the poetry, and structuring it into some semblance of thematic or aesthetic order. (He notes that almost all organizations of Sappho’s poetry are almost certainly arbitrary, so it’s as valid an approach as any other.)

After the fragments there’s a short essay from Powell about the challenges of translating poetry in general and Sappho in particular. He notes that the strength of Sappho’s poetry is her melody and meter, something which impossible to experience firsthand without immersing oneself in her particularly obscure Aeolic dialect of Greek. He encourages translators to avoid the temptation of prettying up her otherwise plainspoken poetry, and I have to agree with his decision. While some degree of Sappho’s elegance has invariably been lost in translation, there’s a power to the simple bluntness of her speech as well.

The back of the book also contains some interesting contextual information about the island of Lesbos, the evolution of Hellenic poetic traditions, and the public/private/ritualistic/cultic roles Sappho and her poetry may have played. Probably should have preceded the poems, actually. This is followed by an excellent index, glossary, and bibliography. ( )

There's not much to say about this, its beautiful poetry. Right from the start I was reminded of an ancient Egyptian love poem ("I was simply off to see Nefrus my friend") that I'd read for a class once, not that it was so similar to Sappho, but in how I was suddenly hearing a voice--I read poetry out loud whenever I can get away with it--that has been dead for well over 2,000 years.

I've never read Sappho before so I can't say if its this edition's translation and arrangement of her work that made me so entranced by it, but I was deeply disappointed when the poetry ended on page 28.

The rest of the book is a detailed biography, bibliography and history of Sappho, her poetry and its influence. It's such a slim thing, perfect for a quiet moment. ( )

Despite Sappho being well... Sappho... I'm reading this mostly because of Catallus. I want to read this before I read him. He was such a big fan he called the woman he was in love with "Lesbia," ha. Anyway, her poems are actually gayer than I thought. She is, like, such a total lesbian. ( )

Lombardo does it again. Unbelievably beautiful and resonant, miles and centuries away. ( )