Sappho

Selected poems

Sappho: Memoir, Text, Selected Renderings and a Literal Translation, by Henry Thornton Wharton (Project Gutenberg eBook #57390). Wharton numbers the poem now called fragment 31 as his number 2. The Greek is not reproduced. Public domain. Source

Before you start

Sappho was a poet of ancient Greece who wrote songs in Greek. This page hosts two English versions of each of two poems: a literal prose translation by Henry Thornton Wharton, and a verse translation by John Addington Symonds, dated 1893 for the first poem and 1883 for the second. Both are Victorian English, so expect "thee", "thou" and old verb endings. The Greek is not reproduced here.

Read each poem twice, once in Wharton's prose to get the sense and once in Symonds' verse to hear the lines, and read the verse aloud. The speaker says "I" and speaks to another person ("thee"), so keep track of who is addressed. Do not stop at every old word on a first pass: finish the poem, then go back and mark what you could not explain.

Level 1: Reading one poem slowly

Reading: fragment 31. Go to the passage · The level and its check

This is the poem the page calls Wharton 2, and it is read in both versions. Read the prose first, then the verse aloud. As you read, mark each word you could not explain to someone else, since that list is the heart of the practice. Notice where the prose stops, and what it does when it stops.

Signposts

The speaker begins by watching someone else, a man sitting near the person she addresses.
The poem turns from the man to the speaker's own body.
A list of physical symptoms begins, each one short and separate.
The prose breaks off mid-thought, and the three dots mark the break.
Symonds' verse begins again from the opening, now in lines and stanzas.
The verse version of the symptoms, in a different order of words from the prose.

Words to know

peer: An equal. "Peer of gods" means someone as good as a god, or on a level with the gods.
thy: Old English for "your" and "you" when speaking to one person.
subtle: Here, fine and hard to detect, not obvious. Check a dictionary for the other senses and decide which fits.
straightway: At once, immediately.
blissful: Very happy. "Seemeth" is the old form of "seems".
impalpable: Too faint or fine to be felt by touch. "'Neath" is a short form of "beneath".

Questions to carry

The speaker calls the man a peer of gods. Is that praise of him, or a measure of her own state?
Which symptoms in the list are things only the speaker could know, and which could an onlooker see?
The prose ends with "since one so poor ...". What might the missing words have said, and what in the poem supports your guess?
Symonds' verse ends with a full stop where the prose breaks off. What does a translator gain or risk by finishing a fragment?

Towards the check

Copy the poem out by hand, choosing prose or verse, and underline as you copy: slowing down is the point. Look up each underlined word and write the note in your own words, then reopen the passage to check that the word fits its sentence. For the two more poems, the page also holds five short pieces after the fragments: Wharton 3, 4, 52, 93 and 95. Square brackets, as in Wharton 4, mark a word the translator supplied, so ask what that tells you about the state of the original.

Pass when: Copy fragment 31 out by hand, underline every word you could not explain, and look each one up. Write the one question the poem raises, then repeat the whole routine on two more short poems of your choice. You pass when every underlined word has a note in your own words and you can read each poem aloud with no word left unexplained.

Level 2: Saying it in your own words

Reading: fragment 1. Go to the passage · The level and its check

This poem is a prayer to Aphrodite, and a goddess answers inside it. Read both versions and keep track of who is speaking at each point, since the voice changes. Your task is to put the poem in plain prose without reusing its phrases, so notice which of its phrases you would be most tempted to copy.

Signposts

The speaker addresses the goddess and opens with a plea.
She reminds the goddess of an earlier occasion on which she came.
The goddess appears and asks questions.
Quoted speech: the goddess speaks, and names the poet.
The speaker returns to the present and renews her request.
The verse version retells the arrival, line by line.
In the verse, the goddess's promise is told in three matching clauses.

Words to know

Aphrodite: The Greek goddess of love and desire.
broidered: Old form of "embroidered": decorated with stitched patterns.
Zeus: The chief god of the Greek gods; here named as Aphrodite's father.
wiles: Tricks or clever schemes. "Weaver of wiles" pictures the goddess making plots like cloth.
thee: Old English "you" for one person: "thou" as subject, "thee" as object. Verbs after "thou" end in -st, as in "didst".
camest: Old form of "came", used with "thou". "Yoked" means harnessed to the chariot.
befallen: Happened to.
loth: Old spelling of "loath": unwilling.
ally: A helper who fights on your side.
erst: Formerly, at an earlier time.
multitudinous: Very many; a crowd of.
ether: The clear upper air. "Pinion" is a wing, and "thorough" here is an old form of "through".

Questions to carry

The poet quotes the goddess at length. What does it do for the poem that Aphrodite speaks, and not only the poet?
The prose says "she" where the verse says "he". Which do you trust, and what would you check before deciding?
The speaker asks for help at the start and again at the end. Does the poem change her request in between?
What does the poem suggest about the relationship between the speaker and the goddess?

Towards the check

The prose is already prose, so work from the Symonds lines, which you can compare line by line, and keep the Wharton prose beside it for the sense. Draft your version, then check for shared phrases of three words or more against both versions and rewrite any you find. When you reopen the original, put your finger on a particular line for each loss, for example sound, word order or tone, and note what the line did that your sentence does not.

Pass when: Write a plain-prose version of fragment 1 that reuses no phrase of the poem, then set it beside the original line by line. List at least five things your version lost, such as sound, word order or tone. You pass when your version shares no phrase of three words or more with the poem and each loss on your list can be pointed to in a particular line when you reopen the poem.

Fragment 1

Wharton 1, literal prose translation

Level 2 starts here: fragment 1

Immortal Aphrodite of the broidered throne, daughter of Zeus, weaver of wiles, I pray thee break not my spirit with anguish and distress, O Queen. But come hither, if ever before thou didst hear my voice afar, and listen, and leaving thy father's golden house camest with chariot yoked, and fair fleet sparrows drew thee, flapping fast their wings around the dark earth, from heaven through mid sky. Quickly arrived they; and thou, blessed one, smiling with immortal countenance, didst ask What now is befallen me, and Why now I call, and What I in my mad heart most desire to see. 'What Beauty now wouldst thou draw to love thee? Who wrongs thee, Sappho? For even if she flies she shall soon follow, and if she rejects gifts shall yet give, and if she loves not shall soon love, however loth.' Come, I pray thee, now too, and release me from cruel cares; and all that my heart desires to accomplish, accomplish thou, and be thyself my ally.

Verse translation by J. Addington Symonds (1893)

Glittering-throned, undying Aphrodite,
Wile-weaving daughter of high Zeus, I pray thee,
Tame not my soul with heavy woe, dread mistress,
Nay, nor with anguish!

But hither come, if ever erst of old time
Thou didst incline, and listenedst to my crying,
And from thy father's palace down descending,
Camest with golden

Chariot yoked: thee fair swift-flying sparrows
Over dark earth with multitudinous fluttering,
Pinion on pinion, thorough middle ether
Down from heaven hurried.

Quickly they came like light, and thou, blest lady,
Smiling with clear undying eyes didst ask me
What was the woe that troubled me, and wherefore
I had cried to thee:

What thing I longed for to appease my frantic
Soul: and Whom now must I persuade, thou askedst,
Whom must entangle to thy love, and who now,
Sappho, hath wronged thee?

Yea, for if now he shun, he soon shall chase thee;
Yea, if he take not gifts, he soon shall give them;
Yea, if he love not, soon shall he begin to
Love thee, unwilling.

Come to me now too, and from tyrannous sorrow
Free me, and all things that my soul desires to
Have done, do for me, queen, and let thyself too
Be my great ally!

Level 2 ends here. Back to the Level 2 guide

Fragment 31

Wharton 2, literal prose translation

Level 1 starts here: fragment 31

That man seems to me peer of gods, who sits in thy presence, and hears close to him thy sweet speech and lovely laughter; that indeed makes my heart flutter in my bosom. For when I see thee but a little, I have no utterance left, my tongue is broken down, and straightway a subtle fire has run under my skin, with my eyes I have no sight, my ears ring, sweat pours down, and a trembling seizes all my body; I am paler than grass, and seem in my madness little better than one dead. But I must dare all, since one so poor ...

Verse translation by J. Addington Symonds (1883)

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 ear 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.

Level 1 ends here. Back to the Level 1 guide

Wharton 3

Literal prose translation

The stars about the fair moon in their turn hide their bright face when she at about her full lights up all earth with silver.

Wharton 4

Literal prose translation

And round about the [breeze] murmurs cool through apple-boughs, and slumber streams from quivering leaves.

Wharton 52

Literal prose translation

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

Wharton 93

Literal prose translation

As the sweet-apple blushes on the end of the bough, the very end of the bough, which the gatherers overlooked, nay overlooked not but could not reach.

Wharton 95

Literal prose translation

Evening, thou that bringest all that bright morning scattered; thou bringest the sheep, the goat, the child back to her mother.

Every level is self-paced and self-assessed, and no credential is awarded. The design is inspired by St. John's College, Khan Academy and WGU; this site is not affiliated with any of them. Levels marked Draft are first versions, still being checked and refined; their numbers will not change.