Poems and Fragments by Sappho

Ode to Aphrodite: The Poems and Fragments of Sappho by Sappho; translated by John Myres O’Hara, Henry de Vere Stacpoole | 2021; originally published circa 600 BCE | Wine Dark Press | Ebook $ 4.35

Sappho (c. 630-c. 570 BC) was an Archaic Greek poet from the island of Lesbos famous for her lyric poetry. Also known by such names as the “Tenth Muse” and “The Poetess”, Sappho was a prolific poet widely regarded as one of the greatest lyric poets of ancient times. As well as an extraordinary poet, she also represents a symbol of romantic love between women, the words lesbian and sapphic originating from her name and home island. The majority of Sappho’s work is lost and what remains only does so as fragments. Despite this, her work has and continues to influence that of others significantly.

I find the very idea of these poems fascinating. Only one has remained complete to the current day; the rest have been passed down the ages in bits and pieces, quoted admiringly by historians or sophists, but never rediscovered in their entirety. For a writer to have had such a major impact on culture that their work is remembered over 25 centuries later, but for the work itself to be almost completely lost — boggling!

That said… once again, I find myself struggling with poetry. I suppose the silver lining to these collected poems being so short is that they were quite easy to read and then re-read in bits at a time, so as to give my pathetic skullpudding a better chance of understanding the words on the page. Still, I might not have really been able to appreciate the poems if it hadn’t been for the help of modern commentaries and guides.

In this case, I’m not even sure that this particular translation was the best option. That’s not to say that this translation isn’t valuable, just that there have been many other interpretations of the same work and I don’t know enough about ancient poetry to even be able to tell if this is a good version of it or not!

For example, the Ode to Anactoria (a.k.a. Phainetai Moi) is clearly about the poet’s desire or love for a young woman; even I can tell that much. 

But… consider these different translations of the same stanza:

Echoes ring in my ears; a trembling seizes
All my body bathed in soft perspiration;
Pale as grass I grow in my passion’s madness, 
Like one insensate.

But I must dare all […]

John Myres O’Hara, 1907

In all my body I
Shudder and sweat. I am pale as the sun-scorched
Grass. In my fury I seem like a dead woman

But I would dare […]

Edward Storer, 1919

A cold sweat comes over me, trembling
Seizes me all over, I am paler
Than grass, and I seem nearly
To have died.

But everything must be endured […]

Dale S. Sinos, 1982

The general content is the same, of course, but the overall vibe seems rather different for each translation, to me. Does Sappho have soft perspiration or cold sweat; mad passion or fury? Is Sappho insensate or nearly dead; daring or enduring?

However, I have to say that even though I didn’t always intellectually understand the poems, many of them did inspire more gut-level emotional responses… which I suppose is really one of the aims of poetry as an art form. If a poem can make a person feel some kind of way while reading it, even if it isn’t perfectly intelligible to them with their current knowledge level — well, maybe that’s a sign of truly great poetry.

Sappho’s works have retained their greatness through millennia and near-destruction and having to be filtered through the eyes of smoothbrained schmucks like myself, which I think tells you all you need to know about her ability to somehow speak straight to the human soul.

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Links:

• Biography of Sappho from the Poetry Foundation
• Public domain poems available from Project Gutenberg
• CC-BY-SA poems with commentary available from The Digital Sappho

Publication information: Sappho. Ode to Aphrodite: The poems and fragments of Sappho. Transl. by John Myres O’Hara, Henry de Vere Stacpoole. Bristol, UK: Wine Dark Press, 2021. Ebook.
Source: Public library, via Hoopla.
Disclaimer: I am not compensated, monetarily or otherwise, for reviews of books or other products.