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    The Poems of Sappho An Interpretative Rendition into English
    The Poems of Sappho An Interpretative Rendition into English
    The Poems of Sappho An Interpretative Rendition into English
    Ebook90 pages42 minutes

    The Poems of Sappho An Interpretative Rendition into English

    By John Myers O'Hara and Sappho

    ()

    Read preview
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArchive Classics
    Release dateNov 25, 2013
    The Poems of Sappho An Interpretative Rendition into English

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      Book preview

      The Poems of Sappho An Interpretative Rendition into English - John Myers O'Hara

      The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Poems of Sappho, by Sappho

      This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with

      almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or

      re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included

      with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org

      Title: The Poems of Sappho

             An Interpretative Rendition into English

      Author: Sappho

      Translator: John Myers O'Hara

      Release Date: February 22, 2013 [EBook #42166]

      Language: English

      *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE POEMS OF SAPPHO ***

      Produced by Heather Strickland & Marc D'Hooghe at

      http://www.freeliterature.org (Images generously made

      available by the Internet Archive)

      The Poems of Sappho

      An Interpretative Rendition into English

      BY

      JOHN MYERS O'HARA

      PORTLAND: MDCCCCX

      SAPPHO AND HER COMPANIONS

      Contents

      Who shall strike the wax of mystery from those priceless amphoræ, and give to the unsophisticated nostrils of the average reader the ravishing bouquet of wine pressed in a garden in Mitylene, twenty-five centuries ago?—MAURICE THOMPSON.

      Then to me so lying awake a vision

      Came without sleep over the seas and touched me,

      Softly touched mine eyelids and lips; and I, too,

      Full of the vision,

      Saw the white implacable Aphrodite,

      Saw the hair unbound and the feet unsandalled

      Shine as fire of sunset on western waters;

      Saw the reluctant

      Feet, the straining plumes of the doves that drew her,

      Looking always, looking with necks reverted

      Back to Lesbos, back to the hills whereunder

      Shone Mitylene.

      —SWINBURNE.

      Ω θεόί, πίς ἆρα Κύπρις, ἢ τίς μερος

      τοῡδε ξνυήψατο

      —SOPHOCLES.

      SAPPHICS

      THE MUSES

      Hither now, O Muses, leaving the golden

      House of God unseen in the azure spaces,

      Come and breathe on bosom and brow and kindle

      Song like the sunglow;

      Come and lift my shaken soul to the sacred

      Shadow cast by Helicon's rustling forests;

      Sweep on wings of flame from the middle ether,

      Seize and uplift me;

      Thrill my heart that throbs with unwonted fervor,

      Chasten mouth and throat with immortal kisses,

      Till I yield on maddening heights the very

      Breath of my body.

      MUSAGETES

      Come with Musagetes, ye Hours and Graces,

      Dance around the team of swans that attend him

      Up Parnassian heights, to his holy temple

      High on the hill-top;

      Come, ye Muses, too, from the shades of Pindus,

      Let your songs, that echo on winds of rapture,

      Wake the lyre he tunes to the sweet inspiring

      Sound of your voices.

      LOVE'S BANQUET

      If Panormus, Cyprus or Paphos hold thee,

      Either home of Gods or the island temple,

      Hark again and come at my invocation,

      Goddess benefic;

      Come thou, foam-born Kypris, and pour in dainty

      Cups of amber gold thy delicate nectar,

      Subtly mixed with fire that will swiftly kindle

      Love in our bosoms;

      Thus the bowl ambrosial was stirred in Paphos

      For the feast, and taking the burnished ladle,

      Hermes poured the wine for the Gods who lifted

      Reverent beakers;

      High they held their goblets and made libation,

      Spilling wine as pledge to the Fates and Hades

      Quaffing deep and binding their hearts to Eros,

      Lauding thy servant.

      So to me and my Lesbians round me gathered,

      Each made mine, an amphor of love long tasted,

      Bid us drink, who sigh for thy thrill ecstatic,

      Passion's full goblet;

      Grant me this, O Kypris, and on thy altar

      Dawn will see a goat of the breed of Naxos,

      Snowy doves from Cos and the drip of rarest

      Lesbian vintage;

      For a regal taste is mine and the glowing

      Zenith-lure and beauty of suns

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