From marek@enteract.com Mon Mar 20 02:28:20 CST 2000
Article: 21937 of rec.arts.poems
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From: marek@enteract.com (Marek Lugowski)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.poems
Subject: Sappho / Cleis
Date: 20 Mar 2000 01:07:47 GMT
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 for my wifefriend

		Cleis 
		------------------------------------------------------------
		
		Sleep, darling
		I have a small
		daughter called
		Cleis, who is

		like a golden
		flower
		I wouldn't
		take all Croesus'
		kingdom with love
		thrown in, for her

		---

		Don't ask me what to wear
		I have no embroidered
		headband from Sardis to
		give you, Cleis, such as
		I wore
		and my mother
		always said that in her
		day a purple ribbon
		looped in the hair was thought
		to be high style indeed

		but we were dark:
		a girl
		whose hair is yellower than
		torchlight should wear no
		headdress but fresh flowers

			Sappho
			2600 or so years ago, island of Lesbos, Greece
			translated from the Aeolic Ancient Greek
			by Mary Barnard
			_Sappho_, University of California Press, 1984,
			ISBN 0520011171 (my recommendation)
	http://www.sappho.com/poetry/historical/sappho.html
		...bio + to see how various translators convey her poetry
		Cleis = her only child, daughter
-- 
  ------------------- : http://www.enteract.com/~marek : ------------------
  1 Clickable geomap : Magical Mystery Tour : last add : Kristie's postcard
  2 HalinaFAQ (now also po polsku): Halina Poswiatowska Translation Project
  3 A Small Garlic Press (ASGP): A 501c3 Nonprofit Corp: $2/chapbook poetry