Best Sappho Poems

Crimson lips, lovers awaken with a kiss
Creamy white skinned Goddesses resting
In a time where Socrates lusted after Sappho's 
Poetry and art.
 
The Grecian people worshiped her with
her beauty and exquisite prose. On the wings
of her art she played enchanting music arranged 
for immortality.

Golden chariots in...

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Sappho, fragment 58
loose translation by Michael R. Burch 
 
Pain
drains
me
to
the
last
drop
.



Sappho, fragment 130 (Lobel-Page 130 / Voigt 130)
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Eros, the limb-shatterer,
rattles me,
an irresistible
constrictor.



Sappho, unnumbered fragment
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

What cannot be swept
aside
must be wept.



Sappho, fragment 138 (Lobel-Page 138)
loose translation/interpretation by Michael...

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Sappho fragment #155
translation by Michael R. Burch 

A short revealing frock?
It's just my luck
your lips were made to mock!

*

Sappho fragment #156
translation by Michael R. Burch 

She keeps her scents
in a dressing-case.
And her sense?
In some undiscoverable place.

*

Sappho #47
translation by Michael R. Burch 

Eros harrows my heart:
wild...

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Sappho
didn't want a beau
she wrote about her lesbian passion
and that sort of thing is always in fashion

posted too late for the clerihew contest!...

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Would that this poet were in Greece!
Her heart enchanted on its sunlit sands.
Her lover, kissing her porcelain hands.

His eyes, deep, dark as Kalmata olives.
The homes, white, with bright, blue tops.
Her heart beating so loudly, fearing it may stop!

But as the sun sets, she is far...

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Ode to Sappho

Do you ever wonder that which you seek for might not exist?
That only in your sweetest dreams you will find at most small glimpses of it.
Your wildest thoughts are only vapory figures that are not real.
What you felt and tried to share will...

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Whatever your seed is,
it doesn't want my skin.
You never dream of anything of me:
hands, mouth, arms, 
the weight of me on you,
tongue, sweat, old willy boy inside--
nothing of my kind allures.  
You would rather some sweet Marie,
her body breasting you with nipple,
her perfume offering...

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Sappho Translations II

That country wench bewitches your heart?
Hell, her most beguiling art’s
hiking her dress
to seduce you with her ankles' nakedness!
Sappho, fragment 57, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Sappho, fragment 138, loose translations/interpretations by Michael R. Burch

1.
Darling, let me see your face;
unleash your eyes' grace.

2.
Turn to...

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These are my modern English translations/interpretations of ancient Greek poems by the immortal Sappho of Lesbos…

With my two small arms, how can I
think to encircle the sky?
—Sappho, fragment 35, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Mother, how can I weave,
so overwhelmed by love?
—Sappho, fragment 90, loose...

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Before a pagan shrine, a witch reveals the gods’ desire
And sees a cryptic vision cloaked in her enormous pyre:

The blazes have the wit of lightning born of rain and fire
And magically filled with deep, eternal knowledge brought
To life on laden summits swept by ancient songs...

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Sappho fragment #2
translation by Michael R. Burch

How can I compete with that damned man
who fancies himself one of the gods,
impressing you with his "eloquence" ...
when just the thought of sitting in your radiant presence,
of hearing your lovely voice and lively laughter,
sets my heart hammering at...

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SAPPHO TRANSLATIONS

Eros harrows my heart:
wild winds whipping desolate mountains,
uprooting oaks.
—Sappho, fragment 42, translation by Michael R. Burch



Sappho, fragment 113
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

No droning bee,
nor even the bearer of honey
for me!



Sappho, fragment 113
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Neither the honey
nor the bee
for me!



Sappho, fragment...

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Sappho Translations I

Sappho, fragment 132 (Lobel-Page 132)
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

1.
I have a delightful daughter
fairer than the fairest flowers, Cleis,
whom I cherish more than all Lydia and lovely Lesbos.

2.
I have a lovely daughter
with a face like the fairest flowers,
my beloved Cleis …

It bears noting...

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Do not stay at your window only to watch
The Snake is dizzy 
Do not worry
Give up drinking the white milk of prey/ies
Express your positive suma
The road (in/on) up to the mountain is full of curves
Drive safely and wisely, go slowly....

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There’s no moon
The Pleiades have disappeared.
It’s midnight,
I catch the no.48 
I’m the only passenger....

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