Long Lyre Poems

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...

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“Éagmais croí a dhíscaoileadh ar gach eagla.
Faoi dhíon taobh istigh de na blianta seo.
Fanacht i bhfianaise, a dhíscaoileadh ar gach eagla.
Ós rud é go ndearnadh tú a chaitheamh.
Briseadh an tost seo”



"An Bee Cailleach"


She lives to...

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Enheduanna is the first writer we know by name. She created the first poetry anthology and hymnal, circa 2250 BC, in ancient Sumer. She was the daughter of King Saragon the Great. 

Lament to the...

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Athenian Epitaphs II

These are ancient Greek epitaphs for lost family and friends, including dogs and other animals ...

Now his voice is prisoned in the silent pathways of the night: 
his owner's faithful Maltese... 
but will...

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Heat Lightening
by Michael R. Burch

Each night beneath the elms, we never knew
which lights beyond dark hills might stall, advance,
then lurch into strange headbeams tilted up
like searchlights seeking contact in the distance . . .

Quiescent unions...

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Completing the Pattern
by Michael R. Burch

Walk with me now, among the transfixed dead
who kept life’s compact and who thus endure
harsh sentence here?among pink-petaled beds
and manicured green lawns. The sky’s azure,
pale blue once like their eyes,...

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*Image of Many Meanings by KWC.

Likeness ssenekiL: Part 1

(HOMONYMS: Homophones & Homographs)

He'll heal his heel.
They sow so they sew.
His aide aid with an ade.
You saw a ewe eat a yew.
I ate on the ait eight...

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Lament to the Spirit of War
by Enheduanna (circa 2285-2250 BCE)
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

You hack down everything you see, War God!

Rising on fearsome wings
you rush to destroy the land:
raging like thunderstorms,
howling like hurricanes,
screaming like...

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Love has a Southern flavor: honeydew,
ripe cantaloupe, the honeysuckle’s spout
we tilt to basking faces to breathe out
the ordinary, and inhale perfume ...

Love’s Dixieland-rambunctious: tangled vines,
wild clematis, the gold-brocaded leaves
that will not keep their order in...

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Brazil

As I drove through the heavy snow of Manquiville,
Deep in silence back to Grandfather's house, all frightened faces
Full of solemnly dreams, I remember the smell of the sea.
	The unseen Grandpa's hands, pulling and pulling
	The full...

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“On the Sonnet”
by John Keats

If by dull rhymes our English must be chained,
And, like Andromeda, the Sonnet sweet
Fettered, in spite of painéd loveliness;
Let us find out, if we must be constrained,
Sandals more interwoven and complete
To...

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.                           Darkness    there   was...

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She Was Alone
My brother Joseph told me one day:
I ran to the beach in the need to be alone, 
Resting my head on the soft sand giving my 
Thoughts the permission to be free, even...

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“belles lettres” 

It’s a slow drifting
off, that moment 
before you dive 
into the dark

you surface 
to find a boat 
surrounded by 
shining pearls,

Styx, a mirror 
reflecting 
otherworldly stars
hypnotic, 

you trail
your long 
pale slender fingers 
in...

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My love for you
is beyond prophecy or endowment
and lay before you a love letter from the heart
beneath the moonlight's glow
where our eyes find a silent understanding
that embraces each passionate emotion
swirling and entwined in the depth...

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IT, Revisited
BEHOLD, this perilous journey, tis a whimsical tale of woe, that is delightfully bespoken, for welcomed ears to bestow, as a clown be found awakening, his oversized feet abound, his frizzy hair stabbed outwardly,...

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Sappho Translations XI by Michael R. Burch


Sappho, fragment 92
translation by Michael R. Burch

“Sappho, if you don’t leave your room,
I swear I’ll never love you again!
Get out of bed, rise and shine on us,
take off your...

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“To Edward Young”
by Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock
translation by Michael R. Burch

Die, aged prophet: your crowning work your fulcrum;
now tears of joy
tremble on angel-lids
as heaven extends its welcome.

Why linger here? Have you not already built, great Mover,
a...

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2.
You shall be the grace of my core, 
we sing love’s song, by loves own shore, 
my Goddess divine, I adore.
My eternal rose blooms for you, 
you are ever my love so true, 
my beloved,...

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If I am Syrian, what of it?
Stranger, we all dwell in one world, not its portals.
The same original Chaos gave birth to all mortals.
—Meleager translation by Michael R. Burch

Love, how can I call on you;
does...

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My love for you
is beyond prophecy or endowment
and lay before you a love letter from the heart
beneath the moonlight's glow
where our eyes find a silent understanding
that embraces each passionate emotion
swirling and entwined in the depth...

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Sappho Translations IX


Sappho, fragment 17
translation by Michael R. Burch

Hear me, Queen Hera, as your delightful festival nears,
you to whom the sons of Atreus performed vows,
those dazzling kings who did such amazing things,
first at Troy, then...

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Sappho Translations XII by Michael R. Burch

In the following short translations the fragment numbers are mostly Lobel-Page. All translations are by Michael R. Burch and should be so credited if they are used in any...

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Sappho Translations III by Michael R. Burch


Bed the bride with the beautiful feet,
or bring her to me!
—Sappho, fragment 103b, translation by Michael R. Burch

I long helplessly for love. Gazing into your eyes not even Hermione...

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Sappho, fragment 118
loose translation by Michael R. Burch

Sing, my sacred tortoiseshell lyre;
come, let my words
accompany your voice.

"Quoted by Hermogenes and Eustathius. Sappho is apparently addressing her lyre. The legend is that Hermes made the first...

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