Poetry of Sappho

Not one girl, I think, will ever look on the sunlight
of another time who has such talent as this one does.
[LP 56]
To Andrómeda
That country girl has witched your wishes,
all dressed up in her country clothes
and she hasn’t got the sense
to hitch her rags above her ankles.
[LP 57]
The violet-lapped Muses’ lovely gifts belong
to you now, children, and the piercing lyre, the friend of song.
My body that, before, was supple, age already
has taken by surprise, my raven tresses are turned white,
my spirit has grown heavy and my knees too weak
to carry me, that once were quick to dance as fawns.
I grumble at them often but what good is that?
For human beings to be ageless is not possible.
the poetry of sappho 19