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PART II - ELEGIES AT MYTILENE<br />
"Mnasidica is more shapely than the tender Gyrinno.".<br />
SAPPHO67<br />
TO THE SHIP<br />
Lovely ship that bore me here, skirting the coast <strong>of</strong> the Ionic sea, I leave you to<br />
the gleaming waves again and with a light step leap upon the strand.<br />
You are returning to the distant land, where the virgin is companion to the<br />
nymphs. Do not forget to thank the unseen counsellors and carry them this<br />
bough, plucked by my hands.<br />
You were a pine-tree standing on the hills; your spiny branches, squirrels and<br />
your birds all trembled in the angry Notos 68 blast.<br />
May Boreas guide you now, and press you gently onward to the port, black vessel<br />
companioned by the dolphins, at the mercy <strong>of</strong> the ever-watchful sea.<br />
PSAPPHA<br />
I rub my eyes . . it is already day, I think. Ah! who is by my side? . . . a woman? . .<br />
By Paphia, I had forgotten! . . . Oh, Charites! how hot with shame I am!<br />
To what country have I come, what isle is this, where love is comprehended in<br />
this fashion? If I were not so tired, I should think I had been dreaming . . . Can it<br />
be that this is Psappha?<br />
She sleeps . . . She certainly is beautiful, although her hair is cut in virile fashion.<br />
But this strange face, this mannish bosom and these narrow hips. . .<br />
I had best leave before she wakens. Alas! I am lying by the wall. I must step over<br />
her. I am afraid to brush against her hip, afraid that she might try to hold me<br />
back.<br />
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