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A bilingual edition (Greek on the left-hand page, English on the right) of the complete surviving poetry of Sappho, some from papyri and some from quotations by other authors of a line or even just a word. TBH, I didn't find any of it particularly memorable but it was interesting to see just how fragmentary fragments are.

4/5⭐ I love that the book includes the facing Greek. The translations are more on the side of faithfully following the literal Greek; while this makes for more awkward-sounding poetry, I really appreciate the accuracy. I read this alongside Rayor's 2023 translation, & it's very interesting to see how they filled in blanks & translated words differently. The commentary on each fragment is great. The two editions necessarily supplemented each other.

Thanks for the tag @TheSpineView ! 💖

1. The tagged book! I love Anne Carson‘s translations.
2. I‘m good to go until the books start making me more frustrated than I am invested! Which could be book 2, or could be book 19. 😂
3. I will forever mourn the Discworld books we will never see. ❤️

#WondrousWednesday @Eggs

#PoetryMatters Day 1: #Stack

I can‘t think of a better translator for Sappho than Anne Carson! She captures the beauty that the poet is so famed for, and the musicality that has been completely lost to time. Even some of the fragments where only a word or two survive are captivating and evocative.

I loved this book which combined the genius of Sappho with the genius of Anne Carson. I‘ve read Sappho before but I found this liberal translation really evocative and interesting. I liked how she leaned into the fragmentary and part-lost nature of the poems, even the amount of white space on the pages makes you feel you‘re reading a tiny part of something much bigger.

#wingergames2021 #mistletoemaniacs @Clwojick +16

Look at this gorgeous edition of if not winter that I picked up from gays the word this weekend! I feel like I‘ve seen so many beautiful extracts and quotes pulled out of this book I‘m very excited to read it all the way through

Reading this felt like a spiritual experience at times. Sappho is breathlessly achingly beautiful.

(You will have lost out if you don't read the notes at the end)

If you read extract 31 with the notes from extract 165 the first line changes to:
"that man seems to himself equal to gods"

And what a change that made to the whole scene in my head.

Decided to add Sappho to my current rotation

Thanks for the tag @Eggs !

1. I don‘t think so? I should have. I wrote some though.
2. My favorite books of poetry right now are a collection of Sappho fragments (tagged) and Christopher Poindexter‘s Naked Human. So, I‘m pretty open when it comes to poetry. 😁

#two4Tuesday @TheSpineView

There is something endlessly intriguing about a fragment of a poem, devoid of context but applicable to so many things.

absolutely breathtaking. anne carson‘s translations are like sucking in sharp cold winter (forgive my theatrical poetics). i own the hardcover edition where the greek is in blood red text on the left against the black of the english and it may be the most beautiful book i own. i adore it

#HeatOfJuly
Carson's versions of Sappho place a heavy emphasis on lacuna. Although her translations are not my favorites (I prefer Willis Barnstone's versions) they are a powerful postmodern rendering. One of the most memorable literary events I've attended was shortly after I moved to Minnesota in '09. It was a performance art piece by Carson, complete with choreography, based upon these versions. She's clearly intensely meditated on Sappho.

#QuotsyMarch18 Day 16: There is a sense of #Defeat in this fragment, wings folded, hearts chilled into indifference.

A few pretty lines but on the whole, I don't believe I am intellectual enough to appreciate a book mostly made up of literal fragments

Eros is my last name!

Can't we all relate to this?

Yes indeed the hours and seasons pass by and yet here we all still lie.

A proverb about those unwilling to take the good with the bad.
I love Carson's translations-they are what I aspire to when polishing translations. Though it is lines such as this when it becomes glaringly obvious something is always lost in translation.

"You take your fill"
And yet she leaves me wanting more.

"And a pasture for horses blossoms
With the flowers of spring, and breezes
Are flowing here like honey:
Come to me here." - Sappho

(The first flower has opened in my garden. My beloved dog is dying. I need poetry.)

Following Sappho Bot is one of my greatest Twitter pleasures.

"For the man who is beautiful is beautiful to see
but the good man will at once also beautiful be."

#poetry #seasonsreadings2016 @RealLifeReading

Love shook my heart
Like the wind on the mountain
rushing over the oak trees.

-Sappho

someone will remember us
I say
even in another time

-Sappho

And we did.

This just came in the mail and I could not be happier. 😍

This book is the whole of my heart.

you will remember
for we in our youth
did these things
yes many and beautiful things

I am not really a poetry person but for some reason I am really fascinated by Sappho. If you are too, get this book - it's got everything we know of from her, and some background context. Beautiful.

Eros shook my
mind like a mountain wind falling on oak trees

I picked this up years ago while visiting Portland/Powells - being a bookish queer feminist, I knew I should know Sappho more intimately. I'm so glad this is the book I picked. Turns out, most translators take it upon themselves to fill in gaps. Here is 100% Sappho, all beauty & lost brilliance.

Absolutely gorgeous. One of my favourites.

The poems in this swoon-worthy collection are all glimpses of Sappho's genius and the world that she lived in. They're like little chips off a beautiful diamond. Anne Carson translate the poems so clearly-- she'll make you want to rip your heart out!