The case of Sappho is an interesting one, because so little of her work has survived. It is also interesting because various groups with vested current political interests in the perception of the past have throughout recent years attempted to appropriate Sappho's poetry. Entertainingly, the Victorians characterized her as the headmistress of a finishing school, presumably because they felt it'd help them understand her.
Because I don't speak Aeolic Greek, I can't really comment on how accurate the translation is, but I've always found Willis Barnstone's translations of Sappho to be my favorite.
For example, compare Barnstone's take on:
yet I
for one
would rather see her warm supple step
and the sparkle in her face than watch all
the chariots in Lydia and foot soldiers armored
in glittering bronze.
with Poochigian's:
And I would rather watch her body
Sway, her glistening face flash dalliance
Than Lydian war cars at the ready
and armed battalions
There isn't too much for me to say about this, I've read all of these poems before. However, because so little of Sappho's work has survived, any encounter with her ouvre is sure not to be prohibitively time consuming, and there are far worse ways to spend one's time.
Nightingale,
All you sing
Is desire;
You are the crier
Of coming spring.
No comments:
Post a Comment