HKB
The Poems of Sappho
An Interpretative Rendition into English
BY
JOHN MYERS O'HARA
PORTLAND: MDCCCCX
Who shall strike the wax of mystery from those priceless amphoræ, and give to the unsophisticated nostrils of the average reader the ravishing bouquet of wine pressed in a garden in Mitylene, twenty-five centuries ago?--MAURICE THOMPSON.
Then to me so lying awake a vision Came without sleep over the seas and touched me, Softly touched mine eyelids and lips; and I, too, Full of the vision,
Saw the white implacable Aphrodite, Saw the hair unbound and the feet unsandalled Shine as fire of sunset on western waters; Saw the reluctant
Feet, the straining plumes of the doves that drew her, Looking always, looking with necks reverted Back to Lesbos, back to the hills whereunder Shone Mitylene.
--SWINBURNE.
Ω θεόί, πίς ἆρα Κύπρις, ἢ τίς μερος τοῡδε ξνυήψατο
--SOPHOCLES.
SAPPHICS
THE MUSES
Hither now, O Muses, leaving the golden House of God unseen in the azure spaces, Come and breathe on bosom and brow and kindle Song like the sunglow;
Come and lift my shaken soul to the sacred Shadow cast by Helicon's rustling forests; Sweep on wings of flame from the middle ether, Seize and uplift me;
Thrill my heart that throbs with unwonted fervor, Chasten mouth and throat with immortal kisses, Till I yield on maddening heights the very Breath of my body.
MUSAGETES
Come with Musagetes, ye Hours and Graces, Dance around the team of swans that attend him Up Parnassian heights, to his holy temple High on the hill-top;
Come, ye Muses, too, from the shades of Pindus, Let your songs, that echo on winds of rapture, Wake the lyre he tunes to the sweet inspiring Sound of your voices.
LOVE'S BANQUET
If Panormus, Cyprus or Paphos hold thee, Either home of Gods or the island temple, Hark again and come at my invocation, Goddess benefic;
Come thou, foam-born Kypris, and pour in dainty Cups of amber gold thy delicate nectar, Subtly mixed with fire that will swiftly kindle Love in our bosoms;
Thus the bowl ambrosial was stirred in Paphos For the feast, and taking the burnished ladle, Hermes poured the wine for the Gods who lifted Reverent beakers;
High they held their goblets and made libation, Spilling wine as pledge to the Fates and Hades Quaffing deep and binding their hearts to Eros, Lauding thy servant.
So to me and my Lesbians round me gathered, Each made mine, an amphor of love long tasted, Bid us drink, who sigh for thy thrill ecstatic, Passion's full goblet;
Grant me this, O Kypris, and on thy altar Dawn will see a goat of the breed of Naxos, Snowy doves from Cos and the drip of rarest Lesbian vintage;
For a regal taste is mine and the glowing Zenith-lure and beauty of suns must brighten Love for me, that ever upon perfection Trembles elusive.
MOON AND STARS
When the moon at full on the sill of heaven Lights her beacon, flooding the earth with silver, All the shining stars that about her cluster Hide their fair faces;
So when Anactoria's beauty dazzles Sight of mine, grown dim with the joy it gives me, Gorgo, Atthis, Gyrinno, all the others Fade from my vision.
ODE TO ANACTORIA
Peer of Gods to me is the man thy presence Crowns with joy; who hears, as he sits beside thee, Accents sweet of thy lips the silence breaking, With lovely laughter;
Tones that make the heart in my bosom flutter, For if I, the space of a moment even, Near to thee come, any word I would utter Instantly fails me;
Vain my stricken tongue would a whisper fashion, Subtly under my skin runs fire ecstatic; Straightway mists surge dim to my eyes and leave them Reft of their vision;
Echoes ring in my ears; a trembling seizes All my body bathed in soft perspiration; Pale as grass I grow in my passion's madness, Like one insensate;