«How can one not be taken now by dizziness, obstinately,O Cypris, mistress, whatever the person one loves, How can one not want to be delivered from the painyou impose on him?
Why in vain agitate and tear me by the desire which panics? I implore you, sovereign, you make me suffer so much; once you weren't [...and you didn't repress me [...
...] you, I want to [......] suffer this [......] as for me, I'm aware of it.»
(trans. by Sandra Boehringer and Claude Calame)
These are the literal translation of the Greek verses recently revealed by a papyrus fragment of mysterious origin[1] Written in the Aeolian dialect of Lesbos, and now available to us in text form, these verses are organized metrically into so-called Sapphic stanzas. Their theme undoubtedly assigns them to Sappho. Inserted in the first book of the Alexandrian edition of the poetess of Lesbos,
This content is reserved for our subscribers.
French 
German 
English