Anacreon

Little remains today of the writings of the archaic Greek poet Sappho (fl. late 7th and early 6th centuries B.C.E.), whose work is said to have filled nine papyrus rolls in the great library at Alexandria some 500 years after her death. The surviving texts consist of a lamentably small and fragmented body of lyric poetry--among them, poems of invocation, desire, spite, celebration, resignation, and remembrance--that nevertheless enables us to hear the living voice of the poet Plato called show more the tenth Muse.Stanley Lombardo's translations give us a virtuoso embodiment of Sappho's voice, whose telltale charm, authority, immediacy, directness, intensity, and sudden changes of tone are among the hallmarks of his masterly translation.Pamela Gordon introduces us to the world of Sappho, discusses questions surrounding the transmission of her manuscripts, offers advice on reading these texts, and concludes with an enlightening discussion of same-sex desire in Sappho. show less

I love Stanley Lombardo's work, translating and commenting on Sappho. Sappho's existing body of work is pitifully small, but I felt such a resonance within me when I read these poems and fragments: Lombardo does a great job of letting us see the person within the poet, and it doesn't take a large number of poems to achieve this. What is lacking in quantity is made up by quality of language. Some poems from a man's view, some from a woman's. The emotions and feelings exposed in these poems show more are universal, I believe. Lombardo does his best to make Sappho approachable and real to a modern reader. I love this edition of her poetry. show less

Sappho: Poems and Fragments New Expanded Edition (2018) is the most recent revision of Josephine Balmer's admired translations of poetry by Sappho. As such it now includes the two new poems revealed in 2014 by Dirk Obbink. The provenance and authenticity of these two newly discovered poems has sparked great controversy too complex to recite here. In any event, the new poems are included in this Expanded Edition.

I do not read Ancient Greek let alone the particular variety in which Sappho's show more works are recorded. I can therefore only judge the translations as they stand in English. As such the translations are very readable and free from affectations. For my purposes, Josephine Balmer's edition is comfortable and more than adequate. I can see no reason to look for another.

There is an informative Introduction and a helpful Translator's Note. There is also a brief Chronology and a Glossary.

A necessarily slim volume but a very welcome one. show less

Lombardo does it again. Unbelievably beautiful and resonant, miles and centuries away.