Sappho Poem 31

8/13/2019 Sappho Poem 31

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Sappho 31

http://www.armand-dangour.com/sensational-sappho/

Dr Armand DAngour

Sensational Sappho

He seems just like the gods in heaven,

that man who sits across from you

and bends his head to listen to

your lovely voice

and charming laugh which sets my heartaflutter in my breast, for when

I catch the merest glimpse of you,

my voice is gone,

my tongues congealed, a subtle fire

runs flickering beneath my frame,

my eyes see blank, a buzzing noise

assails my ears,

my sweat runs cold, my bodys grippedby shivers, my skins yellower

than grass, it seems as if Im just

an inch from death

!ut all is worth the risk since, Love,

you time again crush lordand serf:you who of old rought down great !ings

and cities proud:

yes, holy "roy for #elens sa!e,and $eleus son, and all the %ree!s&
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'ut (enelaus, he once more

ga)ed on his wife.

#e left the oulevards of "roy

and homeward made his sweet return,

and laid his golden head to reston #elens lap.

%rant, *ypris, that +ll love againonce youve left hurt and strife ehind&

so may + prove that all my painis nothing worth.

"utting the pieces together

veryone !nows the Aphrodite of (elos, the so-calledenus de (ilo an

ancient statue, the arms of which have ro!en off. "he statue could perhaps e restored to

wholeness with reasonale fidelity if we had evidence from later copies or versions of how

the original loo!ed, or y comparing other statues y the same sculptor. o what aout

apphos eually famous fragment, $oem 01, which rea!s off in the fifth stan)a2 "he te3t

aove printed with four final final stan)as for whose addition + argue for elow is partly

what we !now appho herself sang, and partly 4starting from a few words into the fifth

stan)a, where the font style changes from old to clear5 my own reconstruction of the song

appho may once have composed.

+ thin! the e3ercise is worth doing from a literary point of view, even if it is largely

speculative, ecause 15 there is new evidence 4+ will suggest elow5 that merits consideration

65 it potentially enlarges our understanding of oth apphos and *atulluss poems and

compositional practice 05 it argualy shows that the fascinating fragment 01 was originally

part of a more satisfactory whole, and 75 the effort of writing apphic verses in %ree! is very

instructive aout apphos style her simplicity and economy of e3pression are very hard tocapture.

"he following outlines the argument + have made for the reconstruction.

18 "he surviving fragment of poem 01 may e translated as follows:

#e seems 9ust li!e the gods in heaven,

that man who sits across from you

and ends his head to listen to

your lovely voice
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venus_de_Milohttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venus_de_Milohttp://www.armand-dangour.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/Venus.jpeghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venus_de_Milo


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and charming laugh which sets myheart

aflutter in my reast, for when

+ catch the merest glimpse of you,

my voice is gone,

my tongues congealed, a sutle fireruns flic!ering eneath my frame,

my eyes see lan!, a u))ing noise

assails my ears,

my sweat runs cold, my odys gripped

y shivers, my s!ins yellower

than grass, it seems as if +m 9ust

an inch from death.

'ut all is worth the ris! since

and serf

68 ;ur evidence for restoring the remainder of the poem includes not only other poems and

fragments of apphos poetry, ut aove all the version in Latin composed y *atullus in the

1stcentury '*. +ts a version rather than a translation, since *atullus uses the poem for his

own purposes, argualy to hint at his feelings for another mans wife, the woman he calls y

the pseudonym >? + pulished an article 4in Classical Quarterly @?.15 in which + disputed theassumption that the final stan)a of *atullus @1 wholly diverges from apphos original

stan)a. + noted the oscurity of its final two lines in the conte3t of otium - how did


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you who of old rought down great !ings

and cities proud.

78 + might have stopped there, ut it didnt feel right that apphos agonised outpourings in

stan)as 6-7 should e capped off y a single self-consolatory stan)a. uch an arupt,

generalised ending would e uncharacteristic: apphos poems generally wor! round towardsa final, personal comment on her own situation, as in her poems 1 and 1? 4and @B, ut there is

an argument to e made aout how that poem ends5. At the point where poem 01 here

changes tac!, the opening >C + had an e3citing thought. +t struc!

me that the fact that *atullus had written not one ut two and only twopoems in apphicmetre, poems @1 and 11, had een overloo!ed. Although only poem @1 uses appho as a

direct model and poem 11 clearly does not 4its conte3t is mar!edly oman5, it seemed

ovious that the mere fact of composing poem 11 in apphic metre might have prompted

*atullus to use material or elements consciously or unconsciously derived from his

engagement with appho poem 01.

?8 "his proposition is immediately reinforced when one oserves that *atulluss two apphic

poems share a stri!ingly similar structural element: oth devote several stan)as to

a catalogue.=hile poem @1 lists the symptoms of the poet in love, poem 11 gives a list of

faraway places that *atulluss loyal comrades will supposedly e prepared to accompany him

should he so wish. And at the end, indeed the clima3, of each list, the poet


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Eurius and Aurelius, chums of *atullus

whether he travels to remotest +ndia

where the shore is uffeted y echoing astern

waves,

or to #yrcania or lu3uriant Araia,to the agae or the arrow-earing $arthians,

or to the desert plains stained y the seven-

mouthed File,

or whether he crosses the high Alps

to visit the monuments of great *aesar,

or the %aulish hine, or rough woad-dyed 'ritons

at the ends of the earth

all this, whatever the will of the gods

rings, you are prepared to venture together with me:ut all + as! you is to say a few words to my girl,

not pleasant words

ealising the significance of the words aove in old print felt li!e a hugely e3citing

discovery. =hile appho 01 wraps up with the comment


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fragment 01 4as elsewhere in her oeuvre5 for us to e3pect this practice to e demonstrated

here: the poem egins y comparing


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'ut all is worth the ris! since, JLove,

you - time again - crush lord and8 serf:

Jyou who of old rought down great !ings

and cities proud:

yes, holy "roy for #elens sa!e,and $eleus son, and all the %ree!s&

ut (enelaus, he once more

ga)ed on his wife.

#e left the oulevards of "roy

and homeward made his sweet return,

and laid his golden head to rest

on #elens lap.

%rant, *ypris, that +ll love again

once youKve left hurt and strife ehind&so may + prove that all my pain

is nothing worth.8

MNOPQMN RST U OSV WSV XYSTWTO RRPO OZ[, QQTV O\OQT]V QST W^\OPT UM _`\WTSO ^ bOPN-

WMV _MUSPT

UM P`MNWMV RY[SPO, Q] R R O UM[^NMO O WQXPWTO _Q]MTWPO

V [ V W ^b []P, V RP OMN- W S ^ O Q P UPT,

``\ U R R O ` WWM _Y_MP, Y_QSO ^ M QTUM [ _ [ _M^P^[]RZUPO,

__\QPWWT S ^ O [ZRR, _T[[]R- PTWT ^ USMT,

U ^ Y R ^[bV j [SV PT, Q[]RSV _M WMO [PT, `b[SQY[M _SNMV

RRT, QPXO\UZO ^ `Nb


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`Nb [ P [][STV NMTV UM``N_bO RP[]POQM O]WQSO, UM QY`SV q\OXMO UP\`MO XZU M -QMV O U]`_ .

``\, k_[T, ]V R _ [SO _P`\WXZO UM``N_STW SV WQSO]POQ\ Q `PM, UM [ M QTU WWM _Y_SOXM PNqMTR S ^ O SOQM.8

+ have made the detailed scholarly argument for this 4or a closely similar5 reconstruction, and

the particular elements used in it in %ree!, in *hapter @ of ros in Ancient &reece, eds. d

anders, *hiara "humiger, *hristopher *arey and Fic! Lowe 4;$, forthcoming5. + end that

chapter y uoting the famous refrain of the 7th-century AD poem$ervigilium eneris

4


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LonginusKs treatise +n the "ublime4P[ jSV, $er hpsous5 selects the poem as an e3ample of the sulimefor the intensity of its passionate emotions. +t was uoted in

$lutarchKs Dialogue on Love 4[bQTU]V, roti!os55 in his/oralia4a Latin translation of

the original %ree! title, XTU\, thi!a, thics5.

"he opening words of the poem - he appears to me, that one, eual to the gods... - arealmost identical to the opening of appho 1?@, with the pronoun changed 4her in appho

1?@ rather than me in appho 015.J68

"he poem was adapted y oman poet*atullus, and addressed his museLesia, in his erotic

poem *atullus @1, which egins +lle mi par esse deo videtur 4#e seems to me to e eual

to a god5. A recent scholarly reconstruction, using the evidence of *atullusKs sapphic poem

11 as well as poem @1, suggests that the poem may originally have had up to B stan)as 4see

http://www.armand-dangour.com/sensational-sappho/5.

Text

Original Greek (stoa) English Transliteration

Literal translation by Gregory

Nagy

(date unknown)

MNOPQMN RST U OSV WSV XYSTWTO

RRPOK OZ[, QQTV O\OQT]V QST

W^\OPT UM _`\WTSO ^

SOPN-WMV _MUSPT

UM P`MNWMV RY[SPO, Q] RK R O

UM[^NMO O WQXPWTO_Q]MTWPOV [ V WK ^b []PK, V

RP OMN-

WK S ^K O QK P UPT,

``\ U R R O ` WWM x MPx, Y_QSO^K M QTUM [ _ [

_M^P^[]RZUPO,__\QPWWT K S ^K O [ZRRK, _T[[]R-

PTWT ^K USMT,

U ^K Y ^[bV UMUYPQMT, Q[]RSV ^

_M WMO [PT, `b[SQY[M _SNMV

RRT, QPXO\UZO ^K `Nb

phainetai moi !nos isos

theoisin

emmen znr ottis enantios

toi

isdanei !ai pl{sion {du

phonei-s{s upa!ouei

!ai gelais{s |meroen to m

m{n

!ardi{n en stthesin

eptoaisen.

zs gar es s idz ro!he zs

me phznai-

s oud en et ei!ei,

alla !am men glzssa e{gelepton

d auti!a !hrzi pur

upadedrom{!en

oppatessi d ouden ormm

epirrom-

eisi d a!ouai,

!ad de m idrzs !a!!heetai

tromos de

paisan agrei !hlzrotera de

poi{semmi tethn{!n d oligz

#e appears to me, that one, eual

to the gods,

the man who, facing you,

is seated and, up close, that sweet

voice of yours

he listens to

And how you laugh your

charming laugh. =hy it

ma!es my heart flutter within my

reast,

ecause the moment + loo! at you,

right then, for me,

to ma!e any sound at all wont

wor! any more.

(y tongue has a rea!down and adelicate

} all of a sudden } fire rushes

under my s!in.

=ith my eyes + see not a thing,

and there is a roar

that my ears ma!e.

weat pours down me and a

tremling

sei)es all of me& paler than grass

am +, and a little short of deathdo + appear to me.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longinus_(literature)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longinus_(literature)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sublime_(literary)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sublime_(literary)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plutarchhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moraliahttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sappho_165&action=edit&redlink=1http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sappho_31#cite_note-1http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sappho_31#cite_note-1http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catullushttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catullushttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lesbiahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lesbiahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catullus_51http://www.armand-dangour.com/sensational-sappho/http://www.stoa.org/unicode/texts/sappho31.htmlhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longinus_(literature)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sublime_(literary)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plutarchhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moraliahttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sappho_165&action=edit&redlink=1http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sappho_31#cite_note-1http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catullushttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lesbiahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catullus_51http://www.armand-dangour.com/sensational-sappho/http://www.stoa.org/unicode/texts/sappho31.html


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Sappho Poem 31