SAPPHO: A GIFT FOR HER STUDENTS

For you this gift of words in song on Muses wing descends
Upon that glorious melody on which her lyre songs depend –
Take you these moments, which with age leave me now
As dark hair turns to grey, and make me this simple vow.
Take from your heavy heart and weary legs from living
And find dancing feet and with open hearts start giving.

It’s easy to lament and moan but what good is there in that?
To learn of the frailty of our human form we need to look at
Tithonus in Eos’s arms, her wish for his eternal form to stay,
Their love filled joy with strength of arms never to decay.
Time caught up on his human form, the dream not to be.
Eos’s love remains eternally, found in our music now free.

David Scanlon – England – (1963 – )

Scanlon. D (2018) Collected Poems: New Translations: New Translations. The Foolish Poet Press, Wilmslow, England. SAPPHO: A GIFT FOR HER STUDENTS. Page Number 23.

ὔμμες πεδὰ Μοίσαν ἰ]ο̣κ[ό]λ̣πων κάλα δῶρα, παῖδ⸤ε⸥ς,
σπουδάσδετε καὶ τὰ]ν̣φιλάοιδον λιγύραν χε̣⸤λύνναν⸥·
ἔμοι δ’ ἄπαλον πρίν] π̣οτ̣’ [ἔ]ο̣ντα ⸤χρό⸥α γῆρα⸤ς⸥ ἤδη
ἐπέλλαβε, λεῦκαι δ’ ἐγ]ένοντο τρίχες ἐκ μελαίνα̣ν̣·
βάρυς δέ μ’ ὀ [θ]ῦμο̣ς̣ πεπόηται, γο̣⸤́ να⸥ δ’ [ο]ὐ φε⸤̣́ ροισι⸥,
τὰ δή ποτα λαίψη̣ρ’ ἔον ὄρχησθ’ ἴσα νεβρίοισι.

τὰ ⟨μὲν⟩ στεναχίσδω θαμέως·  λλὰ τί κεν ποείην;
γήραον ἄνθρωπον ἔοντ’ οὐ δύνατον γέν⸤εσθαι⸥.
καὶ γάρ π̣[ο]τ̣α̣Τίθωνον ἔφαντο βροδόπαχυν̣⸤Αὔων⸥
ἔρωι φ ̣ ̣α̣θ̣ε̣ισαν βάμεν’ εἰς ἔσχατα γᾶς φ⸤έροισα[ν,
ἔοντα̣ [κ]α̣λ́ ̣ο̣ν καὶ νέον,  λλ’ αὖτον ὔμως ἔμ⸤αρψε⸥
χρόνωι π̣ολ̣́ ̣ιο̣ ̣ν̣ γῆρας, ἔχ̣[ο]ν̣τ’̣  θανάταν ἄ̣⸤κοιτιν⸥.

Sappho – Greece – (630 -570 BC)

Richard Janko (2017) ‘Tithonus, Eosand the cicada in the Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite and Sappho fr.58.. ‘ Bereitgestellt von | De Gruyter / TCS Angemeldet