Sappho Poems

Cytherea, thy dainty Adonis is dying!
Ah, what shall we do?
O Nymphs, let it echo, the voice of your crying,
The greenwood through!
...

Without warning
as a whirlwind
...

Dapple-throned Aphrodite,
eternal daughter of God,
snare-knitter! Don't, I beg you,

...

You know the place: then
Leave Crete and come to us
waiting where the grove is
pleasantest, by precincts
...

I took my lyre and said:
Come now, my heavenly
tortoise shell: become
a speaking instrument
...

Tonight I've watched
the moon and then
the Pleiades
go down
...

Sleep, darling
I have a small
daughter called
Cleis, who is
...

F Zeus chose us a King of the flowers in his mirth,
He would call to the rose, and would royally crown it;
For the rose, ho, the rose! is the grace of the earth,
Is the light of the plants that are growing upon it!
...