Ode To Aphrodite Poem by Tom Billsborough
Ode To Aphrodite
Come, Aphrodite, from your Cyprian home,
By sparrow wings borne and instantly
Alight in this temple's cloister,
So sacred to you and your beauty.
Here orange groves welcome
And the altars on which
The frankincense smoulders.
Come, Aphrodite, to this pleasant bower,
Where streamlets murmur
Through fruit laden branches
And cascades of red roses o'ershadow
The ground and from the flickering leafage
Enchantment is settling below.
Come, Aphrodite, to these lush grassy meadows
Where wildflowers grow..
The poppy, the cornflower and bright marigolds
Where the breezes may comb
Softly your delicate hair.
Come, Aphrodite, a garland awaits you.
The nectar is mixed in goblets of gold.
Guest of our Fete, we ask you with pleasure
To pour the Libation
Which we will drink to your honour.
Much of Sappho's work was lost in Alexandria when the great Library was destroyed. But thanks to fortunate discoveries and patient work by excellent scholars some works have been restored in the last 100 years. Even so my up to date version of her current work covers only about 40 pages. Many are one line fragments only. All parts are minutely indexed and noted. Luckily Sappho often says things in one line where another poet might say less in three pages! She strikes me as someone of very sharp wit and a generosity of spirit. She had a freedom which few Greek women enjoyed. Tom
Wow! It truly deserves the '' Wow '' word; perfectly executed in those old sweet-written words, that melt upon the lips of the reader, scented with a fragrance of myrtle in summer-time Cyprus... '' tempting '' to dreaming dreams of Eros and Romantic Love and Poesy and Wine and...
Thanks Mihaela, Must catch up with your verse. Been distracted with all this Football thing for a bit! This afternoon sat in extension. Took out my complete works of Sappho. Noticed a line that made me think of Cyprus and Aphrodite and a ceremony to call upon and celebrate beauty. Always been a sucker for Greek literature from the age of five when my father gave me a Children's version of the Greek myths by the American, Nathaniel Hawthorne... Jason... etc the Minotaur. then on to Homer, Sophocles and Euripedes. Is there a better literature? maybe I'd make the Roman and Italians and the French up there with the Greeks! Sappho is marvellous. There's more of her to be discovered, I believe. Hope so.
This poem has not been translated into any other language yet.
I would like to translate this poem
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6/2/2024 12:44:18 PM # 1.0.0.1119
The nectar is mixed in goblets of gold. A garland awaits you. Come, Aphrodite you come. With wings of sparrow this poem finely welcomes minds of readers. Amazing sharing.10
Thank you, Kumarmani. Will have a look at your poems tomorrow. Tom