Sappho Translation: Clinging Dresses Poem by Michael Burch

Sappho fragment 22
loose translation by Michael R. Burch

That enticing girl's clinging dresses
leave me trembling, overcome by happiness,
as once, when I saw the Goddess in my prayers
eclipsing Cyprus.

NOTE: This is a translation of an ancient Greek epigram written by the legendary Sappho of Lesbos. The poem numbers vary from collection to collection, which can be confusing. This epigram is fragment #22 in the Lobel-Page numbering system. The goddess mentioned is Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of sexual love, beauty, pleasure, passion, fertility and procreation. Aphrodite is identified with the planet Venus, which is named after her Roman counterpart, the love goddess Venus.