Sappho Translation: Pain Drains Me Poem by Michael Burch

Sappho fragment 58
loose translation by Michael R. Burch

Pain
drains
me
to
the
last
drop
.

NOTE: This is a translation of a Sappho epigram. The fragment numbers differ from collection to collection, which can be confusing. The original Greek is:

ka; t e[mon ıtavlugmon

Another Sappho translator, Mary Barnard, translated the epigram as:

Pain penetrates
Me drop
by drop


Did Sappho write the world's first 'make love, not war' poem, more than 2,500 years ago? This poem has been variously titled "The Anactoria Poem, " "Helen's Eidolon" and "Some People Say."

Some Say
Sappho, fragment 16 (Lobel-Page 16)
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Warriors on rearing chargers,
columns of infantry,
fleets of warships:
some call these the dark earth's redeeming visions.
But I say—
the one I desire.

And this makes sense
because she who so vastly surpassed all other mortals in beauty
—Helen—
seduced by Aphrodite, led astray by desire,
lightly set sail for distant Troy,
abandoning her celebrated husband,
leaving behind her parents and child!

Her story reminds me of Anactoria,
who has also departed,
and whose lively dancing and lovely face
I would rather see than all the horsemen and war-chariots of the Lydians,
or all their infantry parading in flashing armor.