Fragment 16 is one of only 3-6 reasonably complete fragments that remain from Sappho, who Plato called "the 10th muse," the inventor of lyric poetry as we know it, whose influence lasted for centuries. How conveniently ironic this erasure was of a woman - a woman for whom the word Lesbian was coined in fact. This incomplete poem -- another one where (especially in stanza 2) translations go to die -- provides a hint why her revered works were burned by popes. One can only guess how provocative what is missing must be.
Some say men will come, flex arms or lay the ground
Or from boats they say, over black the earth realm.
Immensely it satisfies them, but I say
It’s what turns you on.
Painfully easy to synthesize longing
For everyone, but a woman was the mold
Of perfect allure, Helen and her husband,
The best of all men,
Him she left behind, and for Troy put to sea
Kissing off her daughter and her family,
Kissing what’s not there, completely swept away …
[…] swayed […]
[…] reminds me of my Anactoria
No longer here
I would rather watch her swirl across the flames
Lighting with a glance my incandescent eyes
Than the Lydian archers raining their fire
On distant cities.
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[ο]ἰ μὲν ἰππήων ϲτρότον οἰ δὲ πέϲδων
οἰ δὲ νάων φαῖϲ’ ἐπ[ὶ] γᾶν μέλαι[ν]αν
[ἔ]μμεναι κάλλιϲτον, ἔγω δὲ κῆν’ ὄτ-
-τω τιc ἔραται·
[πά]γχυ δ’ εὔμαρεc ϲύνετον πόηϲαι
[π]άντι τ[ο]ῦ̣τ’, ἀ γὰρ πόλυ περϲκέ̣θ̣ο̣ι̣σ̣α
κ̣άλ̣λο̣c̣ [ἀνθ]ρ̣ώπων Ἐλένα [τὸ]ν ἄνδρα
τ̣ὸν̣ [πανάρ]ιϲτον
κ̣αλλ[ίποι]σ̣’ ἔβα ’c Τροΐαν πλέοι̣[ϲα
κωὐδ[ὲ πα]ῖδοc οὐδὲ φίλων το[κ]ήων
π̣ά[μπαν] ἐμνάϲθη, ἀλλὰ παράγ̣α̣γ̣’ α̣ὔταν
[. . .]ϲαν [. . .]
[. .]μ̣ε̣ νῦν Ἀνακτορί[αc ὀ]ν̣έ̣μναι-
[-ϲ’ οὐ ] παρεοίϲαc,
[τᾶ]c <κ>ε βολλοίμαν ἔρατόν τε βᾶμα
κἀμάρυχμα λάμπρον ἴδην προϲώπω
ἢ τὰ Λύδων ἄρματα †κανοπλοιϲι
[πεϲδομ]άχενταc.
