Modern translations of Sappho can probably be summed up by how Ezra Pound famously or infamously translated or violated only the first three of four words or parts of words from fragment 95, landing at Gongula, while every contemporary translator (except, it turns out, me) start there, as if what's before it is (and what's after the few intact lines are) untrustworthy, domain of scholars not its effaced creator. But damn if I don't hear Sappho's voice.
Ooh
Air …
Delay.
Gongyla.
Surely it’s a sign.
Appears to be.
The foreigner comes.
Master Hermes, I said,
By Aphrodite at least, I swear:
There's no enjoyment for me above the earth,
Dying by desire has its hold,
The cold and sensuous lotus
Along the margins of the river of woe.
To see …
Unbound …
No one.
------------------------------------------------
οὐ [
ᾖρ’ ἀ [
δηρατ.
Γογγυλα .
ἦ τι σᾶμ’ ἐθε .
παισι μάλιστα .
μας γ’ εἴσηλθ’ ἐπ .
εἶπον· ̔ὦ δέσποτ’ ἐπ .
ο]ὐ μὰ γὰρ μάκαιραν̣ [ἔγωγ’
ο]ὐδὲν ἄδομ’ ἔπερθα γᾶ [ς ἔοισα,
κατθάνην δ’ ἴμερός τις [ἔχει με
καὶ λωτίνοις δροσόεντας [ὄ-
χ̣ [θ]οις ἴδην Ἀχέρ [οντος
. ] . . δεσαιδ . . ] . ν̣δετον̣ [
