On your dazzling throne, Aphrodite,
Sly eternal daughter of Zeus,
I beg you: do not crush me
with grief
But come to me now – as once
You heard my far cry, and yielded
slipping from your father’s house
To yoke the birds of your gold
chariot, and come,. Handsome sparrows
brought you swiftly to
the dark earth,
Their wings whipping the middle sky.
Happy, with deathless lips, ypu smiled:
“What is wrong, Sappho, why have
you called me?
What does your mad heart desire?
Whom shall I make love you,
who is turning her back
on you?
Let her turn away, soon she’l chase you;
refuse your gifts, soon she’ll give them.
She will love you, though
unwillingly.”
Then come to me now andfree me
from fearful agony. Labor
for my mad heart, and he
my ally.
- Sappho
630 – 612 BCE
Trans. Willie Barnstone
