104 Quotes About Sappho

Rebuff other waysas quickly as you canand you, Dika, with your soft hands take stemsof lovely anise and loop them in your locks.The blessed Graces love to gaze at one in flowersbut turn their backs on one whose hair is bare.

A contemporary of Pittakos and Alkaios was Sappho—a marvel. In all the centuries since history began we know of no women who in any true sense can be said to rival her as a poet.

The flowers of Sappho, few but roses.

My name is Sappho. My song surpasses the songof women as Homer's the song of men.

My pain drips May winds and sorrows carry off himwho blames me

Really, if you are my friend, choose a younger bed.I can’t bear to live with you when I am the older one

Her time-scissored work is not quite language poetry, but a more joyful cousin of the eternal scant-garde, which is always and never new. So Sappho is ancient and, for a hundred reasons, modern.

Moi qui jadis dansais parmi vous, ô mes sœurs,Vive comme le faon, le plus vif des danseurs.Mais, ô belles, qu’y puis-je ? Hélas l’ombre étoiléeEt le jour qui la suit ou bien qui la précèdeNous traînent à la mort. À la mort chacun cède.Mais je désire encor… Mon âme désoléeGoûte encor le soleil et les fleurs printanières.Les bêtes vont mourir au fond de leurs tanières,Mais je veux jusqu’au bout savourer la clartéEt vous aimer.

Someone, I tell you, in another time,will remember us.