The Poems of Sappho Part 7

Countless are the cups thou drainest In thy hymns to Dionysos, O Alcaeus!

War and wine alone thou singest;-- Whereforenot of Aphrodite, O Alcaeus!

s.p.a.cious halls are thine where many Trophies hang in Ares' honor, O Alcaeus!

Brazen shields and shining helmets, Plates of bra.s.s, Chalcidian broad-swords, O Alcaeus!

When with winter roars the Thracian North wind through the leafless forest, O Alcaeus!

Thou dost heap the fire and banish Care with many a tawny goblet, O Alcaeus!

HYPORCHEME

Thus contend the maidens In the cretic dance, Rosy arms that glisten, Eyes that glance;

Cheeks as fair as blossoms, Parted lips that glow, With their honeyed voices Chanting low;

With their plastic bodies Swaying to the flute, Moving with the music Never mute;

Graceful the orchestric Figures they unfold, While the vesper heaven Turns to gold.

LARICHUS

While charming maids plait garlands for thy brows, Larichus, bring the pledge for this carouse Like lovely Ganymede, brother mine, And cool from thy patera pour the wine.

Thy slender limbs have all a Satyr's grace, Hylas, the Wood-G.o.d, dimples in thy face; These maids of mine, beloved and loving me, My dreams have made thy Nymphs to sport with thee.

I heard fair Mitylene's plaudits cease O'er Lykas, Menon and Dinnomenes; And hail thy beauty worthy of the prize, Cupbearer to the council of the wise.

No n.o.ble youth the prytaneum holds, Whose graceful form the purple tunic folds Can match with thee, when on affairs of state All Lesbos gathers with the wise and great.

SPRING

Come, sh.e.l.l divine, be vocal now for me, As when the Hebrus river and the sea To Lesbos bore, on waves harmonious, The head and golden lyre of Orpheus.

Calliope, queen of the tuneful throng, Descend and be the Muse of melic song; For through my frame life's tides renewing bring The glad vein-warming vigor of the spring.

The skies that dome the earth with far blue fire Make the wide land one temple of desire;-- Just now across my cheek I felt a G.o.d, In the enraptured breeze, pa.s.s zephyr-shod.

Was that Pan's flute, O Atthis, that we heard, Or the soft love-note of a woodland bird?

That flame a scarlet wing that skimmed the stream, Or the red flash of our impa.s.sioned dream?

Ah, soon again we two shall gather fair Garlands of dill and rose to deck our bare White arms that cling, white breast that burns to breast, When the long night of love shall banish rest.

GIRL FRIENDS

PRELUDE

Deftly on my little Seven-stringed barbitos, Now to please my girl friends Songs I set to music.

Maidens fair, companions Of the Muses, never Toward you shall my feelings Undergo a change.

Chanted in a plaintive Old Ionic measure, All the songs I give you Are the songs of love.

ANDROMEDA

What bucolic maiden Now thy heart bewitches, O my Andromeda Of the strange amours?

Round her awkward ankles She has not the faintest Sense of art to draw her Long ungraceful tunic.

Yet she surely makes thee, O my Andromeda, For thy sweet unlawful Love a fair requital.

Joy and praise attend thee, In thy keen perceptive Taste for beauty, daughter Of Polyanax!

EUNEICA

Aphrodite's handmaid, Bright as gold thou earnest, Tender woven garlands Round thy tender neck;

Sweet as soft Persuasion, Lissome as the Graces, Shy Euneica, lovely Girl from Salamis.

Slender thou as Syrinx, As the waving reed-nymph, Once by Pan, the G.o.d of Summer winds, deflowered.

On thy lips whose quiver Seems to plead for pity, Mine shall rest and linger Like the mouth of Pan

On the mouth of Syrinx, When his breath that filled her Blew through all her body Music of his love.

GORGO

Gorgo, I am weary Of thy love's insistence, Thou to me appearest An ill-favored child.

Though I am than Gello Fonder still of virgins, Toward thee I have never Felt the least desire.

Yesternight I knew not What to do, for pity Moved my bosom deeply, Seeing thee implore.

Hara.s.sed by alternate Yielding and refusal, I was half persuaded Then to grant thy prayer.

At my door thy presence Lingers like a shadow; Vain wouldst thou reproach me With appealing eyes.