Product Description

These hundred poems and fragments constitute virtually all of Sappho that survives and effectively bring to life the woman whom the Greeks consider to be their greatest lyric poet. Mary Barnard's translations are lean, incisive, direct--the best ever published. She has rendered the beloved poet's verses, long the bane of translators, more authentically than anyone else in English.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #230939 in Books
• Published on: 1999-12-08
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 124 pages

Review
"Sappho remains one of the finest renderings of Greek poetry into English." -- American Poetry

"A major translation from the Greek." -- Malcolm Cowley, New York Times Book Review

"A rival translator called [Sappho] 'the best Greek translation in American literature.'" -- Journal of Modern Literature

"An immensely moving translation, complete, beautiful, deserving of endless praise." -- Hudson Review

"Sappho now enjoys as nearly perfect an English translation as one can find, a great translation, an immensely moving translation, complete, beautiful, deserving of endless praise." -- Hudson Review

Language Notes
Text: English (translation)
Original Language: Greek

About the Author
Mary Barnard studied Greek at Reed College and began to translate at Ezra Pound's instigation in the 1930s. Her Assault on Mount Helicon: A Literary Memoir was published by the University of California Press in 1984. Two years later she received the Western States Book Award for her book-length poem, Time and the White Tigress. She has also published prose fiction and a volume of essays on mythology as well as the original lyrics gathered in Collected Poems, 1979.

Customer Reviews

"there's so much beauty..."
Rich Mullins once wrote "there's so much beauty around us for just two eyes to see." And so it is with the poetry of this ancient Greek lady Sappho. Without her extra eyes, I would be robbed of some sights I could not have found without her. For instance, in one of her poems, she writes:

"Awed by her splendor

Stars near the lovely
moon cover their own
bright faces
when she
is roundest and lights
earth with her silver"

Not only is there beauty. There is a straightforwardness and frankness to the poems of Sappho. It is a clear distillation of the poet's vision confronts the readers of these pages.

There is also wisdom and humor. As when she writes:

"Experience shows us

Wealth unchaperoned
by Virtue is never
an innocuous neighbor"

Mary Barnard is to be praised for these clear, unvarnished translations. Likewise, the introduction is very useful in dispelling so much of the myth that has sprung up around the legacy of this great poet. I recommend this book highly.

A pure earthy pleasure
Bernard's translation of Sappho is a translation of a poet who is down-to-earth, who pays attention to the detail.

Some of the fragments are so brief that you are reminded of haiku: "The nightengale's / The soft-spoken / announcer of / Spring's presence"

Other poems speak specifically of feminine concerns - the lost of the maiden-head, the color of ribbon that fits best in her daughter's yellow hair.

I read a great deal of poetry in translation. In other translations I have not found Sappho to my liking. This translation appears to me to be truer to the author's earthliness and less concerned with making Sappho fit into preconceptions. In short, I highly recommend this translation.

Timeless
Beutiful. Read it to someone you love.

The copy may seem spare at first but the power of Sappho's words more than fill the page. I was first introduced to this text by a dear friend. That is how you should share it. This translation is both complete and avoids overly politicizeing her life. Well worth the price.