Sappho

Wealth without virtue is no harmless neighbor.

yet if you had a desire for good or beautiful thingsand your tongue were not concocting some evil to sayshame would not hold down your eyesbut rather you would speak about what is just

There is no place for grief in a house which serves the Muse.

...gracious your form and your eyes as honey : desire is poured upon your lovely face Aphrodite has honored you exceedingly...

Would Jove appoint some flower to reign, in matchless beauty on the plain, the Rose (mankind will all agree). The Rose the queen of flowers should be.

The angel of spring the mellow-throated nightingale.

Once again Love, that loosener of limbs,bittersweet and inescapable, crawling thing,seizes me.

]Sardisoften turning her thoughts here]you like a goddessand in your song most of all she rejoiced.But now she is conspicuous among Lydian womenas sometimes at sunsetthe rosyfingered moonsurpasses all the stars. And her lightstretches over salt seaequally and flowerdeep fields.And the beautiful dew is poured outand roses bloom and frailchervil and flowering sweetclover.But she goes back and forth rememberinggentle Atthis and in longingshe bites her tender mind

]sing to usthe one with violets in her lap]mostly]goes astray

Eros, again now, the loosener of limbs troubles me,Bittersweet, sly, uncontrollable creature_.

In fact she herself once blamed meKyprogeneiabecause I prayed this word:I want.

Evening you gather backall that dazzling dawn has put asunder:you gather a lamb, gather a kid,gather a child to its mother.

their heart grew coldthey let their wings down

We shall enjoy itAs for him who findsfault, may sillinessand sorrow take him!

The evening starIs the mostbeautifulof all stars

Someone will remember us I sayEven in another time

The touched heart madly stirs,your laughter is water hurrying over pebbles - every gesture is a proclamation,every sound is speech...