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1 " yet if you had a desire for good or beautiful things and your tongue were not concocting some evil to say shame would not hold down your eyes but rather you would speak about what is just "
― Sappho , If Not, Winter: Fragments of Sappho
2 " their heart grew cold they let their wings down "
3 " In fact she herself once blamed me Kyprogeneia because I prayed this word: I want. "
4 " Eros, again now, the loosener of limbs troubles me, Bittersweet, sly, uncontrollable creature…. "
― Sappho
5 " ]Sardis often turning her thoughts here ] you like a goddess and in your song most of all she rejoiced. But now she is conspicuous among Lydian women as sometimes at sunset the rosyfingered moon surpasses all the stars. And her light stretches over salt sea equally and flowerdeep fields. And the beautiful dew is poured out and roses bloom and frail chervil and flowering sweetclover. But she goes back and forth remembering gentle Atthis and in longing she bites her tender mind "
6 " ]sing to us the one with violets in her lap ]mostly ]goes astray "
7 " ...gracious your form and your eyes as honey : desire is poured upon your lovely face Aphrodite has honored you exceedingly... "
8 " There is no place for grief in a house which serves the Muse. "
9 " Wealth without virtue is no harmless neighbor. "
― Sappho , A Garland: The Poems and Fragments of Sappho
10 " The touched heart madly stirs, your laughter is water hurrying over pebbles - every gesture is a proclamation, every sound is speech... "
11 " I declare That later on, Even in an age unlike our own, Someone will remember who we are. "
― Sappho , Come Close
12 " Someone will remember us I say Even in another time "
13 " The evening star Is the most beautiful of all stars "
― Sappho , Sappho
14 " We shall enjoy it As for him who finds fault, may silliness and sorrow take him! "
15 " I want to tell you something but good taste Restrains me "
16 " Evening you gather back all that dazzling dawn has put asunder: you gather a lamb, gather a kid, gather a child to its mother. "
17 " Once again Love, that loosener of limbs, bittersweet and inescapable, crawling thing, seizes me. "
18 " What is beautiful is good, and who is good will soon be beautiful. "
19 " I emphasize the distinction between brackets and no brackets because it will affect your reading experience, if you will allow it. Brackets are exciting. Even though you are approaching Sappho in translation, that is no reason you should miss the drama of trying to read a papyrus torn in half or riddled with holes or smaller than a postage stamp--brackets imply a free space of imaginal adventure. "
20 " and on a soft bed delicate you would let loose your longing "
