Selection from Sappho’s Lyre (University of California Press, 1991). Translation copyright 2000 Diane Rayor; all rights reserved.
Some say an army of horsemen, others | |
say foot-soldiers, still others, a fleet, | |
is the fairest thing on the dark earth: | |
I say it is whatever one loves. | |
5 | Everyone can understand this — |
consider that Helen, far surpassing | |
the beauty of mortals, leaving behind | |
the best man of all, | |
sailed away to Troy. She had no | |
10 | memory of her child or dear parents, |
since she was led astray | |
[by Kypris] . . . | |
* | |
. . . lightly | |
15 | . . . reminding me now of Anaktoria |
being gone, | |
I would rather see her lovely step | |
and the radiant sparkle of her face | |
than all the war-chariots in Lydia | |
20 | and soldiers battling in shining bronze. |
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