Sappho Eman Poet Lib #56

I once read an essay by a classicist in which he said that a discovery of a complete work of Sappho's would be an unrivaled event in the field of classical literature. She has no equivalent. No other poet before or since has been as revered. The merest fragments of her original work are quoted and studied as if they were whole and intact poems. All her work was destroyed, and almost all of what remains is from passages quoted by others of her era. I'm paraphrasing, but the classicist said something to the effect of how it is as if we are outside in the garden, straining to hear the faintest snatches of Beethoven's masterworks while he is sealed in inside the house. To discover a complete work by Sappho would be as if the master opened a window called out to us, and beckoned us in to hear his work, unmarred by distance and the imperfection of memory. This translation, by Robert Chandler, is my favorite because of its clarity and simplicity, and I have read some twenty-odd different translations of Sappho. It is a classic and it is unfortunate that it is currently out of print, but if you can pick up a copy cheaply, do it. I agree with a previous reviewer that the additional material is great, bit I must disagree on recommending Anne Carson. I feel a visceral dislike of Carson's translation - she muddies up Sappho's verse with too much of her own rather baroque voice.

Having read several translations of Sappho, this collection is not my favorite. However, there is much to recommend in this collection. The poems themselves are good translations in their capturing of the raw emotions Sappho communicated. If it is Sappho's poetry exclusively you are interested in, though, I would recommend Anne Carson's _If Not Winter_. If you are interested in more that Sappho - earlier translations and poetry inspired by her, this is an excellent place to start. In fact, it is precisely this additional material that makes this such a wonderful collection. The collection begins with Chandler's translations of many of Sappho's poems. Following this is a collection of 21 other translations of different fragments by other poets from Alfred, Lord Tennyson and William Carlos Williams to Thomas Hardy and Byron. Comapring the two is a fascinating exercise. The real gem of the collection, though, is the poetry inspired by or dedicated to Sappho, including a pair of poems by Chandler to Sappho. For an introduction to Sappho, this would be a good place to start, simply because of the additional material.