Happiness is no less than any fairy,
He listened quietly to your gentle whisper,
The sound is so sweet,
Ah, your smile is really cute.
Every time I see you, it only takes a moment,
The atrium was pounding in the chest,
I can't talk.
My tongue seems to be broken, strange fire.
Suddenly flowing and burning in my body,
Dazzled and buzzing.
Plug my ears.
Cold sweat soaked my whole body,
I tremble, as white as a blade of grass,
I just feel like I'm dying,
I'm going to faint.
But ... I can stand everything.
(translated by Bai Fei)
Make an appreciative comment
This is another basically complete poem left by Sappho. This poem is also written by "Sappho's Law". The first four verses are generally complete, and there are half lines behind. Foreign researchers and translators have used various schemes to make up for it, but they are all guesses, which are not sufficient.
The words and expressions used in this ancient lyric poem and the emotions described can be classified into the category of love poems; However, to whom is the love expressed by the poetess? It's hard to figure out. Judging from the tone, the object of the poet's fanatical worship seems to be women; Associated with the previous Ode to Aphrodite, the object that the goddess admires Sappho also uses the grammatical changes of women, leaving the mystery of "love or friendship". As we know, most of the poems in Shakespeare's sonnets are written for men or women, leaving a similar mystery, and lawsuits have continued to this day. Sappho's poems are much earlier than Shakespeare's, so it is more difficult to textual research.
We only know that Sappho's basic theme is love-the joy of friendship and the pain of parting. Her feelings are natural, delicate, bold, strong and full of sensibility. Also, she loves the girls she educated, knows each and every one of them very well, and has written many poems for them, some expressing love and some saying goodbye. Because there are too few poems and materials handed down by Sappho, and the object of "love poems" handed down seems to be women, the relationship between members of Sappho's "Poetry Society" is often regarded as homosexuality in the west, and the names of Sappho and Lesbos Island have also become special terms for "lesbian" (sapphi *** or le *** iani *** *).
I think this situation is mainly due to the lack of modern love conditions in Sappho's era. Men and women are completely unequal and can't fall in love freely, which makes Sappho's strong and direct feelings can only be expressed in such a hazy way.
In this poem, except for the first few lines describing "you", the following are all descriptions of "I"; Moreover, it is not so much a description of my love as a description of my feelings. From the pounding of the atrium and the voiced sound on the tip of the tongue, the poet wrote "strange fire" flowing in the meat, dizziness, tinnitus, cold sweat dripping, trembling all over, and almost fainting. This strong psychological experience is mainly manifested in the body, which not only shows the original and sincere characteristics of ancient lyric poetry, but also shows the fiery, frank and delicate style of "Sappho is like fire" (Byronic language).
Sappho stood at the source of lyric poetry, and she boldly wrote the earliest personal lyric poetry. As Mrs. de Starr said when commenting on ancient Greek poetry: "This kind of unconscious poetry generation has the power and simplicity that post-scholars can't achieve, because it is unconscious; This is the charm of first love. "
(flying white)