If Not, Winter: The Complete Fragments of Sappho

Sappho is notoriously problematic to bring into the modern world - we have a bare handful of complete or semi-complete poems and some odd lines. Often we only know the odd lines because some centuries-later scribe quoted a text from her to illustrate an entirely unconnectedly point of usage, so we are left hopelessly short of context as to what the line could possibly have meant. After that there are just dozens of pathetic scraps of papyrus with odd words and half-words. She had a spectacular reputation in ancient times, however, and there's no doubting the depth of her human sensitivities nor the range of her output. Various translators have made their best efforts to live with these flimsiest of materials and come up with some fashion of a response to open Sappho's exquisite subtleties to the modern reader. Many of these efforts fail through trying much too hard. Anne Carson however succeeds wonderfully by shooting low. She provides a terse and finely written introduction, and gives a carefully literal but not unpoetic translation of every word that's complete. She is willing to hazard some guesses regarding words that aren't complete, but this is done judiciously in that as soon as there's a genuine ambiguity she steps back and leave the Greek fragment to speak for itself. You are left with a charming edition, understated and yet deeply evocative of the challenges faced by this very talented woman who lived such a full and rewarding emotional life.

I'm really giving this edition of Sappho two slightly different marks, divided purely by production. To start with, Anne Carson's translation is excellent, the facing text (based on Voigt's Sappho et Alcaeus: Fragmenta, 1971) clear and Carson's endnotes both helpful and interesting. However, there is a difference between the hardback and paperback edition. The hardback has excellent paper and the Greek text is printed in red ink (I give it five stars) where the paperback is on poorer over-bleached paper, with the Greek text printed in a grey tone which reduces its legibility (four stars). If you get any pleasure out of a physical book or want to use the Greek text I recommend if possible trying to find a copy of the hardback, sadly some years out of print. A more simply-solved recommendation is to buy a copy of Anne Carson's critical book on Sappho as an accompaniment to this book. Eros the Bittersweet takes you through Sappho's poetry with Carson's particular vision (and her strong classical scholarship) as a guide. Strongly recommended. I'm pleased to find that the official reprint edition by Dalkey Archive is of excellent quality - and is inexpensive.

When the she-poet Sappho was alive in 630 BC, the lop sided male-supremacist, misogynist Indo European patriarchal attitude had already terrorized for more than a thousand years the pre-patriarchal, ancient matriarchal, intellectual and sexual and economical autonomy of the Grecian Race of Women. Sappho's poetry shows that matriachal women were kind and wise, were spiritually FAR superior to the utterly inferior, all life desecrating, patriarchal certified fascistic priests and politicians. Sappho lived in times when patriarchal rapine Zeus-ian delusional grandeur was already rampant. Nevertheless, Sappho's poetry strongly echos women's matriarchal intellectual & sexual autonomous freedom that pre-existed the utterly women-hating patriarchal classic Grecian-Indo-European cultural and economical TOTAL disaster.

A delightful and beautiful read. Totally fell in love with this

Very good translation, I love the way she lays it out. In retrospect I'd have bought the hardback copy rather than the paperback as it has a nicer design (uneven pages to show age).

More like a Hiku, Wish I could have heard her sing.

Beautifully presented, the fragments are lovely to read.

the first few pages were not properly bound so a lot of the text cannot be read. this is very annoying as the rest of the book is in fine condition.

Comprarlo su Amazon è stato l'unico modo per averlo

we really need to know what is really there because no other world historic artist - except perhaps apelles - is so unknown and legendary as sappho

I keep several translations of Sappho at hand, since each translator brings her (or his) own perspective to the fragments, and my Ancient Greek is not good enough to second-guess a single translator. Amongst these, Carson seems to be the only one with the original Greek en-face, and with a whole page dedicated to each fragment. In terms of the translation itself, Carson's is usually my favorite, with Powell's a close second. Her translations are more direct than others', which can sometimes yield unusual phrasing in English, but Sappho's intensely personal expression comes through all the more clearly this way. See, for example, fragment 138: Carson: stand to face me beloved and open out the grace of your eyes Powell: But stand before me, if you are my friend, and spread the grace that's in your eyes. Barnstone: Stand and face me, my love, and scatter the grace in your eyes Rayor & Lardinois: Stand before me as a friend and flaunt the charm in your eyes. In terms of Sappho herself—or what we have left of her, she is an easy poet to fall in love with. Her songs, mostly love songs, ring as true today as 2600 years ago. In a good translation, they sound as fresh as if they were off top-40 radio... except no modern singer-songwriter is this good. She has the intense and insistent sensuality of Cavafy as well as his easy mixing of the mundane with the mythical, the sweet sadness of Joan Baez along with her self-aware wry humor, a sharper blade for her rivals than any rap battle, and expresses the depth of feelings as clearly as Shakespeare's sonnets. It is infuriating that so little of her work has survived. I hope that Carson will publish an updated edition including the recently discovered papyri.

Love this translation of Sappho's fragments. A wonderful addition to my poetry collection (Disappointed that the book had some damage when received but not so much that we returned it).

Creo que es mi traducción favorita de Sappho de todas las que he leído hasta la fecha. Música que me recuerda a Morton Feldman y Eva-Maria Houben, a Arvo Pärt, a Morten Lauridsen y a Tavener, a David Lang... música que destella en la oscuridad y en el paisaje y me lleva a lugares donde siento la niebla y el mar y el viento, la luz...