Translated by William Logan
Say what you like about Charaxos,
that’s a fellow with a fat-bellied ship
always in some port or other.
What does Zeus care, or the rest of his gang?
Now you’d like me on my knees,
crying out to Hera, “Blah, blah, blah,
bring him home safe and free of warts,”
or blubbering, “Wah, wah, wah, thank you,
thank you, for curing my liver condition.”
Good grief, gods do what they like.
They call down hurricanes with a whisper
or send off a tsunami the way you would a love
letter.
If they have a whim, they make some henchmen
fix it up, like those idiots in the Iliad.
A puff of smoke, a little fog, away goes the hero,
it’s happily ever after. As for Larichos,
that lay-a-bed lives for the pillow. If for once
he’d get off his ass, he might make something of himself.
Then from that reeking sewer of my life
I might haul up a bucket of spring water.
YOU ARE READING
Yours With Love DISCONTINUED (Lesbian Poetry) (Girlxgirl) (Womanxwoman)
PoetryA collection of Ancient Greek poetry by Sappho, scoured from all corners of the internet and compiled into a single book. *** Sappho is among the canon of the Nine Lyric Poets, who are held in high regard by the scholars of Hellenistic Alexandria. ...
