Gillian Spraggs
translator
←  return to index

Sappho

Fragment 2

Come down from the sky . . .

Come back to me here once more in the festival time, 
to the sacred dingle, where stands your apple-grove of graceful 
				trees, 
where there are altars 
smoking with incense.  

Here through the apple-boughs trickles the sound of cool water, 
and the whole ground is shadowed with roses; 
down from the shimmering leaves 
flows the sleep of enchantment.

Here is a meadow, fit to graze horses, blooming with flowers of 
				spring, 
and sweetly the breezes are blowing . . . 

Here, now, come Aphrodite:
take nectar, exquisitely mixed, 
in cups made of gold 
pour out for our feasting. 
translated by Gillian Spraggs
Published in What Lesbians Do In Books ed. Elaine Hobby and Chris White, London, the Women's Press, 1991
← last translation next translation  →
return to top ↑
© Gillian Spraggs, 1991, 2006
www.gillianspraggs.com
page added to site on 25 February, 2006 | last modified 24 November, 2006