Reviews

Sappho by Mary Barnard, Sappho, Dudley Fitts

kseniia_xenia's review

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5.0

fucked me up so bad, I was curled up on my bed reading this and wept

"I don’t expect to touch heaven ..."

"I simply wish to die.
Weeping she left me
and told me this, too:
We’ve suffered terribly, Sappho.
I leave you against my will."

"I say someone in another time will remember us."

hinoki's review

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adventurous challenging emotional inspiring fast-paced

5.0

Wonderfully modern. This book really made me empathize with ancient Greek people more than any other ancient Greek work, probably because the poems are in 1st person.

luke_823's review

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challenging emotional funny reflective fast-paced

4.0

Guys like me read poetry collections like this and go "hell yeah"

kiratuo's review

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4.5

best yearning poetry I’ve read

oviyabalan's review

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emotional reflective fast-paced

4.0

ace_of_spades_'s review

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reflective relaxing sad slow-paced

5.0

morgan_leigh2's review against another edition

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3.0

Cool because it’s so old

maenad_wordsmith's review against another edition

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5.0

This is my third time reading Sappho. Last year, I read the Barnstone translation, and I don't remember which translation my Greek art and poetry professor included in our course reader way back in the early 2000s. I enjoy comparing different translations; for instance, Barnstone translates one passage as: "Eros loosener of limbs once again trembles me, / a sweetbitter beast irrepressibly creeping in" while Barnard's translation reads: "With his venom / Irresistible and bittersweet / that loosener / of limbs, Love / reptile-like / strikes me down." Both are beautiful--bittersweet and sweetbitter!

la_chouette's review against another edition

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5.0

Sappho is one of my latest newest loves. I have been reading about her work for over a year now--both modern and nineteenth-century reviews of her work have been in my attention. I am in love with her existence, with the mystery that still surrounds her, with her lyric, sensibility and passion in her words.

I could write forever for why Sappho is amazing, but I'll leave it for you to find out on your own.

p.s. As a scholar I pick this edition. The translations are very well done, and I am planning to use this edition for referencing in my further research.

viatrix's review against another edition

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4.0

She tried too hard to make the fragments complete when part of the allure of sappho is the lack of context, the general mystery that surround her fragments like looking though a thick mist