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A review by chsahit
If Not, Winter: Fragments of Sappho by Sappho
5.0
"someone will remember us
I say
even in another time"
This was a tricky one to review. Am I assessing the quality of the collections on average? "wow when there was a whole passage that was just the word 'celery', I really felt that". Or am I assessing what I felt when reading Sappho's most poignant passages?
"and lovely laughing—oh it
puts the heart in my chest on wings
for when I look at you, even a moment, no speaking
is left in me"
I opted for the latter approach to reviewing - reviews are inherently personal and subjective after all. Some verses in this collection left me dumbstruck. People don't really talk about how nice things smell like frankincense or use hyacinth to describe the color purple these days. Despite this, not once did Sappho's lyricism or emotions come across as anachronistic. Or as the zoomers would say, she's just like me frfr.
"you came and I was crazy for you
and you cooled my mind that burned with longing"
I was partially helped by the way I wound up engaging with Sappho's work. I don't read a lot of poetry, so I think trying to cleave through this book like another bedtime story may have been tedious. Instead, I got to enjoy the poetry in bits and pieces via a soft copy I checked in between experiments I had running. Because of this, even verses that were only one line long were quite appreciated as small breaks.
"you burn me".
Sappho was given the title "the 10th muse", and for good reason. It's not super clear why a lot of Sappho's work is lost to us (maybe Byzantines with bad taste and some matches, it's not super clear), but it's a shame that it is.
"Moon has set
and Pleiades: middle
night, the hour goes by,
alone I lie."
I say
even in another time"
This was a tricky one to review. Am I assessing the quality of the collections on average? "wow when there was a whole passage that was just the word 'celery', I really felt that". Or am I assessing what I felt when reading Sappho's most poignant passages?
"and lovely laughing—oh it
puts the heart in my chest on wings
for when I look at you, even a moment, no speaking
is left in me"
I opted for the latter approach to reviewing - reviews are inherently personal and subjective after all. Some verses in this collection left me dumbstruck. People don't really talk about how nice things smell like frankincense or use hyacinth to describe the color purple these days. Despite this, not once did Sappho's lyricism or emotions come across as anachronistic. Or as the zoomers would say, she's just like me frfr.
"you came and I was crazy for you
and you cooled my mind that burned with longing"
I was partially helped by the way I wound up engaging with Sappho's work. I don't read a lot of poetry, so I think trying to cleave through this book like another bedtime story may have been tedious. Instead, I got to enjoy the poetry in bits and pieces via a soft copy I checked in between experiments I had running. Because of this, even verses that were only one line long were quite appreciated as small breaks.
"you burn me".
Sappho was given the title "the 10th muse", and for good reason. It's not super clear why a lot of Sappho's work is lost to us (maybe Byzantines with bad taste and some matches, it's not super clear), but it's a shame that it is.
"Moon has set
and Pleiades: middle
night, the hour goes by,
alone I lie."