LiederNet logo

CONTENTS

×
  • Home | Introduction
  • Composers (20,788)
  • Text Authors (20,701)
  • Go to a Random Text
  • What’s New
  • A Small Tour
  • FAQ & Links
  • Donors
  • DONATE

UTILITIES

  • Search Everything
  • Search by Surname
  • Search by Title or First Line
  • Search by Year
  • Search by Collection

CREDITS

  • Emily Ezust
  • Contributors (1,129)
  • Contact Information
  • Bibliography

  • Copyright Statement
  • Privacy Policy

Follow us on Facebook

by Sappho (flourished c610-c580 BCE)
Translation by Michael R. Burch (b. 1958)

Ποικιλόθρον’ ἀθάνατ’, Ἀφρόδιτα
Language: Aeolic Greek 
Ποικιλόθρον’ ἀθάνατ’, Ἀφρόδιτα,
παῖ Дίος δολόπλοκε, λίσσομαί σε,
μή μ’ ἄσαισι μηδ’  ὀνίαισι δάμνα,
πότνια, θῦμον·  

ἀλλὰ  τυίδ’    ἔλθ’ , αἴ  ποτα κἀτέρωτα
τὰς  ἔμας  αὔδας  ἀίοισα πήλοι
ἔκλυες, πάτρος δὲ  δόμον λίποισα
χρύσιον  ἦλθες

ἄρμ’ ὐπασδεύξαισα· καλοι δέ  σ’ ἆγον
ὤκεες στροῦθοι περὶ γᾶς μελαίνας
πύκνα δίννεντες  πτέρ’ ἀπ’ ὠράνωἴθερος
διὰ  μέσσω.

αἶψα  δ’  ἐξίκοντο·  σὺ  δ’, ὦ  μάκαιρα,
μειδιαίσαισ’  ἀθανάτωι προσώπωι
ἤρε’, ὄττι  δηὖτε  πέπονθα κὤττι
δηὖτε  κάλημμι

κὤττι μοι μάλιστα θέλω γένεσθαι
μαινόλαι θύμωι.   ῾τίνα  δηὖτε  Πείθω
μαῖσ’  ἄγην ἐς  σὰν φιλότατα, τίς  σ’, ὦ
Ψάπφ’, ἀδικήει;

καὶ  γὰρ αἰ  φεύγει, ταχέως διώξει,
αἰ δὲ δῶρα  μὴ δέκετ’, ἀλλὰ  δώσει,
αἰ δὲ  μὴ  φίλει, ταχέως φιλήσει
κωὐκ  ἐΘέλοισα.  ᾽

ἔλΘε μοι καὶ  νῦν,  χαλέπαν  δὲ  λῦσον
ἐκ  μερίμναν, ὄσσα  δὲ  μοι  τέλεσσαι
θῦμος  ἰμέρρει, τέλεσον,  σὺ  δ’  αὔτα
σύμμαχος  ἔσσο.

About the headline (FAQ)

Text Authorship:

  • by Sappho (flourished c610-c580 BCE), appears in Fragments, no. 1

See other settings of this text.

Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):

  • ENG English (Bliss Carman) , no title, appears in Sappho: One Hundred Lyrics, no. 5 [an adaptation]
  • ENG English (Henry Thornton Wharton)
  • ENG English (John Addington Symonds) , "Ode to Aphrodite", first published 1893
  • ENG English (John Plant) , copyright ©, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
  • ENG English (Edwin Marion Cox) , first published 1924
  • ENG English (Ambrose Philips) , "A Hymn to Venus", written 1711
  • FRE French (Français) (Pauline Mary Tarn) , "à l’Aphrodita", first published 1903
  • FRE French (Français) (Jocelyne Fleury) , copyright ©, (re)printed on this website with kind permission


Research team for this page: Ferdinando Albeggiani , Joost van der Linden [Guest Editor]

This text was added to the website: 2007-12-10
Line count: 28
Word count: 133

[No title]
 (Sung text for setting by H. Ajiashvili)
 Matches base text
Language: English  after the Aeolic Greek 
Beautiful swift sparrows
rising on whirring wings
flee the dark earth for the sun-bright air...

Composition:

    Set to music by Hana Ajiashvili , no title, 2015, copyright © 2019 [ 2 sopranos, recorder, viola da gamba, harpsichord and guitar ], from Mere Air, no. 4, Rijswijk : Stichting Donemus Beheer; two texts simultaneously)
        Score: Donemus [external link]

Text Authorship:

  • by Michael R. Burch (b. 1958)

Based on:

  • a text in Aeolic Greek by Sappho (flourished c610-c580 BCE), appears in Fragments, no. 1
    • Go to the text page.

Go to the general single-text view


Researcher for this page: Joost van der Linden [Guest Editor]

This text was added to the website: 2026-03-27
Line count: 3
Word count: 15

Gentle Reminder

This website began in 1995 as a personal project by Emily Ezust, who has been working on it full-time without a salary since 2008. Our research has never had any government or institutional funding, so if you found the information here useful, please consider making a donation. Your help is greatly appreciated!
–Emily Ezust, Founder

Donate

We use cookies for internal analytics and to earn much-needed advertising revenue. (Did you know you can help support us by turning off ad-blockers?) To learn more, see our Privacy Policy. To learn how to opt out of cookies, please visit this site.

I acknowledge the use of cookies

Contact
Copyright
Privacy

Copyright © 2026 The LiederNet Archive

Site redesign by Shawn Thuris