Poems & Fragments

In this scholarly work, translator Powell arranges Sappho's surviving poems and fragments that make consecutive sense, no matter how brief or torn they are, into as much of an integrated whole as their condition allows. Until the turn of this century, all that survived of Sappho's poetry was one complete poem, the first 17 verses of another, and a hundred fragments. Since then, the discovery of an additional hundred fragments on Egyptian papyruses has increased knowledge of Sappho's poetic range as a result of several substantially complete poems. Although Powell's work may be of greatest interest to scholars, his translations are natural and faithful to Sappho's Greek, employing limpid, undecorated language consistent with the poet's distinctive personal style. According to Powell, "Sappho may be said to have invented the literate lyric for Western literature, and as an artist she is without doubt our contemporary." His afterword includes information on Sappho's life, the text of her poetry, the sapphic stanza and other Aeolic meters, and the techniques of translating Sappho. - ALA Booklist