Deception-plaiting daughter of Zeus

[sovay]

This may be the best news I've had all day.* Even if Martin West is involved. Now how I get my hands on a copy of the Times Literary Supplement?

*nineweaving, thank you!

Comments

[nineweaving.livejournal.com]

Are there no libraries at [nameless school]?

Nine

[sovay]

There are libraries indeed. But I suspect they will mind greatly if I run off with their Times Literary Supplement for good . . .

[debka-notion.livejournal.com]

Perhaps said libraries also have xerox machines, or reasonable substitutes?

[sovay]

My Sappho. Mine.

[sovay]

I am interested in Martin West so far as commentary goes, but what I mostly want is the Greek. : )

[sovay]

Are you thinking of scanning a copy if you get it?

Can't: I have not a scanner. I am very sorry.

Is there translation and commentary online, even without the Greek?

[nineweaving.livejournal.com]

I subscribe to the TLS and have access to a scanner at work. Can one post a PDF on LJ? In any case, I can scan it as soon as my copy arrives (usually Monday or Tuesday).

Nine

[sovay]

I've never tried to post a PDF on Livejournal, but since other sites (like JSTOR) put them up all the time, I would assume it's possibly. Perhaps you treat the pages like any other hosted image?

[sovay]

Thanks!

[ombriel.livejournal.com]

I've been meaning to post this to my journal...I'm so excited. Are you a big Sappho fan?

[sovay]

I did my master's thesis on Sappho and Alkaios, and I still love them; they are probably still my two favorite lyric poets (Sappho moreso), although I'm rather fond of Anakreon and have begun to develop a peculiar affection for Archilochos.

So, yes. : P

[ombriel.livejournal.com]

It's been years since I've translated lyric poets, but Anakreon 358 has stuck vividly in my mind all these years (the one where he's gaping after Sappho); and Sappho 104a and 2 are my favorites.

Are you familiar with the Sappho translations by Diane Rayor (_Sappho's Lyre_)? She was my instructor...

[sovay]

Hm. I never assumed that the girl "from well-built Lesbos" in Anakreon 358 was Sappho herself. (Perhaps cynically, the poem always made me think that the male justification of "Well, she's not interested in me—she must be gay!" had been around a lot longer than I'd thought.) I am probably a traditionalist: I probably like best Sappho 1 and 31, and 44; and 55 is a marvelous curse.

Neat. I haven't read Diane Rayor's translations of Sappho, but I did encounter her (in conjunction with Stanley Lombardo) on Kallimachos. Do you recommend them?

[ombriel.livejournal.com]

55 is awesome--I'd forgotten that one; thanks for the reminder.

I love Rayor's translations; she has a great ear for poetry. (Lovely person, too. My best undergrad experiences came out of working with her.)

[sovay]

This is my unpublishable after-Sappho poem. What the hell.

Atthis in Boston

Fucking moon's gone down,
and the Pleiades. Sappho knew
it meant something, nights
alone watching the sky change:
light smearing up at the horizon
until day pries in and finds
you still sitting empty-handed
on your bed, like some tawdry
adolescent's dream of longing,
a pillow in your lap, sheets
rumpled and no one to share
them; who'd write poetry
to make you feel that? God,
the heart has bones, and that's
how to break them: don't
think she didn't know— After
all, it's still the same moon.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Eminently publishable in my opinion.

[sovay]

Heh. Thank you! Unfortunately, there are several poetry magazines that seem to disagree . . . I may try again, assuming I can find a market that hasn't already bounced it. This was a couple of years ago.

[debka-notion.livejournal.com]

I don't see why this is so unpublishable...

And you've missed me at home again- I'm off in an hour for Boston and CA. Catch you maybe in August.

[sovay]

Blast: now that I'm in New Haven, too! I will be in Boston for the first week and a half of July. Where will you be then?

[rymenhild.livejournal.com]

That's stunning. Go ye and publish.

[ombriel.livejournal.com]

Send it out!

[zdenka]

Yay, that is so cool.

[madwriter.livejournal.com]

Saw that yesterday--I'm already trying to hunt down a copy of the translation for my personal Library of Alexandria.

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

Thank you, too, for the Guardian link: how can you not love a newspaper that uses a phrase like "a tortuous and not unromantic discovery"?

[sovay]

I'm rather fond of Martin West's characterization of Sappho as "a scholar's maypole," myself.