SAPPHO'S DEATH SONG

What have I gathered the years did not take from me?

( Swallows, hear, as you fly from the cold! )

Whom have I bound to me never to break from me?

( Whom, O wind of the wold? )

Whom, O wind! O hunter of spirits!

( Pierce his spirit whose spear is in mine! )

Then let Oblivion loose this ache from me, Proserpine!

Lyre and the laurel the Muses gave to me,

( Why comes summer when winter is nigh! )

Spent am I now and pain-voices rave to me.

( O sea and its cry! )

O the sea that has suffered all sorrow!

( Sea of the Delphian tongue ever shrill! )

Nought from the wreck of love can now save to me

Any thrill!

Life that we live passes pale or amorous.

( Tread, O vintagers, grapes in the press! )

Mine's but a prey to Erinnyes clamorous.

( O for wine that will bless! )

Wine that foams, but is free of all madness

( Free, O Cypris, of fury's breath! )

Free as I now shall be, O glamorous

Queen of Death!