The Persistence of Culture on Earth

"[You for] the fragrant-blossomed Muses’ lovely gifts
[be zealous,] girls, [and the] clear melodious lyre:

[but my once tender] body old age now
[has seized;] my hair’s turned [white] instead of dark;

my heart’s grown heavy, my knees will not support me,
that once on a time were fleet for the dance as fawns.

This state I oft bemoan; but what’s to do?
Not to grow old, being human, there’s no way.

Tithonus once, the tale was, rose-armed Dawn,
love-smitten, carried off to the world’s end,

handsome and young then, yet in time grey age
o’ertook him, husband of immortal wife."

-- Sappho

Restoration and translation by Martin West
(c) The Times Literary Supplement of London, 21 June 2005

http://www.the-tls.co.uk/this_week/story.aspx?story_id=2111206&window_type=print


The TLS issue itself has both Mr West's discussion of the
cultural context of Sappho and her newly discovered poem,
and the original Greek.