Lines from a new Sappho poem – 2004 Cologne – 2005 Britain –
Martin West’s translation appearing in the Times Literary Supplement
[but my once tender] body old age now
[has seized;] my hair’s turned [white] instead of dark;
Lachlan MacKinnon’s version acknowledging West’s rendering and appearing under the title “Sappho to Her Pupils” in Small Hours …
Old age freezes my body, once so lithe,
rinses the darkness from my hair, now white.
I like the particularity of the verb “rinse”. It gives a sense of time passing and washing away. Startling also is the agency of old age.
And so for day 1131
17.01.2010