If Not, Winter: Fragments of Sappho (English and Greek Editi

ISBN: 0375410678

Author: Sappho

Condition: new

A bilingual edition of the work of the Greek poet Sappho, in a new translation by Anne Carson.Sappho lived on the island of Lesbos from about 630 b.c. She was a musical genius who devoted her life to composing and performing songs. Of the nine books of lyrics Sappho is said to have composed, none of the music is extant and only one poem has survived complete. All the rest are fragments. In If Not, Winter Carson presents all of Sapphos fragments in Greek and in English. Brackets and space give the reader a sense of what is absent as well as what is present on the papyrus. Carsons translation illuminates Sapphos reflections on love, desire, marriage, exile, cushions, bees, old age, shame, time, chickpeas and many other aspects of the human situation.